SECTION II: Narrative Information

6. Please provide any additional information about your project that you think would be helpful to the Department of Education in evaluating your performance or understand the context of your annual report.

Additional information about the Chicago GEAR UP Alliance is organized around several strong themes that have emerged over the course of the project and confirmed through both quantitative and qualitative documentation. Those themes are Extraordinary Change, the Evolution of Partnerships, Transformation and Lasting Impact, and Future Challenges in Chicago. These are discussed below.

Extraordinary Change

Teachers’ Beliefs: Although not required, the Chicago GEAR UP Alliance tracks teachers’ perspectives about GEAR UP activities through same-day event evaluations and teacher surveys.The 2005 survey was completed by 448 teachers in 21 Chicago schools (12 elementary/middle schools and 9 high schools).

Teacher surveys aren’t new to GEAR UP - what is new is the amazing results from this year’s survey. In each of the 100 questions, teachers from GEAR UP schools reported positive growth in a variety of outcomes: GEAR UP Participation, Classroom Teaching, Use of Technology, Developing Mathematical Competencies, Developing Literacy Competencies, Developing Instructional Competencies, and reflections specific to that individual teacher’s school and students.

• More teachers felt their students liked to learn (60.42% in 2005; 55% in 2004).
  
  
• More teachers felt their students thought school had value for them (53.63% in 2005; 46.38% in 2004).
  
  
• More teachers felt their students would finish high school (64.54% in 2005; 60.31% in 2004).
  
  
• More teachers felt their students were capable of success in postsecondary education (59.95% in 2005; 58.65% in 2004).
  

Book Clubs as a Source of Social Change: Late in 2000, GEAR UP sponsored a Young Adult Literature Conference for teachers in order to raise awareness and knowledge regarding the use of authentic texts, with high interest levels and appropriately targeted toward adolescent, urban readers. Teachers received 4-5 YAL books prior the conference, read them and then engaged in workshops and seminars to share their responses to the books and participate in curricula developed for these texts. As an extension, GEAR UP offered teachers the opportunity to write an instructional unit (meeting rigorous curricular specifications) and receive a class set of books. In just this past year 25 teachers have written units and received 750 copies of young adult literature, both fiction and nonfiction, for use in their classrooms.

Several GEAR UP networks began student and parent book club that became a lively forum in which to address social concerns, challenges and to forge relationships. Parents suggested titles, and began to lead the groups. Because of the power of this grass-roots mobilization, student book clubs have also become a regular feature across the GEAR UP networks.

Not only have we vicariously experienced other lives through the shared reading of literature, GEAR UP has also provided an opportunity for parents, students and teachers to meet the authors of these books. Teachers, students, and parents have been engaged in the act of meaning making with others through reading and lively discussions with a variety of authors, including Professor of English and Literacy Dr. Jeffrey Wilhelm (Improving Comprehension with Think Aloud Strategies), the Three Doctors (The Pact - see Question 2 above), television’s Judge Mathis (Inner City Miracles), Victor Villaseñor (Rain of Gold), Esmeralda Santiago (When I was Puerto Rican), and Walter Dean Myers (Monster).

This is an extraordinary change-and one that we believe will continue after GEAR UP is gone.

Evolution of Partnerships

The Chicago GEAR UP Alliance: Before this GEAR UP began in 1999, individual university members of the Chicago Education Alliance had some experience working together to solve mutual educational challenges in Chicago. Working together through the Chicago GEAR UP Alliance, however, has refined this working relationship to one of genuine trust and collaboration. Data is regularly collected and shared across networks, using the same forms, looking for the same outcomes. Structures are shared, models analyzed and duplicated. When one network has a success, this information is regularly communicated so that others can either participate in the next occurrence or replicate the event for their parents, students or teachers. This is unique in Chicago and a consequence of the hard work and collaboration that has been a key element of GEAR UP’s success over the past six years.

Networks and Communities: As the GEAR UP networks matured, their involvement in the neighborhood communities beyond their schools deepened and matured as well. In the North Lawndale area, the North Lawndale Learning Community is an excellent example of how a GEAR UP network forged links with a variety of entities, from the Lakeshore Chapter of the Links, Inc., an organization of professional African-American women committed to supporting African-American communities in need, to the University of Chicago’s Center for School Improvement, who sponsored a week-long academic enrichment program held at U of C. The range of partners, the quality of programming and depth of involvement showcase the kinds of community involvement characteristic of GEAR UP networks.

Networks and Schools: GEAR UP networks were designed to extend and deepen the existing relationships various Chicago universities and community-based organizations had with their neighborhood schools. Over the past six years, these relationships have grown and matured. In the Woodlawn Network, Roosevelt University was working with seven independent schools in the areas of knowledge and trust building. The seven school teams were brought together to address mutually important issues and come to consensus as to how the problems should be addressed. This allowed misconceptions to be corrected and barriers to be overcome-the schools became a united Woodlawn network, rather than a collection of Woodlawn schools.

Elementary/Middle Schools and their Neighborhood High Schools: Vertical teaming, a key component in all GEAR UP networks, allows elementary and middle school teachers to work with high school content teachers to align curriculum, instruction and philosophy so that GEAR UP students experience congruence as they transition from 8th to 9th grade. Principals of feeder schools now have close working relationships with principals of GEAR UP high schools. These principals now know each other well and share a history of positive experiences. High school principals have trust and faith in the quality of students they are receiving, and feeder school principals trust in the quality of care their students will receive once they enter the GEAR UP high school. In the West Town network, lack of real experience with each other initially raised barriers that interfered with communication and trust. However, close working relationships developed through the GEAR UP network so that these principals now work together as a team to solve shared challenges both in their network and in the West Town community at large. In a large system like Chicago, with 560 elementary schools and 100 high schools, this is an extraordinary example of collegiality and effectiveness.

Transformation and Lasting Impact
One of the exciting features of the Chicago GEAR UP Alliance’s presence in Chicago is the impact its programming models have had on the face of Chicago’s schools. Many of our programs have been adopted, adapted and underwritten by CPS.

• Step Up To High School - 9th grade summer transitional program using math, literacy and counseling - derived from GEAR UP’s BLAST program in 2003 and currently funded by the Chicago Public Schools’ Office of High School Programs.
  
  
• AP Teacher Endorsements - provided to high school math and science teachers to enhance instructional rigor and content knowledge of AP and honors courses - will be completely funded by a joint effort between Loyola University and the Chicago Public Schools’ Math and Science Initiative as of the 2005-06 school year.
  
  
• Countdown! - math cable TV access call-in program that provides step-by-step instructions following a standards-based curriculum (using NCTM and Illinois State Learning standards) that addresses math challenges facing GEAR UP elementary and middle school students - will be funded by the Science and Mathematics Education Center at Loyola University for the 2005-06 school year. The Countdown! website, countdown.luc.edu, allows additional opportunities for interaction and learning.
  
  
• GEAR UP Student Support - because of the excellent and collegial working relationship between the Chicago Public School’s Department of Postsecondary Education and the Chicago GEAR UP Alliance, CPS has agreed to follow these students for the rest of their time in school to ensure that they get targeted for special support and activities.
  

Individual School Transformation: During the six years of GEAR UP, many structural changes have occurred within GEAR UP elementary, middle and high schools. Michele Clark was a struggling neighborhood middle school during the 1998-99 school year; in 2004 the school, now a Magnet High School, was acclaimed by CPS as one of its ‘rising stars’ for its improved academic achievement. During the past year, Arai Middle school was selected as one of the first Renaissance 2010 schools; the theme of the new high school, “Uplift,” embraces all the principles of GEAR UP and institutionalizes them in the school. GEAR UP has been instrumental in supporting the changes of these schools; we are proud to be a part of this kind of lasting school change.

Future Challenges in Chicago

As GEAR UP students leave high school and enter college, our struggle is to find ways to keep the momentum going for GEAR UP teachers, parents and students.

We are challenged by the few numbers of honors and Advanced Placement courses offered in some of our GEAR UP high schools - Manley offers two AP courses while Collins offers three. At the other side of spectrum, Wells offered one AP course in the 1998-99 school year (calculus) and now offers six. This kind of programmatic development needs to happen across the board in every Chicago high school.

Our next and greatest challenge lies in finding innovative ways to measure the powerful but intangible outcomes of the Chicago GEAR UP Alliance that our participant interviews and evaluations confirm repeatedly-that the “GEAR UP effect” goes well beyond standardized test scores to the heart of the human experience. The GEAR UP effect strengthens everyone involved as learning organisms who, with the proper support, knowledge and aspirations, can truly achieve great things.

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