Title
Declaring Wednesday, October 18, 2000 "GEAR UP DAY"
Body
WHEREAS, According to statistics, high achieving students from low-income families are five times less likely to attend college as compared to their counterparts from high-income families. In addition, over 70% of parents want to know more about the college preparatory courses that their children should take and how to pay for their education; and
WHEREAS, GEAR UP schools focus on academic readiness, college awareness and family and community involvement. Beginning with entire middle school grade, GEAR UP's involvement with the student and their family through partnerships between schools and community based organizations, until high school graduation thereby making low income student's preparation for college everyone's business; and
WHEREAS, Philadelphia's GEAR UP Network received the second largest grant in the nation and provided services to 8,000 students in the first year. Based in public schools with seventh graders and serving students who live in designated Empowerment Zones, each of the seven partnership(s) include the neighborhood high school, two or four middle or k-8 schools, one or more colleges/universities and several community organizations; and
WHEREAS, The School District of Philadelphia serves as the fiscal agent of the Philadelphia GEAR UP Network. The program components include changing public school curricula to ensure rigorous college-bound courses, content-based professional development for teachers and the delivery of a range of services, including extracurricular academic support, tutoring and mentoring programs, college fairs and visits and career guidance, directly to students and their parents; and
WHEREAS, GEAR UP is in its second year of implementation and plans on adding a new cohort of seventh graders within each of the next consecutive four years. An outcomes -based initiative, in addition to the systematic change as evidenced by the enhancem...
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