THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

                PRESIDENT CLINTON ANNOUNCES $120 MILLION 
                           IN GEAR UP GRANTS

                             August 7, 1999

Today, President Clinton announced $120 million in GEAR UP grants to 21 states and 164 partnerships of colleges and middle schools across the country. These grants will serve more than 200,000 disadvantaged children, encouraging them to have high expectations, stay in school, study hard, and take the right courses to go to college. Forty states and Puerto Rico, Guam and Micronesia will receive either a State or Partnership grant. Interest in GEAR UP far exceeded available funding, providing a strong justification for the President's request to double funding for GEAR UP in FY2000. The President called on Congress to fully fund this request and meet the urgent need.

Interest in GEAR UP Far Exceeded Available Funding:

• The first grant applications for GEAR UP were extraordinary in number - 678 Partnership and State grant applications, covering all 50 States, more than 4,500 organizations, and 1 out of 5 colleges in the nation.
• Only 1 out of 4 Partnership applications could be funded with the current funding, and only half of the State applications.
• A new competition could be held next year under the President's FY2000 budget request to double GEAR UP funding from $120 million today to $240 million in FY2000, serving almost 400,000 students nationwide.

GEAR UP Builds Pathways to College: GEAR UP provides multi-year competitive grants to States and to local partnerships between colleges, low-income middle schools and high schools, and at least two other organizations, such as businesses, community based, religious, or parent organizations, and student groups. The GEAR UP grants will fund partnerships involving more than 1,000 organizations, such as the YMCA, Boys and Girls Clubs, 4-H programs, Salvation Army, libraries, arts organizations, local chambers of commerce, and individual companies such as Wal-Mart, Unisys, Hewlett-Packard, Bell Atlantic, and the New York Times Newspaper in Education Program.

GEAR UP differs from, but complements, existing federal programs by:

• Starting earlier - GEAR UP Partnerships start no later than the 7th grade to ensure that more students reach high school having taken algebra and other courses needed for college, and follows students through high school.
• Transforming schools - GEAR UP Partnerships work with entire grades of students to transform their schools and school feeder systems, by providing comprehensive services including mentoring, tutoring, counseling, strength-ening the school curriculum, professional development for teachers and staff, involving parents, and supporting other activities such as after school programs, summer academic and enrichment programs, and college visits.
• Leveraging local resources - GEAR UP encourages all colleges to partner with low-income middle schools & leverages non-federal resources with a 1-for-1 match requirement. 1 in 5 colleges responded to the challenge.
• Supporting college scholarships GEAR UP can provide college scholarships and provides information to students and parents about college options and financial aid, including providing students with 21st Century Scholar Certificates - an early notification of their eligibility for financial aid.
• Bolstering State efforts - GEAR UP grants to States support early college preparation programs and scholarships.

Gear Up Is Based On Proven Models: GEAR UP is based on the experience of existing programs, both large and small, that have proven results. Existing programs, such as I Have a Dream and Project GRAD, demonstrate the success of incorporating the concepts of partnerships, school reform and scholarships into early intervention. These programs have helped significantly improve low-income student test scores, and high school graduation and college enrollment rates.

• To bring best practices into GEAR UP, the Ford Foundation will provide technical assistance to grant winners on implementation issues and "what works."

For more information about GEAR UP, visit the GEAR UP web site (http://www.ed.gov/gearup/).

GEAR UP Is Based On Proven Models

August 7, 1999

GEAR UP is based on the experience of existing programs, both large and small, that have proven results. Many of the existing programs combine the core components of GEAR UP Partnership grants: beginning early and following entire grades of students over time; challenging the students and schools to have high expectations; involving parents; providing mentoring, tutoring and information about college; typically strengthening the schools with professional development and more rigorous core courses; and often providing college scholarships. Below are some of the dramatic results these programs have produced.

Project GRAD - Project GRAD, a comprehensive college-school-community partnership focused on improving inner-city education, combines the efforts of teachers, administrators, parents, students, business and community leaders to provide students with the curricular, counseling and scholarship opportunities that bring college within reach. Using seed money from the Ford Foundation, Project GRAD serves 18,000 students in 25 low-income public schools in Houston and has produced dramatic results on a large scale, including:

• Tripling the percentage of middle school students passing a state-wide math test (the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills or TAAS), from 21% passing in 1995 to 63% passing in 1998 in one school feeder system.
• 64% increase in the number of students graduating from a high school between 1988-1998, while the district number declined by 7%.
• 50% increase in the number of students taking Algebra II at one high school since 1995.
• More than tripling the number of students taking the SAT from 1988-98, with the percentage scoring 900 or above increasing from 7% to 27% over that same period.
• More than 5-fold increase in the number of students going to college, including for the first time some attending Princeton, Cornell, UVA, and Drexel.

I Have a Dream (IHAD) - IHAD provides an entire grade of low-income students with a comprehensive set of services, including intensive mentoring and academic support and an early guarantee that their college tuition will be paid for by a combination of public and private resources. Results include:

• 90% of the original IHAD class in New York City graduated from high school or received a GED, in a school with a projected graduation rate of 25%.
• 75% of Chicago IHAD students in the class of 1996 graduated from high school, compared with only 37% of students in a similar control group. Nearly 65% of the graduating class enrolled in college. [Univ. of Chicago, 1997]
• 87% of IHAD's first sixth-grade class in Denver graduated from high school, compared with approximately 60% of the overall student population.
• 69% of IHAD students graduated from high school in Chicago districts where the dropout rate was 60%, and of those graduates 66% continued their education, 22% found jobs and 10% pursued vocational training.

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