MPS Receives 7-Year, $23 Million Grant to Prep Students for College

(MILWAUKEE) — Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius announced on Wednesday that the school district is receiving a seven-year, $23 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The grant is intended to help more underserved students prepare for—and succeed at—college.

The grant, called Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP), will distribute $3.2 million to the district each year. With a $23 million in-kind match from local and national partnering organizations and from the district, $46 million in total will go toward the initiative.

“This grant allows us to boost academic achievement, provide mentorship opportunities and enhance classroom instruction that will prepare students for a modern workforce. That is exciting news,” Dr. Cassellius said.

The effort will support more than 4,100 MPS students a year from 28 schools. The goals are to increase academic achievement, high school graduation rates, and college enrollment and retention.

The initiative will serve MPS students beginning in grades 4 through 7 and then follow them through their first year of college or other postsecondary education.

The program will focus on tutoring, advising and mentoring students, engaging with families, providing teacher development, increasing dual enrollment in college courses, and expanding career academies focused on high-demand industries, to prepare students for rapidly changing workplaces.

MPS’s local partners in the grant include the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee, UW–Milwaukee, Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC), UW–Whitewater, UW–Oshkosh, UW-Parkside, My Sistah’s KeepHer, Mentor Milwaukee, and Y.E.S. .MPS will partner with UWM’s Socially Responsible Evaluation in Education (SREed) for program evaluation.

National partners include the Center for Advanced Academics, NCCEP, Northwestern University’s Center for Talent Development, Cambridge Educational Services, Texas Instruments, XCalibur, WestEd, and NAF, a leading nonprofit connecting schools with industry partners.

“The GEAR UP grant builds on the foundation MPS already has — of academic and career planning, College and Career Centers, and required FAFSA completion. Importantly, GEAR UP provides MPS with significant resources to expand promising practices and develop new opportunities to better develop the many talents of our students. By doing that, we can support the growth of the regional workforce,” said Dr. John Hill, director of MPS’s Department of College and Career Readiness.

Milwaukee Public Schools will have a formal kickoff event to engage students, families, and partners to raise awareness about project goals and resources in January.

Results from previous grant

MPS was awarded a $14.9 million GEAR UP grant from 2011 to 2018. Outcomes from the previous grant included:

• Summer credit recovery resulted in 93% of the students earning credits, helping them stay on track to graduation. The success resulted in districtwide adoption of 9th- and 10th-grade credit recovery.

• In the first MPS GEAR UP cohort, 11% more students participated in Advanced Placement classes than students in the same schools previously.

• Project staff collaborated with UWM SREed to develop a statistical prediction model to help schools identify and enroll additional students likely to succeed in Advanced Placement courses. The prediction model is now used across the district.

• Students had more access to pre-college programs hosted by Milwaukee Area Technical College, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

• More than 12,000 students took part in college tours and visits at more than 20 colleges, in state and out of state.

• The number of students from GEAR UP schools participating in the UW-Madison PEOPLE scholars and Marquette Equal Opportunity Program (EOP) increased.

• Nearly 1,000 parents have graduated from the Milwaukee Parent Institute (MPI) provided by GEAR UP since the 2014-15 school year. MPI, which helps parents support their children’s preparation for college, is now used across MPS.

• A Senior Bridge program, provided in collaboration with school counselors at all GEAR UP schools, helped prepare 12th-graders for applying for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and colleges.

• Graduation rates increased in six of the eight GEAR UP high schools.
• The first graduating cohort of GEAR UP received nearly $11 million in scholarship offers to 206 students; the second received more than $15 million in scholarship offers to 210 students.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.