WASHINGTON – As the Obama administration continues its push to make America’s work force the most college-educated in the world, college access programs such as GEAR UP will play an increasingly crucial role in getting students to view themselves as college material.
That was the message delivered Monday by a U.S. congressman, a top U.S. Education Department administrator and other proponents of GEAR UP at the annual National Council for Community and Education Partnerships/GEAR UP conference. GEAR UP is an acronym for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs.
“High aspirations, love and people who care is really the formula of GEAR UP and the formula for the Department of Education,” U.S. Undersecretary of Education Martha J. Kanter told the approximately 2,100 GEAR UP delegates from throughout the United States and U.S. territories attending the conference this week at the Washington Hilton.
Kanther said that, as the Education Department places a greater emphasis on innovation, it will be important for GEAR UP officials to search for ways to take advantage of new forms of federal grant funding—such as the competitive Investing In Innovation Fund, or i3 fund—being made available to increase college access and completion.
U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.), referred to as the “Grandfather of GEAR UP” for introducing legislation to create the program during the Clinton administration, spoke of how he was once referred to an auto mechanic course because he was not viewed as being able to do college work. He said GEAR UP workers must counterbalance what he described as pervasive thinking that youths of lesser economic means or non-English-speaking families cannot succeed in college.
“A lot of people are making judgments about our young people who don’t have our young people’s future at the forefront of their thinking,” said Fattah. “That’s why you exist,” Fattah told the GEAR UP delegates, “to change their lives.”
Monday’s GEAR UP conference comes at a time when the Obama administration is placing a greater emphasis on evidence of effectiveness.
