Campus Visits

Each year, all cohort students have the opportunity to visit a postsecondary campus. Schools can select from a list of campuses each year and work with the GEAR UP Student Experiences Coordinator to schedule the visit. GEAR UP provides the agenda, transportation, lunch, and a college readiness activity. During the visit, students learn about the unique opportunities and benefits of the host site. Host campuses have included The University of Central Oklahoma, The University of Oklahoma, and Carl Albert State College.

Zoom into Your Career

These virtual career expos help large groups of students learn about potential career options by connecting them with a variety of career professionals. Like a traditional career fair, there are multiple professional speakers throughout the day, but unlike traditional fairs, the expo is done virtually, connecting the professionals to classrooms across Oklahoma. Teachers can help by registering their classes for these career expos and can support learning after by extending connections from careers experienced to classroom content—for example, how might learning a particular concept in class help a given professional in their career field?

Career Cafés

While Zoom Into Your Career offers a broad overview of careers to a large groups of students, Career Cafés offer an opportunity for students to dig deeper into career fields of specific interest. These meetings provide a way for small groups of students to meet professionals—either in person or virtually—who work in career fields that students want to learn more about. Through this personalized setting, students have an opportunity to make meaningful connections while diving deeper into their career interests.

College2Career

College2Career Forums (C2C) connect students to postsecondary institutions and career professionals for hands-on learning experiences. Like campus visits, C2C Forums give students the opportunity to visit a real-world career setting and work with professionals at that location.

Career Exploration & Career Cluster Activities

The K20 Center’s mentoring team has created activities to help students explore different career options and opportunities. After completing the activities, students gain a better understanding of what kind of career might interest them. Students are encouraged to discuss any questions or thoughts they have with a parent, guardian, or teacher.

Increasing family engagement and involvement is one of our primary GEAR UP goals. Family engagement is key to students’ success in postsecondary education.

K20 partners with districts to plan events that increase family and student awareness of, and readiness for, postsecondary education and potential careers. Events also provide opportunities to learn more about scholarships and the processes involved in postsecondary education applications and enrollment.

We aim to decrease the knowledge gap by opening doors that empower families to be informed advocates for their children.

Family Leadership Academy

The Family Leadership Academy focuses on introducing the GEAR UP grant goals and services to family leaders and exploring the power of different types of parental involvement in education. Family leaders build connections between effective parental involvement and student achievement (an indicator of postsecondary education preparedness), practice making data-driven decisions, and develop action plans for supporting the GEAR UP grant goals.

Family Nights

GEAR UP Family Nights are an integral piece of the grant experience. Students look to family members for guidance and support, and Family Nights empower family members and leaders to be well-informed advocates. Family Nights are an opportunity for K20 to share information, tools, and assistance to help families navigate the path from middle school to high school and on to higher education.

ARA

Cohort teachers have the opportunity to participate in K20’s Action Research in Authenticity (ARA) program. ARA teachers receive professional development, supplies for implementing LEARN lessons and strategies in their classrooms, quarterly coaching, and reflections from K20’s curriculum specialists. ARA is a valuable program for teachers who would like to take their teaching practice to the next level.

LEAD

Each year, teachers have the opportunity to apply for the Leading Educators in Authentic Development (LEAD) program. Teachers who participate in LEAD receive professional development throughout the year from K20 professional development coordinators and specialists. In turn, each participant has opportunities to facilitate authentic professional development and reflections with their site staff. This opportunity is perfect for teachers who would like to take their practice to the next level by leading others. All teachers who participate in LEAD receive stipends to compensate for their participation time.

Professional Development

A primary goal of GEAR UP is to increase students’ academic performance and preparation for postsecondary opportunities. One way K20 supports this goal is by providing authentic, job-embedded, and site-aligned professional development for school staff. All GEAR UP schools’ action plans include a personalized professional development component for teachers. It is critical that sessions are scheduled through the professional development coordinator to ensure on-time delivery.

Counselor Academy

Counselor Academy builds relationships among the counselors in GEAR UP schools. Counselors engage in critical discussions about the latest college readiness research, share best practices, and work with the K20 staff to plan postsecondary campus-based activities. Counselors have an opportunity to align college and career awareness activities vertically so that the strategies, terminology, and best practices that cohort students encounter are expanded each year.

Leadership

Conducted by K20 Center staff, the Leadership seminar is a two-day event in which school leaders (principals or members of the college team) are immersed in the K20 Center’s IDEALS framework. IDEALS sets the stage for the 10 research-based practices linked directly to high student achievement. The workshop expands participants’ ability to create technology-enriched learning communities and cultivate a college- and career-going culture. School faculty join a network in which leaders and K20 professionals collaborate, solve problems, and work together toward systemic change.

Action Plans

Each year, schools have the opportunity to work toward a school-wide goal by submitting an action plan. Schools use site-specific data to set a goal and select a research-backed strategy of their choice to implement during the school year. Action plans are site-specific, include aligned professional development, and can include purchases of supplies and investments in technology. GEAR UP provides an annual budget to fund the action plan. Action plans focus either on academics or on support activities that engage students in a college- and career-going culture at the school.

Pre-ACT/ACT Testing

GEAR UP aims to increase high school graduation rates and postsecondary education participation. To support these goals, middle schools received funding to administer the Pre-ACT to the 8th grade cohort. As cohort students enter high school, GEAR UP will provide them with an additional opportunity to take the Pre-ACT in 9th grade and the ACT beginning in 10th grade. Research shows that many students improve their scores with more opportunities to participate in the testing process.

Student Engagement Survey

The Student, School, and Career Engagement Survey is administered online to students twice each year—at the beginning and at the end of the school year. The survey results help to determine what services students need and are used to chart progress over time.