Middle Grade Initiative (MGI)

The multi-year Middle Grade Initiative (MGI) is a partnership between NAU GEAR UP and eight Arizona school districts in low-income, rural communities that is premised on using data to drive a sustainable, high-expectations, college-going culture in middle grade schools.  The effort aims to show an increase, over the length of the program, in percentages of eighth grade students entering high school on-track to graduate college and career ready.

Annually, more than 6,000 students are enrolled in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades in the 16 participating MGI schools, which are also the feeders to 9 high schools serving the GEAR UP Class of 2018.

Recognizing that “the level of academic achievement that students attain by the eighth grade has a larger impact on their college and career readiness by the time they graduate from high school than anything that happens academically in high school” (The Forgotten Middle, 2008), the MGI promotes use of data to inform improvements in curriculum and instruction (early readiness), as well as students’ preparation and motivation for a full range of postsecondary options (early awareness).