GEAR UP WORKS: OUTCOMES/EVIDENCE OF SUCCESS

GEAR UP grants are highly competitive, and grantees are held accountable for making substantial annual progress toward established goals and objectives, and ultimately, for project outcomes. Over the three grant cycles NAU has been awarded GEAR UP grants, the project has had impressive outcomes as shown below.

2012-2019

Completed analyses show that students who received GEAR UP services were more likely to complete the FAFSA and to graduate from high school than similar students who were not enrolled in GEAR UP.  Preliminary analyses of postsecondary enrollment data, as of March 2019, suggest that GEAR UP students were more likely to enroll in college the fall following high school graduation than students from a matched comparison group.

¹ In 2012, the GEAR UP Evaluator worked with staff at the Arizona Department of Education to identify 20 high schools similar to the twelve GEAR UP high schools, in baseline academics, graduation rate, student:teacher ratio, locale, school letter grade, social economic and ethnic composition, and Title I status for purposes of a statistically valid comparison.

² Difference is statistically significant, p<.001

³ The GEAR UP Evaluator conducted the college enrollment analysis on data available as of 3/14/2019. The analysis excluded Pinal County high schools from both the comparison and GEAR UP groups because of incomplete data (Central Arizona College data was missing from the National Student Clearinghouse). If these data become available, the evaluator will update the results.

⁴ Based on a Chi Square Test of Independence, GEAR UP students were more likely than students in a matched comparison group to enroll in college immediately following high school  X2 (1, N = 5790) = 5.26, p = .022, Cramer’s V= .03.