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UNT receives federal grant for intervention program
DENTON (UNT), Texas -- Stockard Middle School seventh-graders don't know it yet, but they will soon have someone offering a guiding light to the future. Not only will they notice improvements in their teachers, but they will likely take heed to the attention given their academic careers.
This encouragement and guidance will be part of a collaboration between the University of North Texas and community agencies in this southwest Dallas neighborhood. The project is part of a federally funded program called Gear Up (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs).
UNT will get $4.2 million during the next five years as part of a federal grant for the Gear Up program with the goal of helping low socioeconomic students realize their full academic potential and attend college. About 88 percent of the students in the target school will be first generation college students.
Just approved by Congress last year and in its first year of operation, Gear Up awarded $120 million for 185 new grants. The grants are designed to help children, beginning in the middle grades, to prepare for and get on the pathway to achieve success in college.
Only one in four partnership grant applications were funded. UNT will receive $317,863 for the first year with the university pledging $328,000 to match the grant money.
Through a collaborative effort of UNT's College of Education, School of Community Service and Office of Student Development, the university is partnering with community organizations to implement the Gear Up program in the Dallas middle school.
The Gear Up effort will improve technology access and technology skill, enhance professional development activities, increase teacher expectations, provide conflict resolution and diversity training and acquaint students with varied role models and mentors through a combination of interventions.
The initial target school is Stockard Middle School, a public school of seventh- and eighth-graders located in a predominantly Hispanic, low-income section of southwest Dallas.
The first year of the program will focus on the school's 400 seventh-graders and will follow these students through their graduation. Each year a new seventh-grade cluster will be added. Collaborators will maximize students' and parents' participation in applying for financial aid and admission to higher education. Through continuous improvement and evaluation, new learning will be derived and applied to a broader range of students.
The program is a multi-level intervention program in which UNT students and staff will work with teachers and parents as well as having direct contact with students. UNT will initiate school activities for students while providing additional training for teachers.
"By collaborating with the teachers, we hope to strengthen the curriculum, so students are better prepared for high school courses. The more academic success a student achieves, the more a student enjoys school and the less likely he is to drop out," said Diane Allen, UNT College of Education associate dean for outreach, research and professional development.
Goals of the program include providing more challenging classes to prepare students adequately for high school, as well as helping these students with the college application and financial aid processes.
"This program will enhance current programs and get students focused on attending college," said Oscar Rodriguez, Dallas Independent School District VI Superintendent. "This will provide more support and help make the transition into preparing for college easier for our students."
"We hope to have a positive impact on the students who finish high school and want to go on to college," Allen added. "We want to give them an awareness of their options with admissions and financial aid so they are in a better position to take advantage of what is available."
Additionally, UNT is striving to serve this population with the establishment of the UNT System Center at Dallas, which is offering classes in southern Dallas this fall.
"This is an opportunity to impact an area that has had inadequate access to public university education. Only 17 percent of the population in southern Dallas are college graduates, but more than one-third of other Dallas county residents holds a college degree " said Nancy McCray Campbell, special assistant to the executive director for the UNT System Center at Dallas. "The opening of the UNT System Center and the Gear Up award will positively impact the educational futures of the people of southern Dallas."
"Many children here have had no exposure to college, so this will be an exploration into a new world for them," Rodriguez added.
UNT will be collaborating with District VI of the Dallas Independent School District, Mountain View College of the Dallas Community College District and the League of United Latin American Citizens.
This effort integrates the strengths of the various community collaborators and establishes an emphasis of working together to achieve common goals among educational and community service entities.
"This opportunity to work with Mountain View, LULAC, and DISD gives the university another chance to demonstrate the power of partnerships in helping to find solutions to societal problems," said David Hartman, dean of the UNT School of Community Service. "By combining the resources of the School of Community Service and the College of Education, the university can be very helpful in bringing together parents, children, teachers and the community to forge a new alliance for educational attainment for children at Stockard Middle School. We hope to see these children succeed educationally and enter college six years from now until later in their lives."
For more information on Gear Up, go to the U.S. Department of Education web site at http://www.ed.gov/gearup/gupr.html. For more information on the UNT Gear Up program, call Diane Allen at (940) 565-2121 or David Hartman at (940) 565-2237.
UNT News Service Phone Number: (940) 565-2108
Contact: Tonie Auer
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