March 11, 2011
This past February 28 and March 1, the GEAR UP Alliance sponsored the fourth annual Institute for a College-Going Culture: Drive the Dream. More than 600 students, parents, teachers and administrative staff, and school and district leaders from throughout Kentucky participated in the event held at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Louisville.
The focus of the Institute was on the Commonwealth Commitment, Kentucky’s promise to raise standards and ensure that all students are college-ready. Institute activities were designed to help educators and parents understand how GEAR UP can help them realize that commitment through the four unified strategies: Accelerated learning opportunities, secondary intervention programs, college and career readiness advising, and postsecondary persistence and degree completion.
In the student strand, high school juniors and seniors used poetry and visual arts to articulate their aspirations for college and career, and prepared vignettes using their poetry to present during Tuesday’s luncheon to all Institute participants. They were assisted in this work by CTL and GEAR UP staff, and by keynote speaker and renowned Kentucky poet, Frank X Walker, founder of the Affrilachia poetry movement and professor at the University of Kentucky. Walker also addressed all Institute participants with a personal account of his own experiences as a young college student, and he urged students to pursue their dreams. Students also attended an ACT preparation session conducted by the Princeton Review.
Parent sessions were organized around the Unified Strategy for College and Career Readiness, providing them opportunities to discuss their dreams for their children, and to learn how to help make those dreams a reality with tools such as the Individual Learning Plan (ILP), EPAS test data to identify career interests, and financial aid resources. Presenters included Dr. Bob King, President and Dr. Aaron Thompson, Vice President of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE); Jim Tackett, Director of Forward in the Fifth; GEAR UP staff; and representatives of the Kentucky Department of Education, the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority, and schools districts throughout Kentucky.
In the educator strand, teachers, assistant principals, counselors, family resource center directors and school level instructional staff attended sessions built around the three goals of Kentucky’s Senate Bill 1, the Unified Strategy for College and Career Readiness: Accelerating learning opportunities for students through advanced coursework and dual credit, offering ways to help students to catch up so they can succeed in a pre-college curriculum, and increasing student advisement. Sessions included Using Technology to Level the Playing Field, Teaching College Readiness Skills in Advanced Courses, Content Literacy Integration, and sessions on Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses. Presenters included CTL educational programs staff, and educators from school districts throughout Kentucky.
In the leadership strand, facilitated by CTL President and CEO Dr. Deborah Walker and CTL founder Dr. Linda Hargan, principals, superintendents and other district leaders focused on research related to student college readiness and on accelerated learning opportunities such as Advanced Placement and dual credit courses, STEM, and International Baccalaureate programs. Participants discussed the extent to which their own schools and districts address the research recommendations, ensured that students are supported in meeting ACT benchmarks, and align their efforts with the Unified Strategy for College and Career Readiness. Alex Chough of ACT, Inc. and Dr. Aaron Thompson of CPE also presented to district leaders, along with Casey Jaynes, principal of Logan County HS, Bill Grein, district assessment coordinator for Covington Independent Schools, and Amy Patterson, of the Kentucky Department of Education.