"“When somebody says you can’t write, what are you going to tell ‘em?” shouted Alvin Edwards, City School Board (www.ccs.k12.va.us) chair.

“I can!” yelled back the seventh grade of Buford Middle School.

Such was the call and response at Alumni Hall on January 31, part of the official kickoff of what will be a five-and-half-year investment in this group of students. Because over 50 percent of Buford students receive free or reduced lunch—the standard measure of public school poverty—they have been included in the federal program called Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) (www.okhighered.org). The entire class of seventh graders at Buford will have $30,000 expended on them annually for such “extras” as tutoring, mentoring, field trips and whatever else can help these kids graduate and go to college. The money will stay with these students until 2012, their scheduled high school graduation.

“It’s the largest access initiative in the nation’s history,” says Gary Krapf, GEAR UP Virginia project director. Nationwide, GEAR UP received $303 million in federal funding for fiscal year 2006. Virginia’s share is $18 million, which involves 6,400 students in 42 middle schools statewide.

“The thrust as far as I’m concerned is changing school culture,” says Krapf. “It changes how, not only the community, but how school staff looks at this underserved population that typically has the intellect, and most of the time the academic achievement to go on [to college], but never was able to do that because they just didn’t have the resources.”

GEAR UP has existed since 1999. Virginia’s first crop of GEAR UP students graduated high school in 2006 and Krapf says they saw a marginal increase in retention rates and Standards of Learning (SOL) scores over comparable students not in the program. He allows that tracking systems weren’t in place to know how many went to college. “We’re finding the Department of Ed doesn’t even have that information,” Krapf says. ”Once they go out the door and get their diploma, you don’t really know what they do.” Among the tweaks for this new wave is a better tracking system, as well as improved mentoring and parental involvement.

During the kickoff, the Buford students recited pledges that they would graduate, attend school regularly, maintain at least a 2.5 GPA and apply to two colleges. For many of the seventh graders, it was their first visit to UVA’s campus. As Buford Principal Timothy Flynn said to the students, “This grant is designed so that in the next five and a half years, you will see, taste, feel, and start to believe that this is where you need to be.”" (Will Goldsmith, C-Ville Weekly, February 6, 2007)