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ExpectMore.govExpectMore.gov home pageEXPECT FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO PERFORM WELL, AND BETTER EVERY YEAR.
 
Program Assessment

Program

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Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs

The Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) program assists low-income secondary school students in college preparation and enrollment. The program awards grants to States and partnerships to provide a wide range of services to these students, such as tutoring and college scholarships.

Rating

What This Rating Means

PERFORMING
Adequate

This rating describes a program that needs to set more ambitious goals, achieve better results, improve accountability or strengthen its management practices.
  • GEAR UP is based on successful models for increasing the college enrollment rate of at-risk students. Initial program results suggest that grantees have been successful in increasing the percentage of students taking a more challenging courseload, better preparing these students for future college enrollment.
  • The Department of Education (ED) has set ambitious performance targets for the program's performance measures and is collecting data and evaluating program impacts.
  • ED developed a meaningful efficiency measure in response to a previous follow-up action. However, GEAR UP has not yet demonstrated improved efficiencies.

Improvement Plan

About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

  • Utilizing newly available information on the program's college participation performance measure to assess program progress and target technical support to GEAR UP grantees.
  • Developing and implementing a strategy to use efficiency measures to improve cost effectiveness in achieving the program goals.
  • Reviewing and revising program managers' performance agreements to ensure that managers are held accountable for achieving key program results.

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