Blazing New Trails - Connexions

Increasing Student Success in Rigorous Courses 167
implement programs to meet their specific needs. A teacher shared the success being attained
through individual encouragement of students by stating:
One of the things I’m most proud of is pretty basic and structural. It is that we have
teachers who are encouraging the students. We have an administration that gets behind
the program, and people are always looking for different ways to enhance the
program.
Inclusive leadership characterized the East Texas GEAR UP project. As a teacher expressed,
“Our coordinator has been a wonderful director and facilitator for our curriculum
development, and her leadership has caused our whole department to come together more as a
team.” A teacher shared:
I think the GEAR UP program sharpened our focus on advanced course offerings. We
have increased our number of courses offered, thus allowing more students to
participate. We strongly encourage students to try a Pre-AP or AP class in an area they
feel strong in. Our teachers have ‘bought in’ to increasing the rigor of the courses and
to actively recruiting students who show the potential to be successful. The teachers
have worked hard to provide support for students who take the risk to be in the classes.
We make it fairly difficult for students to get out of the advanced classes once they
begin. We have found that most will rise to the occasion. Once they have experienced
success, some are willing to try additional advanced coursework. I think this will have
a great impact on their being prepared for college and going into college with
confidence.
Another teacher added:
The “buy in” by our campus administrators and counselors has been positive. I have
been pleased with how much they are willing to help once they understand the
program. Our GEAR UP Student Leadership Team has also been a wonderful asset.
This team has done a great job at keeping their classmates informed about different
activities as well as serving as encouraging mentors.
An administrator stressed, “The Peer Mentoring Program has also been very
successful in reaching those students who did not dream of college before this program.” The
collaborative framework that has been achieved through the GEAR UP project was cited as a
way that a sustained focus was achieved. As a teacher stressed, “The middle school and the
elementary school are working hard to try and implement new ideas they gained when our
GEAR UP students were in middle school.” A GEAR UP coordinator added:
I’ve never seen such a group of faculty members pull together and work to do
whatever they can to make the students successful. I think that is a big plus, and that’s
why we’re able to accomplish what we do because we are all pulling together for the
same goal.
Student support and outreach. The strong social support through building positive
relationships with students was attributed as having strong impact in each of the partner
schools. A teacher emphasized, “For our size school, students get a lot of encouragement from