Project IMPACT
Project IMPACT is a research effort geared towards improving ACT scores across the GEAR UP districts. Beginning with the class of 2025, the ACT will again be required for admission to 4-year public universities. Also, scoring a 22 in Reading or Math helps incoming students clear an academic hurdle by helping them place out of remedial Math and English courses at 4-year and 2-year colleges.
Schools will employ the Project IMPACT intervention sequence during English 3 and Math 3 courses. Teachers will receive training and support in the execution of the intervention. GEAR UP hopes that the results of the intervention will be an improvement in student proficiency in Reading and Math in the 2025 standard state administration of the ACT.
Counselor Network
Counselors at rural secondary schools are often faced with a limited, and sometimes non-existent, peer group. They also struggle to find high-quality professional development due to geographic isolation and tiny budgets for professional counselor development in districts with a single, small high school. GEAR UP’s Counselor Network endeavors to connect isolated counselors across our ten districts with resources normally out of reach for single high-school districts. We have contracted with the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) to provide training on the ASCA National Model for school counselors, and more importantly, connect counselors so they have a network of peers to collaborate with and lean on.
Rural Teacher Leadership Network
GEAR UP in conjunction with the Public School Forum and Leading Edge Learning host the Rural Teacher Leader Network. RTLN is a year-long professional learning cohort of educators from western North Carolina, that focuses on equity, trauma-informed practices, global learning, policy and teacher leadership.
MATH I RipTide
Math 1 Research Innovation Program Tied to Innovative Design in Education (RIPTIDE) is a research study evaluating the impact of using instructional strategies such as station-based learning to address low-performing student outcomes in Mathematics. In partnership with Emerald Education, ninth grade teachers participate in a cohort experience that brings together face to face professional development, virtual coaching and asynchronous course structures that focus on the development of data-driven decision making, the exploration of learning modalities, blended learning models, as well as formal and informal assessment structures.
Global Leaders
An initiative through our Participate Learning partnership, teachers or schools participate in modules focused on identifying global issues and tackling them through the context of the classroom and community.