California GEAR UP e-Newsletter

R.T. Fisher & Associates (RTF), an educational & public outreach consulting firm, is a close partner with California GEAR UP. It was formed by Robyn Fisher in January, 1999. Robyn is a former governmental affairs and legislative education specialist and university outreach program director. She has been a consultant on many federal, state and local educational programs, providing training services for nearly 15 years.

Headquartered in Oakland, RTF specializes in education program planning and development. It focuses on reaching students who feel less at home in today’s school environment, including students from economically challenged families and those underrepresented in California higher educational systems. Some of their clients include Upward Bound, the Ronald McNair Scholars Program, the University of California System, the California State University System and the 21st Century Community Learning Centers. RTF also owns and manages the QUAD, an academic resource and training center.

Since the year 2000, RTF has been providing services to California GEAR UP. The organization is most known to the GEAR UP community for assisting with the development, maintenance and training of the GEAR UP Resources and Materials Clearinghouse and for bringing the beloved "Cee Cee" (College Corner) to life. Staff also works closely with other GEAR UP projects including the Continuing Schools Project, the Community Based Project, the Family Initiatives Project and the Student Services Model Project as well as the College Board, another GEAR UP partner.

The California GEAR UP Program was very pleased to participate in the development and announcement by Superintendent Jack O’Connell of his new Taking Center Stage—Act II Recommendations. Along with many other organizations, including the California League of Middle Schools, I served on a year-long effort to focus greater attention on the crucial role that middle schools play in the educational development of our children and the critical nature of that role in preparing students for college. At Toby Johnson Middle School in Elk Grove in September, the Superintendent announced the recommendations from this Task Force that were informed by the experience of the California GEAR UP Program. So…on behalf of the Superintendent and all the members of the Task Force, I appreciate your efforts and the manner in which they have informed me about the ways to create a college-going culture on middle school campuses.

As we approach the middle of this year, the California GEAR UP Program continues to be impressed by the strides that our schools are making in developing a college-going culture at their sites. We have now completed the Planning Phase with all our 43 new middle schools who are joining the GEAR UP community. All have participated in our two-day Principal and Leadership Institutes that were held this fall in Burbank and Berkeley. At these Institutes, our new schools were exposed to the successes and activities from our previous participants, as outlined on pages 2-3 of this newsletter.

One of the main challenges of becoming a college-going school in a low-income community where few people have gone to college is changing the ...

Their first step in building a college-going culture was to establish the School Leadership Team after attending the GEAR UP Principal and Leadership ...

The students are collectively organized into four houses named for colleges or universities. Academically the students are teamed by course: English with Social Studies and ...