General

Are printed materials available on Project GRAD?

Yes. Click here to download a complete overview of the Project GRAD Program in a PDF file format. This comprehensive white paper was developed internally to give key audiences the most up-to-date information available on GRAD.

Project GRAD USA's new site development process is designed to insure the support of the local community and the most effective utilization of GRAD's limited resources. This process is necessary to manage the growing number of Project GRAD cities around the country. For more information on this process, click here for a full description of the steps to becoming a GRAD site.

For more information, please contact ssmith@projectgradusa.org. Thank you for your interest in Project GRAD!

Project GRAD's unit of reform is the feeder pattern, a sub-system within the larger district. A feeder pattern or feeder system consists of all elementary and middle schools that "feed" individual high schools. Project GRAD combines specific evidence-based curricular and student and family service components into a coherent educational experience for students and school staff. It provides the resources necessary to help the existing teacher corps become proficient in their implementation. In addition, to make college enrollment and completion more realistic for typically low-aspiring students, Project GRAD offers college guidance and scholarships. Project GRAD has five structural components and five program components that, when used together, are closing the achievement gap.

Project GRAD is a comprehensive, cost-effective nonprofit school reform model that is currently underway in eight schools districts. The mission of the program is to ensure a quality public education for all children in economically disadvantaged communities so that high school graduation rates increase and graduates are prepared to enter and be successful in college. The goal of the program is to see at least 80 percent of students graduate from high school and 50 percent of these graduates enter college. Project GRAD works across all grades from pre-kindergarten through 12 and focuses on improving the quality of the curriculum and teaching, as well as on increasing academic standards for student performance. Project GRAD helps to stabilize the community in which Project GRAD schools are located through partnerships with parents, colleges and universities, corporations, and faith-based organizations. Project GRAD is generating evidence that it can narrow and perhaps even close the achievement gap in some of the lowest performing school districts in the country.

Project GRAD was introduced in the Davis High School feeder pattern in Houston, Texas in 1993. In Houston, GRAD has expanded  to a total of five feeder patterns that enroll more than 51,000 students in 73 schools.

Nationally, Project GRAD has expanded by adding sties in Atlanta, Georgia; Brownsville, Texas; Columbus, Cincinnati, and Akron, Ohio; Knoxville, Tennessee; Los Angeles, California; Newark, New Jersey; and Roosevelt, New York. Project GRAD is currently serving more than 130,000 students in 198 schools making it one of the largest school reform programs in the country.

Students, Parents and Communities

Project GRAD works in the lowest performing schools in low-income neighborhoods. Over 90 percent of the students in Project GRAD schools meet the federal poverty guidelines for special assistance. Test scores in these districts show the widest disparity in achievement in comparison to schools in the same district and school districts nationwide. Project GRAD helps to stabilize the community in which Project GRAD schools are located through partnerships with parents, colleges and universities, corporations, and faith-based organizations.

Teachers and Administrators

Project GRAD works with existing assets including: the schools as they are, existing principals and teachers, and whatever work rules are in place. Principals and teachers vote to have the program brought to their schools and Project GRAD will not participate unless it has an affirmative vote from 100 percent of the principals and 75 percent of the teachers.

One of the most critical problems in America is the achievement gap: by the time minority students reach 12th grade, if they have not dropped out of school, their achievement levels are about four years behind other young people. As a result, minorities obtain college degrees at only half the rate of white students. Demographic data shows that the younger adults responsible for the vitality and competitiveness of the future economy are now more likely than ever before to be African-American and Latino. Many good blue-collar jobs the economy generated for most to the last century have largely disappeared. Almost all the jobs that pay enough to support a family now require higher levels of literacy, language fluency, and technical training. To a greater extent than ever before, educational attainment will determine ones quality of life. In the increasingly diverse United States, it is essential that we seek remedies to education inequality.