 
How Project GRAD Began
Project GRAD began in Houston and was founded by James Ketelsen, then Tenneco’s Chairman and CEO. Beginning in 1988, Tenneco funded a four-year college scholarship program, the Tenneco Presidential Scholarship Program, to eligible graduates of Davis High School, at the time Houston's lowest-performing high school. By 1991–92, the number of Davis graduates entering college had more than quadrupled. Yet, Ketelsen was frustrated because this was still far from his goal of having 40 percent of entering 9th graders enrolling in college. In addition, there was little or no change in SAT or ACT scores. The scholarship program was not having a large enough impact on the dropout rate. Sadly, it appeared that 9th grade was too late to reach most students.
It then became apparent that if the program were to reach its ambitious goals, it would be necessary to develop and implement a comprehensive set of interventions that would begin in kindergarten (or even before) and span all the grades through the 12th. This led to the development of the full Project GRAD model.
When Jim Ketelsen retired from Tenneco in 1992, he spearheaded a search for a solution to the challenges facing Houston's inner city schools. With associates, he looked for curricular, methodological, and student and family support programs that would help build basic skills, improve student behavior, and catch children before they found themselves at risk of dropping out. This search identified four program components that were added to the already-existing scholarship program.
First Feeder System
In 1993, principals and teachers voted to adopt GRAD's program components in the elementary and middle schools that send students to Jeff Davis High School in Houston's Near North Side. The feeder system consists of all elementary and middle schools, which feed students into a designated high school. In GRAD’s original cluster of schools:
- The number of high school graduates has increased by 86 percent
- The number of students going to college has increased by 500 percent
- Graduates are completing college at a rate that is 62 percent higher than the national average
Project GRAD Today
The success of the program and its unique approach led to its expansion into four additional feeder systems in Houston, where the program now reaches 50,000 students. Project GRAD has also expanded nationally, with sites in Akron, Alaska, Atlanta, Brownsville, Cincinnati, Columbus, Knoxville, Lorain, Los Angeles, Newark, and Roosevelt, Long Island with more on the way. Nationally, Project GRAD currently serves more than 135,000 children in 217 schools. After more than 10 years of experience, it is clear that Project GRAD schools produce:
- Students with better grades and higher achievement test scores
- Students with positive attitudes and improved classroom behavior
- Teachers with better training and ongoing support
- Parents with more direct involvement in their children’s education
- High school graduates with higher college enrollment rates
- College students with greater access to financial aid and scholarships
- Increased college graduation rates
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