In each city, Project GRAD commits to working with existing students, teachers, and administrators. Project GRAD does not attempt to select students or "push out" teachers or administrators. Instead, Project GRAD provides training and support to teachers and administrators to equip them to succeed in their work with students.

2. The Feeder  System

A feeder system consists of a high school and all the middle and elementary schools that send or "feed" students to the High School.

By implementing common approaches to the curriculum and the way it is taught within a feeder, Project GRAD provides academic consistency in two important ways: It makes vertical consistency possible as children advance from grade to grade within a feeder and provides horizontal consistency across grades within a feeder, minimizing the disruption experienced by children whose families change homes within the same neighborhood during the school year.

Working within feeders also makes it possible to provide a comprehensive educational experience to children in that there is an aggregated effect to offering all the program components, at all grade levels, in all the schools in which students are likely to enroll.

3. The Local Project GRAD Organization

In each city, an independent non-profit organization is established to oversee the implementation of Project GRAD’s components by working with the program component providers, the feeder schools, the school district, and the local community. This local Project GRAD organization assures program quality and consistency over an extended period of time, and during turnover of superintendents, principals and teachers. It also mobilizes resources that are deployed in the GRAD schools, provides technical assistance to the schools as they work to implement GRAD, and serves as a kind of “swat team” that can at times respond quicker to problems that arise than the slower-moving school bureaucracies.

4. Community Involvement and Collaboration

Project GRAD actively seeks community engagement. Project GRAD provides an avenue for local corporations, foundations, universities, and concerned individuals to contribute to the success of public school students in their community. This is achieved through financial contributions as well as through direct involvement, including mentoring, tutoring, and event sponsorship. The school level stability and momentum that Project GRAD generates also attracts resources and participation from other local school-based programs and initiatives that see a greater likelihood of program success in GRAD schools. In this role, GRAD serves as a platform for the addition of targeted approaches to assisting students. They are thereby less likely in this situation to stand or fall on their own, than in non Project GRAD schools.

GRAD USA is a national organization that provides technical assistance, quality assurance, and some funding for all Project GRAD sites. GRAD USA works closely with a city when it is considering GRAD, helping it to develop a plan of action and mobilize local support. During the first years of implementation, GRAD USA works as a partner with the local GRAD organization as it leads the process of bringing GRAD to its school district. GRAD USA also organizes opportunities for all the sites to learn from each other’s practices and helps sites adapt GRAD to their local contexts. It works as well with the program component suppliers to assure their curricular approaches align with state standards and that the components are coordinated so as to lead to the maximum aggregated effect.

These five fundamental components of GRAD’s structure have allowed it to sustain and improve a comprehensive program that responds to and advances each individual student, teacher, and administrator within an entire feeder system, school district, and is now being replicated on a national scale.

As a result of these components, Project GRAD Schools produce:

• Students with better grades and higher achievement test scores
• Students with positive attitudes and classroom behavior
• Teachers with better training and on-going 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