About MGI: What is the CUNY Middle Grades Initiative/GEAR UP?

Mission

CUNY MGI is designed to enrich public school students' middle grades experiences and to better prepare them for rigorous high school and college-level work. We achieve this by establishing multi-year partnerships with students beginning in 6th or 7th grade at schools that span the middle through high school continuum. MGI services provided to students will include school-based tutoring, advising and counseling, early college awareness activities, arts education resources in core subject classes, and parent/family outreach throughout middle school. MGI students will continue to receive academic and advisement support as they transition into the high school grades so they are well prepared to take advantage of college-level opportunities available through CUNY College Now and the CUNY Early College Initative.

CUNY GEAR UP

Beginning in fall 2006, CUNY initiated a 6-year federal GEAR UP partnership grant in the amount of $4.8 million to support our Middle Grades Initiative (MGI). The federal GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) partnership focuses on supporting students from middle school through high school to increase the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education. Through the grant, we will serve 1,000 7th-grade students as our GEAR UP cohort through 2012.

This year's 7th-graders, our GEAR UP cohort, receive identical services to those in our MGI program and may have the opportunity to receive additional services through our New York State GEAR UP partners.

For more information on the US Department of Education's GEAR UP program, see their website.

Objectives

In order to achieve the goal of better preparation of students for rigorous high school courses and subsequent college-level work, CUNY MGI:*

• Solidifies students' middle school academic experiences;
• Initiates college awareness activities in middle school for students and their families in order to foster a college-going mind-set;
• Works with all students to set academic goals that exceed minimum promotion and graduation requirements in order to move students towards real college readiness;
• Commits to the significant involvement of boys in all activities to ensure that they remain engaged in school and focused on future college success;
• Provides on-going advisement support in early high school to help students navigate their high school course work and preserve a wide range of college options; and
• Aligns itself with the mission of College Now in order to maximize use of CUNY resources.

What do we do?

CUNY MGI wants to support middle school students so they are ultimately more prepared for post-secondary education (meaning college or other institution you attend after high school). To do this, we've decided to focus our energy on six key areas:

• Placing trained tutors in Math, English Language Arts Classes and after-school programs
• Assigning trained advisors and counselors in the guidance offices at schools
• Helping students develop a plan for college and think about careers
• Providing opportunities for our students to participate in cultural events and arts programs
• Reaching out to our students' parents and other family members
• Offering professional development for our staff and middle-school teachers