Project GRAD USA - Prepping America's Impoverished Youths for College Success
By Matthew Robb, MSW, LCSW-C
Social Work Today
Vol. 4, No. 6, Page 30

Start early. Collaborate. Create a culture of excellence. That is the mission of a project aimed at giving impoverished youths a fighting chance at academic, employment, and personal success.

While America celebrates the economy’s rebound from recession, many social workers temper their enthusiasm with the knowledge that inner cities are still reeling from intergenerational depression and neglect.

Even among the best of us, it’s easy to despair, lose hope, and buy into the popular myth that long-standing problems are eternal. But across the nation, dedicated individuals are beginning to turn the tide, transforming hopelessness into hope and planting seeds for a brighter tomorrow.

Consider Project GRAD USA
Hailed today as a national success, this program began as an experiment in the lowest-performing school in Houston. The year 1988 saw Tenneco Corporation CEO James Ketelsen approach Jefferson Davis High School’s ninth-grade class and make this surprise offer: Apply yourself and graduate within four years (minimum 2.5 grade point average) and we will award you a college scholarship—period. Tenneco’s selection of Davis made perfect sense, as more than 90% of its students lived in poverty and only 20 Davis graduates total had even enrolled in college the previous year. Prior to Tenneco’s challenge, when parents were asked about sending their kids to college, they would recite the Davis High School mantra: It’s a pipe dream. No way. Ain’t gonna happen.

But it did happen—and quickly. Within four years, the Tenneco Scholarship program managed to quadruple Davis High School’s college enrollees. Though this number fell well short of the ambitious benchmark set by Ketelsen, city officials hailed its success. But elation soon turned to consternation as gloomy reports started trickling in, showing that Tenneco’s scholarship program wasn’t working as planned. Instead of charting new futures, many of the school’s newly minted grads were either floundering or failing in college. Ketelsen probed for answers and took away a harsh lesson: Kids raised in impoverished, often hostile environments, need to be prepped from day one. By ninth grade, it’s often too late.

Ketelsen remained optimistic. But to many observers, Davis High School’s long-standing problems suddenly started to look eternal.

A Widening Achievement Gap
Concluding that the recipe for academic success requires more than scholarships and inspirational speeches, Ketelsen went back to the drawing board. He huddled with the education experts, Ford Foundation, gained the financial backing of El Paso Energy Foundation, and retooled Tenneco’s program from the ground up.

In 1994, he launched Project GRAD Houston. By 1997, the program went national, and today Project GRAD USA serves 135,000 students in 217 schools and is the recipient of glowing testimonials. As for the former underachiever of Houston—Davis High School—last year it saw 322 of its students graduate and 103 enroll in college. Overall, from 1988 to 2004, Davis High School’s graduation rate jumped 85%, the number of its students entering college quadrupled, and the college graduation rate for low-income students nearly doubled the national average.

The need for innovative programs tailored to help America’s languishing inner cities and rural areas could not be more acute, says William Rios, director of parent and community involvement at Project GRAD USA’s headquarters, located in Houston. “If this country hopes to retain its global competitiveness, we must help our marginalized citizens become more productive,” he says. “African American and Hispanic kids today make up about 35% of the nation’s school-age population, meaning that we need to adequately prepare them for the workforce. We also know that future jobs will demand higher literacy, better communication skills, and technical know-how.” Young people who lack these requisites, Rios says, are at higher risk for chronic underemployment or joblessness, an observation borne out by longitudinal studies.

Government reports add to the sobering picture. By the time low-income and minority students reach fourth grade, their reading and math skills lag a full two grade levels behind their peers, and by ninth grade, almost four levels. Before their senior year, a shocking proportion of disadvantaged and minority kids simply drop out, effectively ending their best hope for a good job with good pay.

Tenneco’s students failed in some cases and succeeded in others. And while the experiment showed what happens when underprivileged, marginal students are thrust into competitive environments, it also demonstrated how enthusiastically they will respond to challenges. Lessons learned: Start early. Join hands. Create a culture of excellence.

The Lifeblood of Social Work
Seen another way, then, Project GRAD represents the lifeblood of good social work, emphasizing nuanced interventions, long-term focus, systems perspective, savvy community organizing, constructive dialogue, attentive case management, and exceptional commitment, teamwork, and respect.

Educational programs come and go. So, what differentiates Project GRAD from countless other educational initiatives?

Like the Tenneco program, Project GRAD backs up its talk with financial incentives. Students who meet reasonable academic standards receive a scholarship of at least $4,000 to attend any accredited U.S. college or university and receive expert help in obtaining financial aid and other scholarships.

To complete the picture, Project GRAD boasts a comprehensive, K-16 set of interventions geared to reach kids early—early enough to hone classroom skills, shape good behaviors, and catch them before they’re at risk of dropping out. Seeking to counteract an insidious cultural message that says minority or impoverished kids can’t succeed, Project GRAD instead challenges them to reach lofty goals—boosting high school graduation rates to 80% and college graduation rates to 50%—and then integrates family, school, and community supports to help make it all happen. Project GRAD creates a nourishing educational environment through research-proven curricula, advanced teacher training, and increased community and parental engagement. Other key components are the following:

• “Success for All” reading curriculum;

• “MOVE IT Math” curriculum; and

• “Consistency Management and Cooperative Discipline” classroom behavior system.
Project GRAD has proved so successful at transforming disadvantaged communities that 11 other cities have launched their own programs in Brownsville, TX; Atlanta; Newark, NJ; Los Angeles; Knoxville, TN; Cincinnati, Columbus, Akron, and Lorain, OH; Kenai Peninsula, AK; and Roosevelt, NY.

Feeding Into Success
“Part of what makes us different,” William Rios explains, “is our comprehensive, vertical-team approach, which allows us to closely track our students from an early age. Lots of reformers will pick this school or that school to focus their efforts. Project GRAD targets every single school within an identified ‘feeder pattern’ and then follows each student from beginning to end.”

For Davis High School, this feeder pattern translates into several elementary schools “feeding” their students into one or two middle schools that, in turn, feed into Davis. Continuity and coordination are enhanced even more through the use of existing assets, Rios says. While other programs might call for revamping entire curricula and forcing the wholesale ouster of administrators and teachers, Project GRAD works in partnership with them. “We want them to buy into our entire program,” he notes.

To close the achievement gap, Project GRAD also makes available innovative programs such as Communities In Schools (CIS) and Parent University. In partnership with CIS, Project GRAD places social service professionals in its schools to help students resolve problems that affect their schoolwork. “We look for people who either have a degree in social work or, in some cases, have extensive backgrounds with low-income minority youth,” Rios says. “They get referrals from teachers, parents, administrators, community partners, even kids themselves—from anyone who is concerned about a particular student having problems. Some students are referred to other agencies; some receive individual or group counseling or other services.”

Borrowing on the notion that it takes a village to raise an underprivileged student, Project GRAD casts its net wide and enlists the support of the entire community. At the beginning of each academic year, an energetic team of social services professionals, teachers, and parents knock on community doors and ask parents to sign a contract that commits their children to outlined academic standards. “The particular challenge in Houston,” Rios says, “is really creating a new culture that says these kids can be successful beyond high school. Doing this requires a coordinated effort from everybody in the community.” Rios worked as a community organizer for six years.

Helping Students, Helping Parents
Project GRAD helps not only students but also their parents. Houston Program Development Manager Nina Williams spends much of her time training parents to help their kids. “We know parents or caregivers are the true first teachers of children,” she says. “They have the most influence on their children. When children see their parents are interested in their success and education, then they will pick up on that message and do better as well.”

With that guiding philosophy, Parent University offers adult education classes that give parents the tools they need to support their children’s education. “We offer all sorts of workshops for parents,” Rios says. “At the beginning of each year, we ask them what they need. It might be GED or ESL classes or instruction in how to help their children with their math or reading homework, time management, how to create effective study environments, or introduction to computers. We feel the better educated parents are, the more they can help their children as students.”

While his daughter attends Jack Yates High School, Houstonian Bill Miller volunteers as a Project GRAD “Parent Pal,” part of a peer-mentoring program for parents. Miller is enthusiastic about Project GRAD. “In the big scheme of things,” he says, “Project GRAD lets parents know that college is no longer a dream. With college a reality, our kids are keeping their grades up. Parents don’t have to browbeat them because both students and parents are preparing for college together.” As part of Project GRAD’s requirements, Miller’s daughter joined her classmates for the 10-day Summer Institute at Baylor University. “The idea,” he says, “is to acclimate them to college life, to move them from class to class, and give them a brief experience of what it’s like to live on a college campus.”

Adds Rios, “Very early on, even in kindergarten or first grade, we start holding parent-university workshops focused on helping parents get their children on the road to college. We take both children and parents on field trips. For many parents, it’s the first time they’ve ever been on a college campus. So when their kid someday starts talking about the college library, computer lab, or student union, they’ve seen it, know it, done it.”

Rios allows that Project GRAD isn’t without major challenges. “It’s sometimes difficult,” he says, “to get people to buy completely into the concept. Some people react, ‘Oh, you’re offering the latest silver bullet. Why should I accept this?’ But we take the approach that this is a process. Tremendous results don’t happen overnight. What we tell them is that we’ve been working with the Davis feeder pattern for a long time, we’ve experienced success, and we are here for the long haul.”

Much work remains, but mother Lydia Perez says she shares Ketelsen’s guiding optimism. Perez, a Parent Pal at John Reagan High School in Houston, says, “For many parents, college is nowhere in sight. But I tell people, ‘Our children are our future. As parents, our job is to lay down their foundation and put them on the path where they need to be.’”

Miller nods in agreement. “Project GRAD has really stepped up to the plate,” he says. “It might not pay for four years at many colleges, but it puts into the heads of kids, ‘Hey, I can get this thing started. If I graduate from high school, I have a real chance.’”

With a chuckle, he adds, “What Project GRAD has done for my daughter is to help her become much more focused. The other night, I got a phone call from a recruiter who told me my daughter had contacted the college online and they were following up.”

Project GRAD boasts many other strengths and nuances, but the bottom line is that it is working.

James Ketelsen’s vision is beginning to transform hopelessness into hope and plant the seeds of a brighter tomorrow.

— Matthew Robb, MSW, LCSW-C, is a social worker and freelance writer residing in suburban Washington, DC. He is a frequent contributor to Social Work Today.

Social Workers: “The Glue That Holds the Program Together”
“Our families worry about things most people don’t worry about,” says Nina Williams, a Houston-based program development manager of Project GRAD USA. “A lot of them are poor beyond belief, but they have a will to succeed, and if someone believes in them and wants to help them, they will grab onto that.

“One of my colleagues calls social workers the glue that holds the entire program together. And it’s the truth,” she continues. “They address problems outside the classroom that impede academic success. We know that if children are hungry, they can’t focus in the classroom. We know that if they didn’t have a bed to sleep in the night before, it will be difficult for them to achieve academically the next day. If we know there’s a child in need, we are relentless.”

Williams’ job is to train social service providers to do their work. “We focus on building relationships in the school, with parents, students, and in the community,” she says. “In the fall, our social workers and ‘parent coordinators’ organize a door-to-door campaign that sees them knocking on the doors of every incoming student at every one of our sites across America. A lot of the times, that is the first official contact that is made with parents.

“When people find out that we’re dedicated to helping their children by any means necessary, they start asking us to do outrageous things,” Williams continues. “An elementary teacher came to me one day and told me that Esmeralda, a kindergarten student, needed an ear. Esmeralda, you see, had a small stub on her head instead of an ear. The teacher told me it was impeding her success in school, that she could not hear and the children were picking on her.”

Williams got busy. One connection led to another. In time, she located a prominent Mexican ear surgeon. “The doctor spoke Esmeralda’s language,” she recalls. “He told her he wanted to give her an ear. Today, Esmeralda is doing great.”

— MR