Closing the Achievement Gap in Education.

Project GRAD ensures educational opportunities and college access for all students regardless of the child’s background. With a 15-year track record of successfully helping at-risk students, Project GRAD will award over $6 million in college scholarships to 1,500 seniors across the U.S. this year. These students join over 6,000 Project GRAD Scholars who have been awarded the $4,000 scholarship since the non-profit’s inception. “With its education reform initiatives, Project GRAD’s main mission is to improve the significantly low high school graduation and college access rates among America’s disadvantaged youth,” says James Ketelsen, Project GRAD Founder. In its approach, Project GRAD partners with school districts across the nation to instill a college-bound culture among schools, families, and communities.

Andrea Phillips, a 2006 graduate of Fulton High School in Knoxville, was exactly the kind of student Project GRAD is designed to reach. Before high school Phillips was struggling with grades and was unmotivated about her education. “Then, I came to Fulton,” says Phillips, “and was introduced
to Project GRAD.” She adds, “I am the fifth of seven kids, and out of my whole family, I am the first one to even graduate from high school. No one has even thought about going to college in my household. I didn’t think about it either until I got this opportunity with Project GRAD.”

The success of the program has led to its expansion into five feeder systems in Houston — the program’s pilot city — and nationally in such cities as Atlanta, Cincinnati, Knoxville, Los Angeles, and Newark. Project GRAD schools have shown to produce students with better grades and higher achievement test scores, parents with more direct involvement in their children’s education, high school graduates with higher college enrollment rates and increased college graduation rates.

Angela Rodriguez acknowledges the help and guidance that Project GRAD has given her over the years. “After my father passed away, I only had my mother to encourage me about my future. Then, I met the on-site Project GRAD Scholarship Coordinator at my high school. She encouraged me to sign up for Project GRAD’s summer college institutes and helped me fill out my college admissions applications. She was a very positive influence in my life. I have since graduated valedictorian of Reagan High School, experienced two years at Boston University, studied a semester abroad in London and now I am a Rice University Owl.”

Serving over a 38 percent African American and 52 percent Latino student population, Project GRAD has realized the sizeable achievement gap in education and workforce capacity among the nation’s economically disadvantaged communities. According to The Bridgespan Group (2006), only 60 percent of America’s low-income youth can expect to graduate from high school. One in three can expect to enroll in college, and only one in seven
will earn a bachelor’s degree.

The need to increase high school graduation and college attendance rates becomes more critical with the changing American workforce and economy. Recent U.S. Census data indicate that there is an increasing salary gap between college and high school graduates. In 1980, college graduates earned 50 percent more than high school graduates and by 2000 that percentage increased to 111 percent. With this trend expected to continue on its path, Project GRAD persists with its efforts to close the achievement gap.