SC GEAR UP
Weekly Memo - 5/25 to 5/31
Good Morning!
I hope everyone had a nice, long weekend! A lot of this is re-cap from last week's meeting. Everyone have a great week! Let's finish strong.
Don't forget to send me your weekly schedules.
Biology Goal
Focus Groups
HR stuff
Don't forget the Evaluations! If a coach fell short of expectation, we need to let them, and their supervisor aware of this. Documentation is a key part of everything we do, including HR.
Special thanks to Catherine for finishing up the new evaluation instrument. Now that you have all signed off on it, we will move forward with this tool for next year. I will go over the new evaluation piece at the GC meeting in August.
GC Awards
FMU Teaching Children of Poverty
Start asking teachers about Teaching Children of Poverty. You may wish to catch them before they leave.
I wouldn't be fair to make this mandatory if I know ahead of time that all of you can't attend. So, for that reason this year (and this year only), if you wish to skip this event then you can. But understand that if you aren't here, you are working or taking vacation days.
COMPASS Follow-up
Let's keep the conversations moving. Some of you have started identifying the Coaches role in the project. That will be important moving forward. I want to be sure WE all understand exactly what we are doing when we approach district/school/college officials with the project. Some of the questions to keep the conversations moving:
- Date of last meeting/contact on subject and who attended
- Technical college that will partner with high school through project
- Plan for Dual Enrollment Course delivery
- Plan for Developmental or "GEAR UP University Transition Course"
- Who is teaching the courses? Are they certified/qualified?
- Have the teachers been vetted by the high school or tech college?
- Does SCGU need to develop the lesson plans for the courses?
- Does the high school need anything from you in order to generate their Master schedule and include these classes?
- How will the invoicing process work?
- Where is the money being placed (whose budget)?
- Have you ordered your books?
- Is there a plan for inventory and storage with books/tech?
- Plan for sharing data with stakeholders (parent night? IGP?)
- What was the feedback for the parent night? What was the attendance?
- What concerns have parents shared with you or the school?
- Issues you are encountering at any level
- What will be the role of the Graduation Coach?
Lee Central Early College Kick-Off!!
SuperIntendent Appreciation
NCCEP/GEAR UP Summer Conference - San Francisco
Remember to register and make sure you get the registration of your folks in to Vickie ASAP! Since its a cross country trip, nobody is driving. Let's be sure we're knowledgeable about when our invitees are leaving and landing. Make sure they have your contact info.
There will be after-conference meetings again this year.
Steve and LaDonna will plan the Monday Meeting Agenda
Sonya and Katrisa will plan the Tuesday Meeting Agenda
Retreat?! 8/25
Okay, so we know that the GC meeting will be on 8/26 at FDTC. What we need to decide is if their will be a Leadership Retreat on 8/25.
I need your thoughts so that we can start thinking logistics and speakers. Do you want to have the retreat?
Tutoring
Remember, if there is a kid who is failing, that is not attending a tutoring program, your coach will need to document that contact was made and why the student isn't coming.
Summer Award Letters
SCGU Award Letters for 2015-16
As a follow-up to the above, its about time to start reviewing your Programs from this year for suggested changes for next year's award letter. I'm bringing this up because I realize that the school year is close to ending, and I want you to have discussions with your school officials before they leave. I probably wont need your changes until after the conference, but at that point some folks you may need input from may not be around to meet with you.
Objectives for 2014-15
The SCGU Grant objective for 10th grade will be that 80% of our students will pass Biology by the end of 10th grade. As of first semester, I believe Vermadel has us at 38%.
Remember, the success of the SC GEAR UP Grant will be judged on three things:
1) Did your GU cohort graduate high school at a higher rate than the non GU cohorts?
2) Did your GU cohort enroll at a post-secondary institution at a higher rate than the non GU cohorts?
3) How prepared to succeed were our GU cohort when they arrived at college?
Objectives for 2015-16
The SCGU Grant objectives for 11th grade will be that 1) At least 25% of our cohort will have passed at least 2 math courses above Algebra by the end of 11th grade; and 2) 80% of our students will pass U.S. History by the end of 11th grade.
Vermadel will give us updates on these at the August GC meeting, if not sooner.
College Access Update
College Application Month (CAM) registration is now OPEN! As Catherine stated last week, we are asking schools to go into the site and view their "preferred week". This is the week where CACRAO and CHE can be most certain that college representatives will be able to attend the CAM events. We already know how difficult it is to tell a school to do something on a specific date. A school can definitely pick a date outside of that preferred week, but it may be more difficult to get college reps on another date. I want the coaches to be sure they are involved in the CAM event at their school this year. I think it would be important to make sure the JR class is involved with the CAM event this year. It can be something simple, like having a mock application for them, or pairing them up with a SR student at the CAM event to let them see how the application process works. Anything we can do to familiarize them would be great. Remember, next year represents our final "practice run" before our class is THE CAM class for the State.
To date, the following schools have NOT signed up for a CAM day:
1) Ridgeland Hardeeville
2) Lee Central
3) Dillon
4) Military Magnet
5) Scotts Branch
6) Woodland
7) Edisto
8) Loris
Sunday is the final day to get guaranteed help from college reps. While a school CAN sign up after then, there is no guarantee that college reps can attend, which means more work on the GC, RC and us to pull off the event. Let's get 'em signed up.
CCTI
Finance
We meet on Tuesdays to go over the Program and sign invoices. Questions usually come up. Be available between 1:30 and 3:00 for a potential call or text.
I NEED Q2 INVOICES ASAP!! The delay in providing the invoices will be a problem down the road if this continues. This is especially important with Q3 and Q4.
Social Media Update
The SC GEAR UP Facebook and Twitter are now both up!!!! Please have the coaches encourage students to like and follow SC GEAR UP on social media. We can do better on Twitter and certainly on Facebook.
Don't forget about the newsletters as well!