Initiated in the Houston Independent School District in 1993-1994, Project GRAD (Graduation Really Achieves Dreams) is a school-community collaborative to improve the instructional quality and culture of at-risk feeder systems of schools.  Project GRAD is a not-for-profit organization currently partnered with 24 schools impacting over 17,000 Hispanic and African American children.  The goal of the program is to find and implement the most cost-effective research-based prescription for addressing the educational needs of the inner-city school system.  Project GRAD seeks to prove that the problems facing inner-city school systems can be overcome with the right resources, strategies, and school-community collaboration.

The philosophy guiding the program is that all Pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade students can be effective learners, regardless of demographic background if appropriate and timely programmatic interventions are infused into the primary grades.  Project GRAD introduces into its primary and middle schools a strong curriculum, designed to build student's self-discipline, confidence and resilience, and arouse their natural excitement for learning reading, mathematics, and science.  Advancements made in elementary and middle school are sustained by a strong and well-articulated secondary curriculum.  In effect, Project GRAD's long-term goal is to reform Pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade schools so that every kindergarten student is insulated from academic failure, eventually graduates from high school, and pursues higher education.

Project GRAD selected a number of curriculum models that have been widely and individually piloted and validated as effective and innovative models.   However, Project GRAD is the only program that is concurrently replicating all models at a single site involving students in bilingual and regular classrooms.  The curriculum models utilized in Project GRAD are:

Move It Math (Math opportunities, Valuable experiences, and Innovative teaching) is a student-centered Kindergarten through grade 6 program to improve learning and teaching.  This curriculum introduces algebra in the early grades;  uses children's literature and science to give meaning and purpose to mathematics; emphasizes understanding of math principles versus memorization; encourages the discovery of 'rules' of math through the examination of patterns; and allows flexibility in exposition and acceptance of alternative strategies for problem solving. Coming in 2004!

Communities in Schools Houston (CISH) is a non-profit, dropout prevention program and social service agency that provides guidance, counseling, community outreach, and family case-management services to at-risk children.   Students and their families become aware of private and community resources and how to access them to meet their economic, health and other needs. Social Worker coming soon!

Success for All (SFA) is a school-wide reading and writing program for students in grades Pre-Kindergarten through middle school that emphasizes early intervention to ensure that every student succeeds in reading throughout the elementary grades.  Components of SFA include a reading and writing program, cooperative learning techniques, tutors, eight week assessments, pre-school and kindergarten instruction, family support teams, staff support teams, and professional development for teachers. Coming in 2005!

Consistency Management and Cooperative Discipline (CMCD) is a comprehensive instructional program tailored to respond to individual campus needs that builds on shared responsibility for learning and classroom organization between teachers and students.  Consistency Management combines instructional effectiveness through consistency in classroom organization with student self-discipline developed cooperatively.  Components of CMCD include: prevention, caring, cooperation, organization, and community.
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Implementation Issues: Keys to effective implementation include: the comprehensive approach of the project; on-going needs assessment; broad-based multi-agency planning; on-going research and development; long-term institutional commitment; shared vision; integration of multiple services; and comprehensive services that focus on the whole child from Kindergarten through high school.  Importantly, Project GRAD is almost (>90%) funded by private organizations and individuals.  The availability of stable funding is important in the implementation of Project GRAD; a minimum of two-year funding for the components is required to ensure that the implementation of the program can be sustained.

Of critical importance to the success of Project GRAD is the initiation of a college scholarship program at the feeder system's high school.  The developer of Project GRAD Jim Ketelsen, retired CEO of Tenneco, organizes corporations and foundations to sponsor a scholarship program at the Project GRAD high school prior to the installation of Project GRAD components into the feeder schools. As an incentive to all 9th graders, a guarantee of a $1,000 college scholarship per year is provided to students who meet basic academic criteria.

The scholarship program is not only an incentive for the 9th graders but also impacts the culture of the community.  From elementary school, the principals, teachers, and parents' expectations for the children need to grow to include the promise of college.  The scholarship provides the opportunity for parents and teachers to discuss college as a real objective for students and offers a reason to perform academically.

Resources Used: Each of the major components of Project GRAD has a consultant for training teachers and training facilitators to provide local support for new teachers and trained beyond the first year of training.  Some instructional components require the use of computers and specialized computer software.
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Accelerated Reader (AR^®): Using AR, teachers can continually match kids to appropriate books within their zone of proximal development (ZPD). That means every student is challenged without being frustrated. Helps get kids excited about books. Helps students focus attention on careful reading of books, which builds their intrinsic love of reading. Here is Durkee's lists of available quizzes so the student can check out books from the Library.