The relationship between student participation in Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (Gear Up) and student achievement and college awareness

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between participation in a pre-college outreach program, Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (Gear Up), and student achievement as measured by PSAT and SAT scores and student perceptions, expectations, and knowledge about college as measured by the PEEK survey. The participants were from two high schools in Somerset County, Maryland who comprised the Gear Up cohort. Archived ex post facto data from the participants' sophomore and junior years of high school were used for this study.; This study was a correlation research design. However, unlike other correlation studies which focus on a single intervention or use a single student or school, this study examined the contributions of multiple services as described in Gear Up and delivered over six years to an entire cohort of students. In addition, this study examined not just the effects of offering or not offering a particular intervention, it examined the effect of varying levels of participation to student achievement and college awareness.; Bivariate correlation methods of data analysis together with simple regression techniques were used to examine linear relationships between various independent variables and one or more dependent variables. The independent variables used in this study include hours of participation in tutoring, attendance in academic summer camps, gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic background including student's achievement as measured by PSAT and SAT scores and students' college awareness as measured by the PEEK Survey results.; Results show no correlation between hours of participation in Gear Up and achievement or perceptions, expectations, knowledge about college. Even though scores on the PSAT and the SAT tests did improve, there was no significant correlation to race, gender, hours of participation, or economic background of the students.