With the Annual Performance Report (APR) deadline last week, the upcoming 2021 competition, the FY 2022 House Dear Colleague Appropriations grassroots campaign (the Senate campaign will kick off shortly), and the NCCEP Advocacy Survey Call to Action – there is a lot going on in the GEAR UP world right now!

For some of us, this is the norm for this time of the year. Although slightly delayed this year (which is normal in a new administration), we always have a big grassroots push for appropriations in the spring; we try to time the advocacy survey around the time of your APR submission to make it quick and easy – but this year, it feels like it all landed at the same time.

But this work, the work you do, is more important than ever. Yes, the administration and Congress has changed, but we cannot stop advocating for GEAR UP. 

It is a pivotal moment in the history of GEAR UP.

So, we are asking that GEAR UP Directors support the #GEARUPworks movement by providing a few facts about their GEAR UP programs through the NCCEP Advocacy Survey. 

As of today, April 23rd, 2 weeks before the May 7^th deadline, only 36% of grantees have completed the survey. 

We use the data from the Advocacy Survey to paint a national portrait of GEAR UP and drill down at the state and Congressional district levels. Since every Congressional meeting we have on GEAR UP begins with the same questions (e.g. how many GEAR UP students are being served in my congressional district?), we have designed this survey so that we can answer these questions (and more!) in those meetings. Additionally, we aggregate all of this information to tell the national story of GEAR UP. 

Every Congressional GEAR UP champion we have developed was cultivated by hyper-focusing on the role that GEAR UP is playing at the local level, using your data. 

With this information, we are able to make a much stronger case for supporting GEAR UP; without it, our advocacy efforts are weakened.

You might have a few questions about submitting a response. Here are some questions we’ve received, along with our responses. 

I’m a Director and I didn’t receive the Advocacy Survey link. 

The survey link was sent to GEAR UP Directors (as designated by the U.S. Department of Education) via our survey system, Alchemer/Survey Gizmo. As such, we strongly suggest that you check your email spam, clutter, and junk folders as it may have been caught up there. If you are unable to find it, email me and I will send you a link to submit a response. 

When is it due and how long does it take? 

 Once you receive the link, it should take about 20 minutes or so to complete and is due on May 7, 2021. 

It’s hard to find 20 minutes in my schedule. Can I skip it this year? 

Unfortunately, this is something we need 100% percent participation on. You can delegate the survey to any colleague who can cut and paste from your 2021 APR into the survey format. 

Why are you asking about our Cohort, Priority, or Hybrid student-service model? 

We’re asking you to report your GEAR UP student service model so that we can better contextualize the GEAR UP portrait at the national and local levels. Since this question takes just a few seconds to answer, it’s well worth it. 

How do we ensure we are entering in the right NCES school codes? 

Entering the correct NCES school code for participating GEAR UP schools is essential. With the correct NCES school code, we can match each GEAR UP school to a congressional district and pull additional demographic information from the NCES database, thereby saving all of us a lot of time. However, this only works when the NCES code is entered correctly. The easiest thing to do is to find your 12-digit NCES ID code here. Search for your school name, city, and state; click on your school name in the results to access the school profile page, and directly to the right of the school name, on the school profile page, you will find your NCES School ID. 

Who can I talk to if I’m doing this for the first time or if I have questions? 

We’re here for you and are here to help with any issues you may be navigating. Just ensure that you have access to your recently completed APR and your link to the survey. From there, if you have any questions you can email me and we’ll get you taken care of!

When is NCCEP’s database updated with this information after the Annual APR Survey?

Typically, around 1.5-2 months after data collection. The data needs to be cleaned (e.g., NCES codes are double checked) and grants who did not respond are personally contacted. If we don’t have to reach out to grants who have not responded, we can turn it around much quicker and start using it for our current advocacy efforts right away! 😊 

So, we ask that all GEAR UP Grant Directors take a few moments today, to contribute to the future of GEAR UP.  By doing so you contribute to the NCCEP mission, to further support GEAR UP students, families, and communities. Please submit a response no later than May 7, 2021 and contact me if you have any questions.