AR AIMS was chosen as a partner for a new college readiness program spearheaded by the University of Central Arkansas that has the potential to affect thousands of young students across the state by bringing postsecondary education within their grasp.

UCA will facilitate the seven-year, $30 million Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs grant (GEAR UP) from the U.S. Department of Education. GEAR UP will have a momentous impact not only on students, “but their families,” said Charlotte Parham, principal investigator and associate professor in the UCA College of Education. “We want to make sure [students] don’t create a ceiling in their mind for what they can be or what they want to be.”

Roughly 3,500 students in 11 districts — Blytheville, Brinkley, Camden Fairview, Clarendon, Little Rock, Pulaski County, Helena/West Helena, Jacksonville-North Pulaski, Lee County, Marvel/Elaine, and Hope — spanning seven counties are targeted by GEAR UP. Though the state’s high school graduation rate is 89%, as of 2021, the average graduation rate in the GEAR UP districts is only 85%, which is below the national average, and the average free-and-reduced-lunch poverty rate of the GEAR UP schools is nearly 87%.

AR AIMS will work with  GEAR UP Arkansas for seven years to provide mentoring, academic support and professional development to teachers at GEAR UP Arkansas schools.