STEP UP

In April of 2003, Open Meadow Alternative Schools partnered with Roosevelt High School by creating the STEP UP Program, with the goal of successful transition into Roosevelt High School. Achieving this goal has resulted in (1) a decreased dropout rate at Roosevelt, and (2) significant academic improvement, particularly among students of color. In the fall of 2004, Open Meadow expanded STEP UP services into the Roosevelt Cluster feeder middle schools: Portsmouth and George.

Portland Public Schools is making the important transition from 8th to 9th grade a district wide priority for the 2007–08 school year and will be investing in the expansion of STEP UP services into the Marshall and Madison high school campuses. Each of the past three years, Comcast Foundation has made a generous grant of $50,000 in STEP UP program support. STEP UP has also been funded by the City of Portland Children’s Investment Fund (CHIF), No Child Left Behind Supplemental Education Services, Portland Public Schools Title 1, GEAR UP, Oregon Department of Education, the Portland Schools Foundation, PGE Foundation, Trail Blazers, The Collins Foundation, Piper Jaffray Foundation, and NW Natural.

Other community partners are Caldera, the University of Portland, Synergo, Camp Collins, NWREL, and Multnomah County SUN schools. In 2007, the Pew Partnership for Civic Change awarded STEP UP the 2007 Civic Change Award.

Forty percent of the students dropping out of Roosevelt leave during their freshman year. STEP UP targets students falling farthest behind in middle school and provides comprehensive and culturally specific services into their sophomore year at Roosevelt. The cornerstone of the program is an intensive social/emotional summer camp with teaching staff and tutoring that takes place prior to the students’ freshman year. 

Program Components

• Middle school tutoring (and adult relationship-building around school success)
• Pre-Freshman year leadership camp
• Pre-Freshman year summer school
• Freshman year, extended academic day tutoring
• Sophomore year, extended academic day tutoring
• Parent involvement activities

Completing its fourth year, Open Meadow’s STEP UP program continues to show remarkable results in retaining the hardest to serve middle and high school students in the Roosevelt cluster. Again this year, 100% of 2006–07 participants were still in school at the end of the school year.

STEP UP students are not only staying in school, they are making significant academic gains. In 2006–07, STEP UP participants on average earned a GPA 27% higher than the school average. Due to problems with the state on-line testing program, all Oregon students had to take written tests this school year; results will not be available until late fall.