1. SUCCESS Retreat 2017 APRIL 27-29  BEND, OR
Welcome to the SUCCESS Retreat.
First and foremost, this is an opportunity to evaluate your GEAR UP programs and services as a team and outline priorities and a plan for the following year and the future.
We also have a great line up of breakout sessions with experts from across the state, including educators from many former GEAR UP schools who have a lot of practical advice to share. We will also be hearing from you all sharing promising practices in short presentations throughout the three days.
In addition, we have several general sessions where we will be focusing on exploring and using data.
Other announcements:
Sign up for times with Jennica, as well as Natalie/Ashley. All staff are available for questions.
But before we delve into that, I want to start off with some fun. Who remembers Mad Libs?
APRIL  BEND, OR

2. Mad Libs adjective plural noun number
It’s very easy: on a piece of paper or your device and write the numbers 1-6.

3. Mad Libs adjective plural noun number
Now, you need to come up with six words, by the type of word (e.g. noun, number, adjective, etc.)
Questions?
Ok. Take two minutes to write your words down.
Now for the fun part: we’ll put these words into a story. Find someone at your table to read your story to.

4. Mad Libs
Oregon GEAR UP’s goal is to increase the number of __(1)__ __(2)__ who are prepared to enter and succeed in __(3)__. We work with select middle and high schools over __(4)__ or __(5)__ years to create a __(6)__ culture.
Any good ones out there?
(Try to get two or three folks to share with the large group).
We’ll be doing some more Mad Libs in a little bit. But first, let’s review our actual goals.

5. Mad Libs
Oregon GEAR UP’s goal is to increase the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary programs. We work with select middle and high schools over six or seven years to create a college-going culture.
This is a reminder that this is why we’re here over the next three days.
For Ford schools, we’re at the end of our six years together, so we’ll be focusing on sustaining culture change.
For Federal schools, we’re in the middle of the grant – so a perfect time to evaluate what’s working, what’s not and what else needs to be addressed to change the culture in your schools.

6. Welcome
There’s someone else who wanted to welcome you today: Representative Bonamici.
[show video]

7. gratitude I want to echo a few things that Rep. Bonamici touched on:
#1: GRATITUDE. We are grateful for the work that you all do every day with students and communities. Research shows that regularly reflecting on what you’re grateful for can help you be healthier and happier, and expressing gratitude can help others feel more motivated. So take some time during this retreat to think about what you’re grateful for, and thank others for their work.
We’re also grateful to The Ford Family Foundation, who has made it possible to work with 10 of your communities over the last six years. Dana will be taking some video testimonials over the next few days so we can thank them for their support.

8. stand up for GEAR UP
#2: STAND UP for GEAR UP. Rep. Bonamici highlighted the need to stand up for GEAR UP. We know that GEAR UP works. We even have the data to prove it. But we need to share that information with others – with other educators at your school, with parents, with your school board, and perhaps most importantly right now, with our national elected officials.
A budget put out by the current administration called for a one-third reduction of funding for GEAR UP. That’s deeply troubling. GEAR UP has bipartisan support in Congress, but it’s important for our representatives to know that GEAR UP works, that the program has a positive effect on your community, your school and your students.
We’re going to start practicing standing up for GEAR UP RIGHT NOW. How do we do that?

9. =
The best way to share the impact of GEAR UP is to tell a story: share the quantitative WITH the qualitative. That is, share a hard number AND a story.
Remember that when we are talking about data – numbers, graphs, tables – we are actually talking about students (or parents, or educators).

10. Eli graduated college early since he started with 12 credits
DATA
STORY
Eli graduated college early since he started with 12 credits
Students took 20% more dual credit classes
So, here’s what you need to do: find something good in your data and then think about a student that demonstrates this data.
For example, if your data shows that you had a 20% increase in enrollment in dual credit classes, think about a student who benefitted from that.
Let’s combine what we’ve learned about storytelling with our earlier Mad Libs exercise to stand up for GEAR UP.

11. Advocacy Mad Libs GEAR UP works at your school name.
Our students have high expectations: % of students expect to attend college. GEAR UP makes college possible for our students. For example, student name, a description of student, description of accomplishment.
Please support GEAR UP to continue helping students like student name.
Sincerely, your name, your role
It’s time for Advocacy Mad Libs. Similar to what we did earlier, but this time you’ll be writing a postcard to our Oregon delegation using this template and using examples from your work.
We’ve chosen a data point for you: the % of students who expect to attend college. You’ll hear more about this tomorrow from Julia, but you all have done an exceptional job of helping students, especially low-performing ones, hold high expectations. You can find your cluster’s data on page 2 of your Key Data Report, or you can use the GEAR UP average of 88%.

12. Advocacy Mad Libs GEAR UP works at Oregon High School.
Our students have high expectations: 88% expect to attend college. GEAR UP makes college possible for our students. For example, Maria, a student whose parents never graduated from high school, attended a summer program that sparked her interest in engineering. She is now a sophomore majoring in civil engineering at OSU.
Please support GEAR UP to continue helping students like Maria.
Sincerely, John Doe, Teacher
Here’s an example.

13. Advocacy Mad Libs GEAR UP works at your school name.
Our students have high expectations: % of students expect to attend college. GEAR UP makes college possible for our students. For example, student name, a description of student, description of accomplishment.
Please support GEAR UP to continue helping students like student name.
Sincerely, your name, your role
Questions?
Let’s take about 7 minutes to work on these.
[Time permitting] Does anyone want to share their story with the group?
Thanks for standing up for GEAR UP – please collect the postcards at your table and we will pick them up and mail them to the Oregon delegation. Remember to use this same method of storytelling and sharing the impact of GEAR UP with other key stakeholders. We also have a new webpage under the Grant Management section of our website that provides resources to share your successes.
I’m going to turn it over to Jennica (and Julia?) who are going to help you explore your data.

14. Be Data-Informed (5 principles explained with photos of dogs)
We are going to be spending a lot of time talking about data these next few days. And I want to take this opportunity to lead in to Jennica’s next session with some key reminders about how to be data-informed, that is, how to make sure you’re using and thinking about your data in the best way possible.
And the best part is, I’ll explain it with adorable photos of dogs 

15. data lets you see the world more clearly
Be Data-Literate
data lets you see the world more clearly
Understand what you’re measuring and make it meaningful. Put the data in context.
How we do this: we’ve worked the steps for data analysis into our planning (Theory of Change tool and Vocalize design) to help you learn and practice the steps implicitly.

16. Be curious. data tells you what works -- and what doesn’t
Ask yourself: what’s most and what’s least? How much and how many? Strive for continual improvement – how can we keep getting better?
How we do this: New planning tool, new way to access data, we do our own review each year. We have high expectations of ourselves, our schools and our students and want you to have the same.

17. Be action-oriented. data keeps you focused on your goals
Push your observations past “what happened” and ask yourself “so what” and “what do we do about it”
How we do this: Start with data first! Use it in our planning tools, as a constant reminder of our goal.
data keeps you focused on your goals

18. Be communicative. data helps you prove your point
Talk about your data! Share your data regularly, formally and informally with educators, families, school board, elected officials.
How we do this: You will have access to Vocalize that will allow you to view and export data in a variety of ways so it will be easy to share.

19. Be skeptical. data helps you prove your value
Am I looking at this data correctly? Do I have the right data?
How we do this: Provide time and resources to have you work as a team and ask questions.
data helps you prove your value