The College and Career Readiness Evaluation Consortium (CCREC) is a collaboration of 28 GEAR UP grantees and national not-for-profit organizations collectively serving over 110,000 students in more than 630 middle and high schools. Through a longitudinal research and evaluation project, CCREC seeks to examine the relationship between GEAR UP interventions and key secondary and postsecondary outcomes.
A map highlighting CCREC participants
Established in 2010, CCREC is a voluntary, grantee-led response to gaps in knowledge about the collective GEAR UP program. Working with the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships (NCCEP), the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), the NSC Research Center, and ACT the founding 13-member states established the necessary infrastructure to conduct a longitudinal, multi-state grant evaluation. Referred to as CCREC 1.0, these initial 13 state programs were: Arizona, Idaho, Kentucky, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. As CCREC has evolved into 2.0, the evaluation is ongoing and currently encompasses over 110,00 students participating in 28 state and partnership grants as they progress from 7th grade through postsecondary completion. This initiative has not only continued to develop by accounting for lessons learned, but has transitioned to an ongoing evaluation that, beginning with fiscal year (FY) 2016 grantees, continuously onboards GEAR UP grantees.
The research questions guiding the work of CCREC are universally applicable to GEAR UP, while the wide array of program services captured enable a closer examination of core college and career readiness strategies routinely used by GEAR UP programs. Specifically, CCRCEC seeks to examine the extent to which services are related to the following outcomes:
Ultimately, what is learned in these focus areas will lead to advanced support for GEAR UP programs, targeted advocacy efforts with policymakers, and published research findings.
Participation in CCREC does not replace the individual work of grantees, but instead supplements and enhances the local evaluation process and provides two primary outcomes:
the ability to contribute to a multi-grant evaluation of GEAR UP; and
the ability to participate in a collaborative, learning-focused environment that advances data, research, and evaluation best practices.
CCREC has developed common GEAR UP service definitions, established a longitudinal data repository, and pioneered a GEAR UP typology survey designed to group similar GEAR UP grant project by archetype to improve professional development and training, facilitate small learning and networking communities, enhance research and evaluation, and advance advocacy efforts. This type of work is paramount to GEAR UP’s sustainability.
While NCCEP serves as the managing partner, CCREC is a true collaborative effort between state and partnership grantees, national partners including the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), NSC Research Center, and the U.S. Department of Education and participating GEAR UP directors, evaluators, and liaisons. CCREC is led by committees of GEAR UP professionals elected by the CCREC membership. Together, partners in CCREC work toward one common goal—use high-quality research and evaluation to inform program implementation and administration and assess GEAR UP’s value-added impact and efficacy.
CCREC onboards new grantees each year. If you are newly funded and would like to join, contact Chrissy Tillery, NCCEP’s Vice President of Research and Evaluation.
