SUU and ICSD receive USHE StepUP Ready Grant

Published: February 08, 2016 | Read Time: 1 minutes

SUU and ICSD receive USHE StepUP Ready GrantSouthern Utah University and the Iron County School District (ICSD) were awarded a $74,977 StepUP READY Grant sponsored by the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE). The goal of the StepUP READY Grant is to create opportunities for public and higher education to work together to promote Utah’s students’ college-readiness. 

The program has been made possible through a partnership between SUU and ICSD. SUU’s Dr. Leilani Nautu, director of K-12 programs, collaborated with Jennifer Wood, ICSD director of secondary education and Jet Warr, secondary math specialist, to design the “Step It Up” project.

The project is focused on increasing the number of high school students who achieve ACT college-readiness in mathematics through an ACT preparation course, a summer STEM expo and in-class interventions which increase student exposure to ACT materials and questions.

In addition to student-focused efforts, the SUU-ICSD partnership will aim to improve teacher effectiveness by providing teaching training, an ACT-infused curriculum plan and Utah State Office of Education (USOE) Mathematics Endorsement courses for upper elementary - 8th grade mathematics teachers. The project is expected to impact over 100 of Iron County’s high school juniors. 

For the second year, USHE made available the StepUP READY grants. Applications from partnerships between school districts/local education authorities (LEAs) and Utah not-for-profit higher education institutions were requested in an effort to increase the number of Utah’s public high school students who graduate college-ready and enroll in a post-secondary institution.

All grants require a robust partnership between the LEAs and the not-for profit higher education institution to ensure effective and intentional efforts surrounding college preparation, enrollment, and first-year transition. All grants also needed to be tied to college readiness objectives specified by USHE. 


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