The South Dakota Department of Education, in collaboration with the Oceti Sakowin Education Consortium (OSEC) have entered into a partnership with the goal of increasing the number of Native American students that will graduate from institutions of higher education.  Twenty-three schools have agreed to enter into a partnership to participate in this program. In order to accomplish this goal, the United States Department of Education (US DOE) has funded South Dakota Department of Education and OSEC partnership to implement the South Dakota Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) or SD GEAR UP.

The SD GEAR UP Program will utilize a cohort-based model that targets students beginning in the seventh grade and provides interventions for six years.  A new cohort of students will be selected in each successive program year, and each of those cohorts will continue to be followed throughout the duration of the program.  The SD GEAR UP partnership will seek to make changes through curricular enhancements, faculty and staff training, informing parents and students about higher education preparation, and increasing institutional capacity to offer a wider range of college preparatory courses.  A significant component of the SD GEAR UP program is to focus on successfully transitioning students from middle school to high school and from high school to higher education.

The SD GEAR UP program plans on utilizing a summer school model that is based upon accelerating the learning of students towards the upcoming academic year versus remediation.  During the Summer 2006, the SD GEAR UP Program will co-sponsor (with the school partners) a series of summer programs on the seven different reservations in South Dakota.  In addition, the SD GEAR UP Program will be sponsoring the SD GEAR UP Honors Program, to be housed at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.  The SD GEAR UP Honors Program will be focusing on refining and developing mentoring models for transitioning students into high school and to higher education.