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       Roughly 480 middle-schoolers in D.C.'s most underserved wards will receive college coaching, workshops and scholarships with help from a new $21 million federal grant, city leaders announced.

       The Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs — or GEAR UP — grant is designed to push more students through high school and toward college. The six-year effort will start in mid-2024, officials said.

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       “Through the GEAR UP grant, we will inspire college dreams in the minds of hundreds of D.C. middle school students furthest from opportunity and provide the coaching support they need through high school and the financial support they need after high school to make their college dreams a reality,” said Christina Grant, the city’s superintendent of education.

       D.C. was one of six jurisdictions throughout the country to receive a state grant this year. The federal money will help 22,000 students across those districts.

       Too few D.C. students finish college. This program aims to change that.

       The Education Department grant will also fund college tours, family workshops on topics such as financing, and $22,000 in scholarships per child. Students who are selected to participate will get academic and socio-emotional counseling from coaches at the D.C. College Access Program, more commonly known as DC-CAP, a nonprofit that helps students go to college.

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       The effort will focus on Ward 7 and 8 schools with the highest rates of chronic absenteeism and largest populations of at-risk children — a broad category that includes children in foster care, experiencing homelessness or living in low-income households — compared with other middle schools in the city. They include Excel Academy, as well as Hart, Johnson, Kelly Miller, Kramer and Sousa middle schools. Blow Pierce and Southeast middle schools, from the Friendship Public Charter network, were also chosen.

       Gregory Spears, principal of Blow Pierce Middle School, noted that students will have college scholarships before they even enter high school. He hopes it will help students and families “recommit” to school, and ultimately drive attendance.

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       “To me, that is just, that’s unprecedented,” he said in an interview. “I think that having that option for our students will increase buy-in from our families.”

       Charting D.C. schools’ road to recovery, from enrollment to retention

       Across the city, D.C. has seen recent gains in its high school graduation rates. During the 2019-2020 school year, about 71 percent of students were graduating within four years. That number grew to 75 percent during the 2021-2022 school year, the most recent year for which data is available.

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       Fewer graduates, however, are finishing college, data show. Researchers at the D.C. Policy Center, a think tank, estimated in March that 8 out of 100 ninth graders would complete postsecondary education within six years of leaving high school, down from 14 out of 100 students before the pandemic.

       The grant’s success will be measured, in part, by the share of students who complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), graduate high school and enroll in college, according to the Education Department. Leaders will also look at the percentage of students who take Algebra I before ninth grade — there has been a push in some districts to help teens take the course before high school so they have enough time for the advanced courses needed for certain STEM majors.

       “We’re also thinking about what additional support will come with this grant,” Spears said. “We’re very excited to be a part of this.”

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