We Are Ready

I CAN TACKLE CHALLENGES

In response to America’s high school drop-out crisis, ASAS launched its We Are Ready (W.A.R.) program to better prepare our middle school students for success in high school and beyond. Our curriculum targets 8th graders who exhibit signs that they are at risk of dropping-out and helps them answer the question: Why does graduating from high school matter?Through career and college exposure, academic support, service projects, counseling and mentoring, W.A.R. provides middle school students with the skills, information, and confidence they need to successfully navigate their transition into high school so they are better prepared to graduate. Thus far, the program has been successfully piloted with over 1,500 students in 100 ASAS schools in Chicago, Miami, the San Francisco Bay Area, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Hawaii, Atlanta, and San Antonio.W.A.R. gives students concrete strategies for success in high school and beyond. This year’s W.A.R. participants shared the knowledge they gained from participating in the class, filling in the sentence, “to prepare for high school, college, and career, I will…” Student responses: “study more,” “take SAT prep classes,” “find clubs [in high school] that will help with my major and finding a job,” “get good grades,” “obtain a good mentor. If you want to learn more about the initiative please take a look at “Selling Eighth-Graders on College” by Aaron Dworkin.

• 99% were promoted to 9th grade with the rest of their class.
• 58% of We Are Ready students started on dropout “Watch Lists,” demonstrating high risk for dropping out through low attendance and grades, and poor behavior.
• 86% of We Are Ready students improved their daily school attendance and behavior evaluations.

CampUs

For rising 9th grade students in need of an extra push, the We Are Ready program also includes an intensive one-week, overnight summer camp at a university. Students map out their next academic moves between meals in the cafeteria, classes in lecture halls and lights out in the dorms.

• 99% of CampUs participants feel prepared to attend high school. And 98% understood how to prepare for college.
• 85% of ASAS students expect to earn a degree beyond high school, with 77% expecting to earn a bachelor’s degree and 56% expecting to earn a Master’s or Doctoral Degree.