Soup-to-nuts data analysis
We helped GEAR UP provide clear and useable data to their partner schools

GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) is a federally funded college access program designed to increase the number of students who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education immediately following high school. The GEAR UP Appalachian Partnership grant serves approximately 15,000 students from 11 school districts in Western North Carolina counties.
GEAR UP at Appalachian State University wanted to provide each of the counties they serve with clear and usable information showing how their students were meeting college and career readiness benchmarks at key milestones between middle school and college. They also wanted each county to learn how their students were performing as compared to other students within their Prosperity Zone and the state of North Carolina.
They asked Carolina Demography to determine which data sources were needed, perform an analysis on that data, and then create a series of one pagers for each county.
We started by having a discussion with GEAR UP about their clients’ needs.
“We don’t know what we don’t know,” said M. Corrine Smith, the Senior Associate Director of GEAR UP “And that’s where your consultation was really helpful – to take what you know and what we know and have that back and forth brainstorming discussion.”
From the brainstorming discussion, we synthesized data from a wide set of sources. We provided the raw material to GEAR UP, and then packaged it to be accessible and understandable for their stakeholder counties. The process was both transparent and collaborative: GEAR UP and Carolina Demography worked hand-in-hand to create the end product.
“The real value of Carolina Demography is that you don’t operate as a black box,” said Smith. “You have a lot of expertise in the education space and there was a huge value-add by having that expertise at the table.”
Appalachian GEAR UP
How well are county school districts preparing their students for college?
North Carolina plays a major role in our end-of-year holidays: we lead the nation in sweet potato production and are also one of the largest producers of Christmas trees, producing over 20% of the nation’s real trees. This year, in…
The 2020 Census data collection officially ended on October 15th. In a typical year, we would expect to receive apportionment counts for the U.S. House of Representatives by December 31st and the redistricting data would be delivered by March 31,…
Adaeze Ibeanu is a rising sophomore at UNC double majoring in Psychology and Political Science. She recently started interning with Carolina Demography, where she has been monitoring legislative committee meetings that address education in North Carolina. She will continue this…