Ramp-Up Tools

The Ramp-Up to Readiness process has seven distinct components that fit together into a coherent whole. Students use the web-based Naviance Succeed platform to create, store and communicate their Postsecondary Plans, participate in the lessons of the Ramp-up Curriculum, record completion of the Ramp-Up Milestones, review data in the Readiness Rubric, complete a Personal Readiness Evaluation for Postsecondary and engage with their Support Network throughout the Ramp-Up to Readiness program. Educators use this website to learn how to administer the program, to download and upload lessons from the Ramp-Up Curriculum, and to share effective practices with staff in other Ramp-Up to Readiness schools across Minnesota.

To realize the power of the program schools must engage all students in all seven components. All components are designed to be used on a recurring basis - some schools will elect to have students use the Readiness Rubric and update their Postsecondary Plans once a year, while other schools may chose to do so more often. The collection of research-based tools are designed so that schools can adapt and adjust to meet the needs of their students.

Over time, schools that participate in the Ramp-Up to Readiness Network will share best practices and strategies for using each of the components of Ramp-Up to Readiness to help students to get and stay on the path to postsecondary success.

The Components of Ramp-Up to Readiness

Postsecondary Plan: Students develop personal postsecondary plans that chart a course through junior and senior high toward enrollment in and success at a technical, community, or four-year college.
Standards: A sequence of steps that help students progress toward meeting each of the five Ramp-Up Goals before the end of high school.
Curriculum: Schools engage students with the lessons in this curriculum, each of which is aligned with one or more of the Ramp-Up Standards.
Readiness Rubric: A grade-specific Readiness Rubric helps students and their families, teachers and advisers regularly compare data on tests, grade point averages and other indicators to assess and take steps to improve a student's progress toward being college-ready by the end of high school.
Personal Readiness Evaluation for Postsecondary: At regular intervals during their junior and senior high school careers, students take, analyze and discuss the Personal Readiness Evaluation for Postsecondary (PREP), a short survey instrument that measures their level of engagement in and attitude toward academic success and preparing for postsecondary education.
Support Network: Schools help and ensure that students develop a support network of caring peers and adults who provide support and advice as they work to achieve all five Ramp-Up Goals.
On-Ramp Interventions: Students identified to be at risk of not achieving one or more of the five Ramp-Up Goals select or are assigned specific On-Ramp Interventions—Targeted programs and activities that accelerate progress toward meeting related Ramp-Up Goals before the end of high school.