Where it's Working: 21st Century School Gary GEO

A Student Who Changed the Model

In 2011, a GEO student walked into his school leader’s office with his mind already made up. He was done with high school and ready to drop out.

It wasn’t because he was failing; his teachers knew exactly how capable he was. The problem was that a diploma felt distant and abstract, and college was never something he had truly imagined for himself. He was ready to move on with his life, to leave “learning” behind and step into something that felt real.

So GEO made him a deal. 

If he could pass one of Ivy Tech’s three entrance exams, they would help him enroll in actual college courses while he finished high school. GEO would cover the tuition and help remove whatever logistical or financial barriers stood in the way.

He didn’t just pass one test. He passed all three subject exams and went on to become the first student in Northwest Indiana to earn an associate degree before graduating from high school.

That moment did more than change one student’s path. It changed GEO’s.

What the GEO team saw in that student was not a lack of ability or motivation. They saw a young person who was ready for something real. They saw that what students needed was not more talk about the importance of a college education. They needed a chance to experience it for themselves and see that college wasn’t just for “other students"; it was something they could do, too. 

That realization pushed GEO to move beyond a more traditional college-preparatory model and toward something far more powerful: a college-when-you’re-ready approach that meets students where they are and allows them to start building their future before high school even ends.

A Community that Needed Change

That shift mattered deeply in Gary, Indiana, where GEO’s work took root. In the early 2000s, the community was facing steep challenges. Dropout rates were nearing 50 percent, and only about 10 percent of adults held a college degree. For many students, high school did not feel like a bridge to opportunity. It felt like a detour on the way to adulthood, work, and real life.

GEO understood something important. The issue was not that students lacked motivation. It was not that they lacked talent. It was that too many of them could not see a future that felt like it belonged to them. When no trusted adult in your life has graduated from college, or even from high school, the idea of higher education can feel distant, theoretical, and meant for someone else.

CEO and Founder Kevin Teasley has said that more information, more lectures, and more data about the long-term value of a degree were not what GEO students needed. That kind of message was too far off to feel meaningful. Students needed something tangible. They needed ownership. They needed to see for themselves that college was not just possible in theory but within their reach.

Removing Obstacles, Creating Opportunities

So GEO built a model around that belief.

The school recognized that helping students register for a college class was only the beginning. Tuition is expensive, textbooks cost money, transportation can be a challenge, and academic systems can be hard to navigate, especially for students and families entering that world for the first time.

GEO made a commitment that if a student was willing to put in the work, those barriers would not be the reason they missed the opportunity. At GEO, every student has a real pathway to earning college credit or a meaningful career certification before graduating from high school. That opportunity isn’t a tangential benefit of a GEO education; it’s the whole purpose. 

Outcomes Over Optics

This belief and commitment led to some amazing outcomes for both GEO students and the wider Gary community. 

Today, 80% of GEO graduates leave high school with at least one year of college credit or a career certification already in hand. Since 2013, 68 students have earned associate degrees through GEO and 4 have earned their bachelor's degree before graduating high school.

For students who finish their associate's degree with GEO, 75% go on to complete their bachelor's within two years. These are numbers that change the trajectory of a student's life and the health of an entire community.

Those outcomes matter not just because they are impressive but because they represent something bigger. They reflect students who are not just being told they can succeed after high school; they are already doing it.

Teasley is clear that for GEO, test scores matter, but they do not tell the whole story. Standardized test data is one measure, not the full measure of what a student can achieve. The more important question is what happens after graduation. Did the doors that opened during high school actually lead somewhere?

At GEO, the answer is yes.

As Teasley puts it, “It’s one thing to say you’re preparing students for college. It’s another to say you’re supporting students through both college and high school at the same time.”

That difference is what makes GEO's model so powerful.

GEO students are not simply getting college-ready. They are earning real credentials, making real progress, and stepping into real opportunity while still in high school, with tuition covered, support systems in place, and someone beside them every step of the way.

For students who are the first in their families to pursue college, that can change everything. It is hard to chase a future you have never seen up close. At GEO, students do not have to imagine it from a distance.

They can see it in the students who came before them.

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