OUR SERVICES

External Evaluation

Xcalibur has offered program evaluation services to GEAR UP grants for ten years, but our Data and Evaluation team possesses decades of experience in evaluation. Xcalibur utilizes a participatory evaluation framework in our assessment of GEAR UP grants, ensuring that the local context is accurately represented in the evaluation work.

Data Management

SCRIBE, Xcalibur’s longitudinal data tracking system, supports GEAR UP grants in tracking and reporting on student, family, and educator data. SCRIBE is directly aligned with the U.S. Department of Education’s Annual Performance Report (APR) and Final Performance Report (FPR).

Professional Development

Xcalibur’s GEAR UP Together! Skill-Building Workshops are tailored to the needs of college access professionals. Courses are focused on data-informed decision-making and are offered both in-person and virtually.

XcaliburBooth

ABOUT US

Headquartered in Virginia, Xcalibur began working with GEAR UP grants in 1999. Xcalibur’s suite of services is tailored to the unique needs of GEAR UP grants and includes a data management system called SCRIBE, professional development for GEAR UP professionals, and external evaluation. Representing cohort, priority, and hybrid grants, ten state GEAR UP grants and nineteen partnership GEAR UP grants utilize SCRIBE as their data management system.

From Our Blog Posts.

  • Hey, Y’all! The Xcalibur Conference is Heading to Savannah, GA

    Hey, Y’all! As someone who has called Georgia home for a decade now, it’s a true pleasure to invite GEAR UP teams from across the country to join Xcalibur in Savannah next spring for our biennial conference. In May 2026, we hope you’ll step beneath the canopy of Spanish moss-draped […]

  • Scoop Up New Skills with GEAR UP Together: Skill Building Workshops

    Summer break might be your chance to slow down, but it’s also the perfect time to brush up on skills to make your school year cooler. Xcalibur’s GEAR UP Together: Skill-Building Workshops are on-demand courses made just for GEAR UP professionals and the education teams who support them—and they’ll have […]

  • Excel Like a Boss : Tame the Spreadsheet Beast

    Let’s be honest… Excel can feel like a confusing jungle of grids, buttons, and mysterious formulas. But what if we told you that you could tame the spreadsheet beast…without the stress, the head-scratching, or the 37 open Google tabs with Youtube videos? Say hello to the GEAR UP Together: Skill […]

Meet The Leadership Team.

Jim Brown
Jim Brown

President

Julie Jaramillo
Julie Jaramillo

Director of Data Insights and Evaluation

Curt Reese

CTO/Director of Technology

Testimonials.

What Our Clients Say.

Mary Callan

State Director, GEAR UP Maine

Because of their support, GEAR UP Maine has accelerated our work and has become clearly focused on which activities support our grant outcomes and the data we need to collect to show evidence of success.

Tabitha Cinowski

Program Coordinator, Indiana GEAR UP

I have never worked on a project of this magnitude and was super nervous about how to get this all in place with good policies and procedures that make sense and are easy to use. Xcalibur has done a fantastic job in helping us through this process and making us feel comfortable.

Becky Young

Data Manager, GEAR UP Maine

There is no comparison between what we have with SCRIBE and what we had with our former system. We are light-years ahead with SCRIBE!