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OneGoal is a postsecondary access and success organization working with high schools, districts and states to provide high-quality college and career planning services. OneGoal’s mission is to lead the movement to transform postsecondary advising and support.

We recruit high-performing teachers—those already working in high schools in low-income communities—and provide them with the training and support to become OneGoal Program Directors. These Program Directors implement our three-year college success model with a cohort of students (called OneGoal Fellows), beginning with in-school daily classes in their junior and senior years of high school, and continuing with remote support through the first year following high school graduation.

Our vision is that every student will have an equitable opportunity to achieve their greatest postsecondary aspirations.

A postsecondary education is critical for personal success and for the prosperity of our communities and our country. Despite millions of dollars and resources invested to eliminate educational inequity over the last few decades, we have yet to move the needle in a significant way:

• According to the National Center for Education Statistics, today, only 22% of 10th graders growing up in the bottom economic quartile complete a postsecondary degree by their 26th birthday
• Students in the highest economic quartile have 67% college completion rate by their 26th birthday

OneGoal is working to ensure every student has an equitable opportunity to achieve their greatest postsecondary aspirations:

• 84% of OneGoal high school graduates enroll in a postsecondary institution
• 75% of those persist one year after high school graduation

This is especially significant because we target historically underserved students who are often overlooked by other interventions. Their average GPA is 2.7 (or 80%) and SAT is 840. They are often the first in their family to go to college.

At the core of our classroom-based model is an excellent teacher (Program Director), who works with a cohort of 25-30 Fellows for three years.

In Year One and Year Two, the OneGoal course is taught in a daily, credit-bearing high school class. Program Directors work with OneGoal staff coaches and an extensive data platform to ensure:

• College readiness: Fellows will increase their GPAs and standardized test scores in order to access more selective and supportive colleges.
• College enrollment: Fellows will take all the tactical steps to apply to, enroll in, and gain financial aid to attend a match college.
• College persistence and success: Fellows will develop the non-cognitive skills and academic behaviors and mindsets necessary to persist in college.
  • Forecasting common on-campus challenges and identifying solutions
  • Building networks of support
  • Strengthening their financial literacy especially as it relates to financing college
  • Embodying our five Leadership Principles: Ambition, Integrity, Professionalism, Resilience, and Resourcefulness.

In Year Three, Program Directors provide intensive, remote coaching to ensure that Fellows demonstrate the academic, financial, and social indicators of success in the critical first year of college, while identifying the resources and developing the networks that will support them through to college graduation. OneGoal collaborates with colleges and universities, through formal and informal partnerships, toward success of OneGoal Fellows and their peers.

By the end of the 2022/23 school year, OneGoal will serve more than 15,000 Fellows in six regions and the OneGoal Leadership Network.

Program Directors continue to support their cohort of Fellows via intensive, remote one-on-one coaching.

Indiana

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Michigan

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Wisconsin

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Kentucky

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Program Advisory

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California

• Began operations: 2017
• Current # of Schools: 5
• Current # of Fellows: 560

Illinois

• Began operations: 2007
• Current # of Schools: 32
• Current # of Fellows: 2284

Massachusetts

• Began operations: 2015
• Current # of Schools: 15
• Current # of Fellows: 770

Georgia

• Began operations: 2016
• Current # of Schools: 16
• Current # of Fellows: 1400

A 2014 evaluation of OneGoal by researchers at the University of Chicago found that OneGoal has a statistically significant impact on students’ life and postsecondary outcomes, increasing college enrollment and persistence rates by 10-20 percent.

“The evidence from OneGoal demonstrates that non-cognitive skills are drivers for important life outcomes, and also that they are malleable to late adolescence. This work reinforces that evidence-based interventions are a solution to the growing skill gap in America and a way to effectively promote opportunity.”

Dr. James Heckman