The southernmost city in Illinois, Cairo is located approximately 400 miles south of Chicago. Cairo School District #1’s vision is “in partnership with the entire community, [they] will prepare every student to become lifelong learners who will be productive, informed, and responsible members of society.”

Cairo Junior/Senior High School is the sole high school in the district and services 120 students in grades 7-12. More than 92% of enrollment are students of color, with 85% identifying as Black and 6.7% identifying as two or more races. Nearly all students are considered economically disadvantaged.

Before partnering with OneGoal, Cairo Junior/Senior High School needed support with postsecondary readiness. As part of OneGoal’s partnership with the Illinois State Board of Education, the Cairo school district was able to participate in the OneGoal Leadership Network, which was developed specifically for school and district leaders.

In addition to joining the OneGoal Leadership Network, Cairo High School implemented the traditional three-year OneGoal program. The traditional model starts as a credit-bearing class during students’ junior year of high school. OneGoal then bridges the transition to a student’s chosen postsecondary path by continuing individualized support for a full year after high school.

OneGoal was able to help Principal Narita Graham and Dean of Students Taylor Clark lay the foundation for postsecondary success.

“[OneGoal Leadership Network Coach] Renee Vai and the OneGoal team just truly took us in and have been guiding us ever since when it comes to being able to assist our students,” explains Clark. “Without having a counselor, we’ve had to do everything we could to help them. Personally, I lived in the counselor’s office my senior year [of high school] because I wanted every scholarship and I knew how important those were. I wanted to make sure I gave these students what I needed when I was that age.”

The OneGoal program at Cairo started with one cohort of 25 students (Fellows) in their junior year, also known as Year 1. These students will advance to Year 2 as seniors in the 2024-2025 school year.

“The Fellows are really enjoying it. I think they’re getting a lot of useful information and the material provides them with resources that allows them to ask questions,” says Clark. “At first, they were just familiar with the schools around them, but being able to look at the different modules and having conversations with their teacher, now they’re open to everything.”

When the first cohort graduates from high school and goes off to college, Clark is convinced the moment will serve as a catalyst for Cairo and beyond.

“We’re going to see what I believe this community hasn’t seen in a long time. Because we have a very good group of students that truly want to be successful and do something, and now they’ve been provided with the tools to take those steps.”

Taylor Clark

As a first-year secondary principal, Graham admits that her initial focus was on getting her students across the graduation stage; however, her perspective has since changed from solely getting them across the stage to preparing them for their future.

“We’re constantly striving to find new ways to offer new programs to our students and continuously thinking of ways to better prepare them and recognize that this work is important,” says Graham. “We don’t want to set them up for failure and have them leaving us with no plan … When students feel like they belong, they’re more likely to trust us and allow us to support them in the work that we’re doing when it comes to postsecondary readiness.”

Together, OneGoal has worked with the administration at Cairo to put systems in place, set goals, and introduce students to basic postsecondary concepts. As a result, Cairo has improved its:

• School Personnel: Cairo has hired a student academic advisor and a OneGoal program director to help focus on college and career readiness at the school.
• Data Reports: Staff learned how to audit transcripts to ensure that students were on track to graduate.
• Tools:
  • FAFSA: The school worked with OneGoal to create an advising calendar that included dates for FAFSA workshops.
  • SAT: OneGoal helped Cairo set up and run an in-school testing day for the SAT and PSAT.
• College and Career Workshops: Cairo hosted its first College and Career Workshop for juniors and seniors, which included a panel of students, alumni, and professors from different HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), as well as its first parent presentation and workshop.
• College Visits: OneGoal and Cairo coordinated five college visits for students last year.

At one such college visit, Clark recalls a student who’d been having a rough time took advantage of the opportunity to get to know his fellow students and school leaders better. “That truly was warming to my heart because this is a disadvantaged community and unfortunately a lot of our students suffer from extreme poverty,” she says. “So to be able to give them that opportunity that wouldn’t happen if we didn’t have a resource like OneGoal is truly amazing. It’s something special.”

Clark has also noticed a shift in the students’ mindset, as well as an increase in their academic and college readiness. “We’re able to see the difference from last year when we didn’t have the OneGoal program and how those students left kind of unsure or having dropped out to where these students are now and they know exactly what they’re going to do because they’ve been able to have these conversations every day,” she says.

This summer Cairo is planning for a new advisory period next year for all of the students. Cairo will also be providing the Fast Start program to their students next year through Shawnee College, allowing interested sophomores to apply to be full-time Shawnee students for 11th and 12th grades, which means they will graduate high school with their associate’s degree as well.

“Having OneGoal has made everyone step it up a notch—from parents to the school board members—and I’m so thankful because a lot is going on in the world today and we’ve got to catch up and by having access to these modules, we’re able to do that and we’ll get there.”

Taylor Clark

College and Career Readiness, Enrollment + Persistence, Progressive Pathways, Equity

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