Analysis finds that OneGoal’s postsecondary success model has significant positive impact on students’ critical high school milestones and college outcomes.

Young people in Chicago have a myriad of aspirations, and for nearly 70 percent of high school freshmen, attending and graduating from college is of high importance, according to the UChicago Consortium of School Research. A college education increases the likelihood of higher lifetime earnings, social mobility, and long-term job security. However, due to inequities in the education system and other systemic barriers, students do not always have the resources or guidance to navigate the complex college application process. OneGoal targets these barriers to support students in achieving their postsecondary goals. 

The Inclusive Economy Lab partnered with OneGoal and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to examine the effectiveness of OneGoal’s program model and to provide empirical evidence about whether the components theorized to improve college success made a difference for students from low-income households.

Supporting Students in Achieving their Postsecondary Goals: A Quasi-Experimental Program Evaluation of OneGoal (2022)

Comparing OneGoal Fellows to similar CPS students who did not participate in OneGoal or similar programming, our quasi-experimental impact evaluation found evidence that OneGoal has a strong, positive, and statistically significant effect on postsecondary enrollment, persistence, graduation, and nearly all academic outcomes of interest.

Access the report here (PDF)

Access the overview one-sheet here (PDF)

Access the press release here (PDF)

The Inclusive Economy Lab is also separately partnering with OneGoal on a forthcoming, multi-year, randomized controlled trial evaluation of OneGoal’s traditional program model that can account for both observable and unobservable differences between OneGoal Fellows and their control group counterparts and provide even stronger causal evidence of OneGoal’s impact on students’ academic outcomes during and after program participation.

OneGoal Report 2022 OneGoal One-Sheet 2022 OneGoal Press Release 2022