Become a Program Director

You know the potential your students have. We need excellent teachers taking the lead in order to truly solve educational inequity.

We’re searching for teachers in the Bay Area, Chicago, Houston, Massachusetts, Metro Atlanta, and New York to become Program Directors in their schools.

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You’ll Unlock Potential

You’ll facilitate a strong, trusting, student-led community beginning in your students’ junior year of high school and bridging the gap through their first year of postsecondary. You’ll help your students uncover skills and capabilities, make academic gains to increase their access to quality college and career options, explore and be affirmed in their identities, and reach their highest postsecondary aspirations.

Together, We Can Do This

The work is hard, but also incredibly rewarding. OneGoal will be your partner through it all, offering:

  • Resources and support to allow your Fellows to be the leaders and drivers of their postsecondary journeys
  • Training, one-on-one coaching, and professional development sessions with other Program Directors
  • A comprehensive, culturally responsive curriculum with daily lessons
  • Specialized technology and access to our partner colleges

We’ll work side by side to ensure your students enroll in a postsecondary program and persist on their path to success.

What We Look For

in Program Directors

We look for teachers who are highly effective and see themselves as change-agents, because they are best equipped to facilitate OneGoal and ensure their cohorts of Fellows are prepared to succeed in pursuing their college and career aspirations. What makes a great Program Director? Someone who excels in all five of these areas:

Fellow Leadership

You prioritize various forms of student voice and choice, which promotes leadership, ownership, and agency in your classroom.

Emotional Development

You foster an ongoing process to cultivate mental and emotional wellbeing in yourself and others, rooted in sociocultural context.

Relationships

You understand who you are and the role you play in relationships with your students and community, and you work to understand their perspectives.

Rigor

You embrace a culture of learning and reflect, incorporate feedback, and adjust your practice to meet goals tied to rigorous academic outcomes.

Community

Your classroom community is rooted in your students’ contexts. You believe we are who we are not in spite of our experiences, but because of our experiences. You embrace the saying “I know I can, so together we will.”

How to Become

a Program Director

OneGoal works directly with school partners to create a process that works with their unique context and school culture. Generally, the process includes:

Nominations + Info Sessions

Teachers are nominated by their school leader, another OneGoal Program Director or colleague at their school, or they can self nominate. We host info sessions for nominees to learn more about OneGoal, our model, and what it’s like to be a Program Director.

Nominate a Program Director →

Interview + Observations

Through interviews and/or classroom observations we learn more about prospective Program Directors’ teaching styles, relationships with students, and classroom management. Equally important, this stage also gives teachers the opportunity to learn more about us, how we can support them, and what they can expect.

Selection

Finally, we partner with school leaders to identify teachers that show the leadership and drive to successfully teach the OneGoal model and solidify the teacher’s availability and commitment to becoming a Program Director.

Join Us

Are you a match? Know someone who would be an excellent Program Director? Take the next step:

Nominate yourself or someone you know to meet with our recruiters.  Nominate a Program Director →

Our Program Directors’ Voices

Impact Beyond the Classroom

“As a PD I’ve seen how I have as much to learn from my students as they do from me. Teachers are mentors, we’re support systems. If you want to see success, you have to go over and beyond the call of duty.”

Zazalleesha Swanson
Program Director, OneGoal – Houston
Assistant Principal, Eastwood Academy High School

Read more from Zazalleesha →

Believing in Every Student

“We believe our kids are capable of thriving in the college environment and exit with degree in hand, regardless of the resource gap. This is still a Grand Canyon-sized difference between OneGoal and other interventions.”

Matthew King
Founding Program Director, OneGoal – Chicago
CEO, The College Principle

Read more from Matthew →

More Than Academics

“All of my Fellows share the one goal of college graduation, but their paths to get there are very different. I hope they remain fiercely passionate, resilient when confronted with challenges, and that they know there is a seat for them at any and every table they are willing to fight to be at.”

Ainsley Robles
Senior Director of Program, OneGoal

Read more from Ainsley →

Be the Change

“I became a OneGoal PD because I wanted to be a part of the change that allows equal access for minorities to higher education institutions. I don’t want the lack of attention and care that I endured as a student to happen to kids in my own school and community.”

Nelson Arroyo
Program Director, OneGoal – New York
9th Grade English teacher
Academy for Software Engineering

Lifelong Relationships

“My communications with my Fellows over the course of their first year after high school only grew our relationship. We will forever be connected and I know I’ll stay in touch with many of them for years and years to come.”

Brandin LeBlanc
Director of Data and Learning, OneGoal

Read more from Brandin →

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Supporting Postsecondary Journeys

Hear from Program Director Elizabeth Hunter and students Hiromi, Gabriel, and Esther from Lighthouse Community Charter Public School as they discuss their experience with OneGoal and their work to close the degree divide in the Bay Area.