Proviso D209

Proviso Township High School D209 in Illinois keeps students the focus in all they do as part of their vision of equity, excellence, and relevance for all. To support adults across the district to become strong champions for postsecondary advising, Proviso partnered with OneGoal.

Proviso Township High School D209 recognized that there were gaps in their strategy for supporting students in identifying and achieving their postsecondary goals. They had disparate approaches to postsecondary advising and no one to champion a cohesive plan for supporting the college and career aspirations of their students. The team also knew that they were short on human and financial resources to reach their goals.

The Proviso school teams were ready to advance postsecondary readiness across their student bodies by establishing goals, capturing and measuring data, and supporting adults across the district with training and support.

With the help of grant funding from the state of Illinois, they partnered with OneGoal as a low-cost solution for building their capacity to work smarter, not harder. Having a dedicated leadership coach from OneGoal helped them focus their efforts so that the burden of designing a new system didn’t fall on one person’s shoulders.

OneGoal has identified seven focus areas related to a district’s postsecondary practices. Each district selects 1-2 areas for improvement during its work with the OneGoal team.

“The collective collaborative nature of the growth process [with OneGoal] is one that will sit with me for the rest of my life both at work and at home. I can't thank OneGoal enough for being a positive force in my life and taking the time to both teach me but also learn from me. The best relationships are reciprocal and OneGoal embodies that to its core.”

Dr. Alexander Brandon

Proviso teams now have a system in place to track student outcomes, including FAFSA completion and postsecondary plans for individual students. District-wide FAFSA completion rates are now 81%—a 10% increase and much higher than the average completion rate of 70% for the state of Illinois.

In 2023, the district-wide graduation rate increased 5.5% to an impressive 88.8% This was also the first time in over seven years that all schools in the district achieved individual graduation rates over 80%.

In addition, students are interested in developing their plans for the future. “There are lots of anecdotal results like knowing that our students are more clear about what they want to do and how to get there,” said Dr. Williams.

Proviso aligned their human and fiscal capital to add a Coordinator of Postsecondary Readiness and School Counselors. This role has allowed the school counselors at all Proviso Township High Schools to engage in monthly, collaborative professional development sessions that are directly related to their work as school counselors, particularly around evidence-based school counseling practices, ASCA alignment, and supporting postsecondary readiness for all students.

Proviso successfully adopted OneGoal’s classroom-based model in three schools in their first year and has since expanded OneGoal into all five schools. This expansion more than doubled the number of students participating in each school. With the successful implementation of their plans and early successes with students, the district is exploring ways these new tools can support all students, starting as early as 9th grade.

“I want all teachers to invest in their courses in a way that incorporates postsecondary mindsets on a regular basis; teachers outside of OneGoal should still include OneGoal elements in their classes!”

Dr. Sharon Williams
Deputy Superintendent of Schools
Proviso Township High School D209

Expert Postsecondary Advising, Enrollment + Persistence, Progressive Pathways, Equity, Systems-Level Change

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