The Challenge

Approximately 74 percent of Chicago Public School students will graduate high school in four years. Only two-thirds of those students will enroll in a post-secondary program. While these numbers have improved over the last ten years, they are far from acceptable. Furthermore they mask the stark racial and gender gaps behind these figures. African American young men fare far worse than their white and Latino peers. Underlying these numbers are human beings who will not be able to participate fully in our society due to a lack of educational and career opportunity.

Consider the following:

  • The median income of an adult in Chicago without a high school degree is less than $22,000. A high school degree will increase that to just over $26,000, but a college degree will more than double that to nearly $56,000.

  • The earnings gap between adults with and without a college degree will only widen over time.

  • Forty percent of African Americans between the ages of 20 and 24 are not in school and not working.

We can’t not do something.

Our Approach

We believe that for our society to begin to tackle these problems, action needs to be taken in three realms:

  1. We must improve and reform urban education systems in order to provide better educational outcomes for children in grades kindergarten through 12th grade.

  2. We must prepare students not just to enter college but also to persist, succeed and graduate.

  3. For young adults who are not college bound, we must assure that they have skills sets and career prospects that will enable them to lead successful and fulfilling lives.

Square One Foundation supports organizations working in each of these realms. The organizations we support span a wide spectrum of activities and approaches, including having a direct impact on individuals’ lives; creating, implementing, proving and disseminating systems and tools that improve urban school systems and promoting systems and structural change.

While active across a wide spectrum, the organizations with which we engage share certain commonalities:

  • An innovative approach to problems that seem intractable;

  • Use of data and analysis to inform and measure their work;

  • The potential to be successful on a large scale;

  • Square One Foundation involvement can make a meaningful difference.

 

Grantees