For the past six years, Get Schooled has quietly worked to change the way urban and rural schools across the nation make gains in key educational outcomes such as attendance, graduation, and FAFSA completion rates. 

We began by meeting students where they naturally hang out – the internet and their mobile phones – and built a digital platform that interjects the mechanics of gamification into the college-going culture to incentivize them to take an active interest in their education. The result is a robust digital platform that awards users who complete specific activities related to their education.

As an avid gamer, I recognized the power of achievements and rewards to motivate desired behavior. From the moment I got my hands on a joystick in the early 80s, I have been addicted to leveling up. There is no better feeling than defeating a boss at the end of a challenging level to unlock achievements that improve your rank or status. For many students attending under-funded and under-resourced schools, the college admissions process is a lot like playing on difficult mode in a video game. There is no end to the challenges and obstacles to overcome, puzzles and riddles to solve, and big bosses to defeat. Completing the quest to college enrollment is a major achievement which unlocks endless future possibilities for students.

Gamification is not a new concept to education. Teachers have been introducing rewards-based programs in the classroom for decades. It has been as simple as a weekly behavior chart tracked by smiley face stickers, or as robust as school-wide recognition for perfect attendance. What sets Get Schooled apart is we have used the power of technology to provide a gamified program that scales on a national level. This gamification system is simultaneously applied to both individual students and entire schools or community-based organizations.

Operating more as a tech startup than the typical education nonprofit, we built a system that helps students track their progress on the path to college, provides consistent support where it is lacking in their own schools, and rewards them in real-time for the gains made along the way. With their account, students can log into Get Schooled, interact with content on student success, applying to college, paying for college, finding their passion, or developing leadership skills; earn points for each activity completed; and cash in those points for items in the Rewards Store. If students are enrolled at schools signed up for academic challenges, they also earn points for their school which can lead to school grants and celebrity visits.

In order for this to work, we had to address some key roadblocks. For starters, much of our targeted demographic attends schools on the wrong side of the digital divide. About one-third of the 11,000 schools signed up with Get Schooled have limited access to modern technology. That meant developing a mobile-friendly experience for the 50 percent of users who primarily access the internet from a mobile device. We also had to get buy-in from teachers and counselors who are already weighed down by state and federal mandates and initiatives. Lastly, we had to contend with the often fickle relationship teens have with technology. What is cool one day can be a pariah the next.

Because we know our students are on their mobile phones almost exclusively outside of school hours, we incorporated a number of text hotlines to provide students with around-the-clock help with topics such as college admissions, financial aid, and job search. We developed a robust curriculum that accentuated what is being taught in the classroom as well as complimented the soft skills educators desire from student. Additionally, we focused on rewards that directly motivate educators to sign up like scholarships and school grants.

The hardest part of the equation is staying relevant with students. While we know the basics of applying to college are the same from year-to-year, the way students engage the process changes. We’ve done innovative things such as Snapchat college tours, Facebook Live celebrity chats on success, SAT/ACT text study questions, yearbooks on digital billboards in Times Square, and more.

In the near future, we will be integrating aspects of virtual and augmented reality, automated chatbots for college guidance, and more. Gamification has allowed us to push the boundaries of achievement for the most vulnerable students. Get Schooled gives them a platform to be seen, validated, and rewarded for showing up to school, successfully graduating, and going off to college, trade school, or whatever profession they desire. Helping students achieve academically is not a game, but it doesn’t hurt to treat it like one.