The purpose of EAOP is to increase the number of students who have the opportunity to achieve a post-secondary education. EAOP reaches those students who might otherwise not have gone to college and puts them on track to a post-secondary education.
| Low API schools | 79% of the schools EAOP serves are in the five lowest API deciles. |
| Low-income students | According to census tract data, 71% of EAOP schools are in communities with median family incomes of less than $50,000, compared to about 47% of high schools statewide.
In Sacramento County, for example, the vast majority of EAOP students live in areas where the household income is $52,000 or less. |
| Underrepresented at UC | Most students in EAOP are from groups underrepresented at the University of California, 69%, a rate that is very close to the percentage of underrepresented students in the schools served by the programs. |
| EAOP alumni at UC | At the University of California, three quarters of freshmen attended the state's highest-performing high schools, those with an API of 6-10. Only one quarter of freshmen at UC attended schools with an API of 6-10. By comparison, three quarters of EAOP alumni (freshmen) at the University of California attended schools with an API of 1-5. |