<p>to 4 year colleges.</p>
<p>
Chicago’s only public all male, all African-American high school reached an extraordinary accomplishment-- getting all 107 seniors accepted to four-year colleges. The students were accepted to a total of 72 schools across the nation.</p>
<p>Urban Prep Academy for Young Men in Englewood got a surprise visit from Mayor Daley and Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman to congratulate them on their success.</p>
<p>“All of you in the senior class have shown that what matters is perseverance, what matters is focus, what matters is having a dream and following that dream,” Huberman said reported the Chicago Tribune.</p>
<p>The class of 2010 definitely set standards for years to come since they are the first graduating class at Urban Prep Academy.</p>
<p>The charter school enrolls students using a lottery system. Only 4 percent of this year’s senior class read at grade level as freshmen, according to Tim King, Urban Prep’s CEO.</p>
<p>“I never had a doubt that we would achieve this goal," King told the Tribune. "Every single person we hired knew from the day one that this is what we do: We get our kids into college.”</p>
<p>Students have a strict uniform policy to follow; black blazers, khaki pants and red ties. But there’s one thing the students look forward to most, the changing of ties. After a student is accepted into college, he swaps his red tie for a striped red and gold one at an all-school assembly.</p>
<p>Some probably wonder what the school does differently compared to other schools, for starts, the school offers an extended day–170,000 more minutes over four years.</p>
<p>Source: [Chicago</a> Charter School Gets Entire Class Into College | NBC Chicago](<a href=“South Side Charter School Gets Entire Senior Class Into College – NBC Chicago ”>South Side Charter School Gets Entire Senior Class Into College – NBC Chicago )
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<p>Just thought this was a nice little heartwarming story. :)</p>
aibarr
March 10, 2010, 5:37pm
2
<p>That is chillingly awesome. I just want to go and hug all of them.</p>
<p>That’s a great achievement. I think the extended day is telling. Our students spend far less time in school than in most other places. (I’m also a fan of uniforms, at odds with my anarchist/libertarian stripe.
<p>I’m impressed by the fact that they enroll kids by lottery. I wonder, though, if it is a lottery among those who apply, rather than among all students? And I also wonder what the dropout/expulsion rate is. Not to denigrate the achievement, but to examine the reality…</p>
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