Chicago charter school achieves 100% college acceptance rate two years in a row
Chicago Urban Prep charter school is celebrating quite an accomplishment for the second year in a row. Each of the school's 104 graduating seniors have been accepted to college, a total of 103 colleges in fact, according to a report by the Chicago Tribune. This is the second year that the all-male, all-African-American charter school can boast of such an accomplishment. Last year, all 107 graduating seniors were accepted into college with 101 going to post-secondary school, three entering the work force and three going to the military.
Urban Prep students are so determined to attend college that one student ran into his family's burning home on Dec. 31 to retrieve his laptop that contained all of his college application materials. Seventeen-year-old Cedric Abdul-Hakeem told the Chicago Tribune that he braved the flames to save his computer because, "My laptop had all my applications, and most college applications are due January 1. I figured if my laptop burns, I'm through."
It could be argued that Abdul-Hakeem's dangerous, and foolhardy, move to save his laptop is also a display of discipline, which appears to be a part of the Urban Prep's makeup. Students at the school have to abide by a code of conduct as well as a strict dress code and adhere to the school's creed that they reportedly recite each morning: "We believe in ourselves. We believe in each other. We believe in Urban Prep. WE BELIEVE."
When one considers the fact that, according to news sources, only 11 percent of the seniors had grade-level reading skills when the students entered Urban Prep, they can better appreciate the 100% college acceptance rate. The school has campuses in Engelwood, one of of Chicago's toughest neighborhoods, East Garfield Park and South Shore.
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and the head of the city's public school district attended the school's tie-exchanging ceremony, which takes place to mark when the last of the seniors receives their first college acceptance letter. Urban Prep's success is becoming a national model of sorts for potential ways to educate low-income students who may have struggled academically in the past. In Chicago Public Schools, the high school dropout rate for African American males is approximately 60%. Of the black males that graduate from Chicago Public Schools only 1 in 40 earn a bachelor's degree by the age of 25, according to the Tribune.
At Urban Prep, the school day is two hours longer than a typical school day. The English classes are double periods and students are assigned a mentor, who is available to them day and night. Teachers are just as available to students of Urban Prep, both at night and on weekends.
