On disparity of opportunities in Chicago neighborhood schools.
When hettie_lz, annanov and vladiatorr visited my apartment last weekend, they wound up unearthing a 2014-2015 Chicago Public Schools High School Guide. It was one of the many things I picked up when I went to a Taft High School open house last year. The book contains detailed profile of every single high school in the Chicago Public Schools district - regular neighborhood schools, selective enrollment schools, magnet schools, etc.
While I was recovering from chemo, I wound up reading the whole thing more or less cover to cover. There was enough interesting raw data to do a whole series of posts. But for now, I want to focus on one thing in particular - what options Chicago kids have when they attend regular neighborhood high schools.
Kenwood Academy High School
It's no secret to anyone that not all neighborhood schools are created equal. I've talked about the differences between Sullivan High School, which covers working-class Rogers Park and West Ridge community areas, and Taft High School, which covers a mix of working-class, middle-class and upper middle class communities. Sullivan had a grand total of one art class - Taft has an entire art department. If you want to take a foreign language at Sullivan, you can take French or Spanish - at Taft, you can take all that, plus Korean and Arabic. Sullivan has five AP classes - Taft has 14. And so on and so forth.
But after reading page after page after page of profiles, it was still striking to see just how different the schools were.
Lincoln Park High School has a reputation as a pretty good neighborhood high school. It covers middle-class Lincoln Park community area, the well-off Gold Coast neighborhood, parts of Lakeview and most of the former Cabrini-Green.
Looking west, Clemente High School covers a decent chunk of Bucktown, parts of Logan Square, most of Ukrainian Village and parts of .Humboudt Park. Pretty much all of those neighborhoods are in some stages of gentrification.
Lincoln has a 71% graduation rate and 81% of the graduates wind up going to college. At Clemente, 52% of the students graduate and 43% of the graduates wind up going to college. Lincoln has 25 AP classes - Clemente has 9. Lincoln has four foreign languages. Clemente only offers Spanish.
Clemente offers two Career & Technical Education programs - one in Culinary Arts, one for Broadcasting.
At the same time, it's interesting to compare the clubs each school offers. If you eliminate the overlapping clubs, Lincoln has aChess Club, a Comedy Club, a Debate team, a Mock Trial team, a model UN and a Ping Pong club. Clemente has an Anime Club, a Photography and Arts club, a Video Gaming club, a school theater and a gay-straight alliance. And while both offer plenty of sports, only Clemente has archery.
Let's keep looking west. Orr High school contains a decent chunk of Humboldt Park, the poorer West Humboldt Park and a decent chunk of Austin (a community area that includes some of the poorest, most crime-ridden neighborhoods on the West Side). They only have 2 AP classes. The graduation rate is lower than Clemente's (41%), but the rate of graduates who go to college is the similar to Clemente's - 42%. Like Clemente, it only offers Spanish. The book lists a grand total of five clubs - the Academic Decathion, an Archery Club, a band, a Book/Reading Club, a choir and a Gay-Straight Alliance. Unlike Clemente, it has no career education programs.
Now, let's shift to the South Side. Like Lincoln Park High School, Kenwood Academy High School has a pretty good reputation. It covers most of Hyde Park and a decent chunk of Kenwood - the chunk that benefited the most from gentrification driven largely by African-American middle class. Further south... Contrary to what it's name Hyde Park High School mostly covers much poorer Woodlawn neighborhood and parts of South Shore.
Kenwood Academy has a graduation rate of 76.5%, and 83% of graduates wind up attending college. Hyde Park has the graduation rate of 53.3%, and 65.1% of graduates wind up going to college. Kenwood Academy offers 18 AP classes, Hyde Park offers 5. Kenwood Academy has a CTE program in digital media. Hyde Park has no CTE programs whatsoever. Kenwood Academy offers five foreign languages - Mandarin Chinese, French, Italian, Latin and Spanish. Hyde Park only offers that last one.
In terms of clubs... Both schools have debate teams, dance teams and drama clubs. Kenwood Academy has an African-American club, a chess team, an Environmental Club, a Math Club and a Poetry Club. Hyde Park has an Academic Decathion, an Art Club, a Book/Reading Club and a Mock Trial.
Looking to the west, there's the Paul Robeson High School, which serves Englewood and (somewhat) better off Grand Crossing. It's graduation rate is 43.9%, and 47.4% percent of graduates wind up attending college. It offers 7 AP classes and French and Spanish language classes. The clubs include an Academic Decathlon, a choir, a CPR club, peer mentors, a peer jury, something called Dream Leaders, a Workplace Development Club and a Zumba club.
I could keep going on and on and on. But I think that for now, at least, I'm going to talk about one more school.
Nicholas Senn High School serve Uptown and Edgewater - neighborhoods where my brother and I currently live. The school has the graduation rate of 47.9%, and 50.7% of graduates attend college. The school offers 5 AP classes and two foreign languages (English and Spanish). The school offers a Fine and Performing Arts magnet program, a Digital Journalism and Global Environmental Studies programs (which students need to apply to get in). The clubs include an Anime Club, a BuildOn Club (a community service club), a chess team, a debate team, a Gay-Straight Alliance, a Guitar Club, an Indian-Pakistani Cultural Club, a Math Team, a Model UN, a Photography Club and a Spanish Club.
In Chicago, neighborhood high schools are a default. They are the ones that accept any student that lives in their attendance area. The ones you don't have to test into an apply. And, depending on where you live, what you get can vary quite a bit - and your chances of success can vary with it.
we know hat neighborhood high schools can be good. Taft, Kenwood Academy and Lincoln Park are a testament to that. So I don't buy that things have to be the way they are.
I'm just not sure how to make it better.
While I was recovering from chemo, I wound up reading the whole thing more or less cover to cover. There was enough interesting raw data to do a whole series of posts. But for now, I want to focus on one thing in particular - what options Chicago kids have when they attend regular neighborhood high schools.
Kenwood Academy High School
It's no secret to anyone that not all neighborhood schools are created equal. I've talked about the differences between Sullivan High School, which covers working-class Rogers Park and West Ridge community areas, and Taft High School, which covers a mix of working-class, middle-class and upper middle class communities. Sullivan had a grand total of one art class - Taft has an entire art department. If you want to take a foreign language at Sullivan, you can take French or Spanish - at Taft, you can take all that, plus Korean and Arabic. Sullivan has five AP classes - Taft has 14. And so on and so forth.
But after reading page after page after page of profiles, it was still striking to see just how different the schools were.
Lincoln Park High School has a reputation as a pretty good neighborhood high school. It covers middle-class Lincoln Park community area, the well-off Gold Coast neighborhood, parts of Lakeview and most of the former Cabrini-Green.
Looking west, Clemente High School covers a decent chunk of Bucktown, parts of Logan Square, most of Ukrainian Village and parts of .Humboudt Park. Pretty much all of those neighborhoods are in some stages of gentrification.
Lincoln has a 71% graduation rate and 81% of the graduates wind up going to college. At Clemente, 52% of the students graduate and 43% of the graduates wind up going to college. Lincoln has 25 AP classes - Clemente has 9. Lincoln has four foreign languages. Clemente only offers Spanish.
Clemente offers two Career & Technical Education programs - one in Culinary Arts, one for Broadcasting.
At the same time, it's interesting to compare the clubs each school offers. If you eliminate the overlapping clubs, Lincoln has aChess Club, a Comedy Club, a Debate team, a Mock Trial team, a model UN and a Ping Pong club. Clemente has an Anime Club, a Photography and Arts club, a Video Gaming club, a school theater and a gay-straight alliance. And while both offer plenty of sports, only Clemente has archery.
Let's keep looking west. Orr High school contains a decent chunk of Humboldt Park, the poorer West Humboldt Park and a decent chunk of Austin (a community area that includes some of the poorest, most crime-ridden neighborhoods on the West Side). They only have 2 AP classes. The graduation rate is lower than Clemente's (41%), but the rate of graduates who go to college is the similar to Clemente's - 42%. Like Clemente, it only offers Spanish. The book lists a grand total of five clubs - the Academic Decathion, an Archery Club, a band, a Book/Reading Club, a choir and a Gay-Straight Alliance. Unlike Clemente, it has no career education programs.
Now, let's shift to the South Side. Like Lincoln Park High School, Kenwood Academy High School has a pretty good reputation. It covers most of Hyde Park and a decent chunk of Kenwood - the chunk that benefited the most from gentrification driven largely by African-American middle class. Further south... Contrary to what it's name Hyde Park High School mostly covers much poorer Woodlawn neighborhood and parts of South Shore.
Kenwood Academy has a graduation rate of 76.5%, and 83% of graduates wind up attending college. Hyde Park has the graduation rate of 53.3%, and 65.1% of graduates wind up going to college. Kenwood Academy offers 18 AP classes, Hyde Park offers 5. Kenwood Academy has a CTE program in digital media. Hyde Park has no CTE programs whatsoever. Kenwood Academy offers five foreign languages - Mandarin Chinese, French, Italian, Latin and Spanish. Hyde Park only offers that last one.
In terms of clubs... Both schools have debate teams, dance teams and drama clubs. Kenwood Academy has an African-American club, a chess team, an Environmental Club, a Math Club and a Poetry Club. Hyde Park has an Academic Decathion, an Art Club, a Book/Reading Club and a Mock Trial.
Looking to the west, there's the Paul Robeson High School, which serves Englewood and (somewhat) better off Grand Crossing. It's graduation rate is 43.9%, and 47.4% percent of graduates wind up attending college. It offers 7 AP classes and French and Spanish language classes. The clubs include an Academic Decathlon, a choir, a CPR club, peer mentors, a peer jury, something called Dream Leaders, a Workplace Development Club and a Zumba club.
I could keep going on and on and on. But I think that for now, at least, I'm going to talk about one more school.
Nicholas Senn High School serve Uptown and Edgewater - neighborhoods where my brother and I currently live. The school has the graduation rate of 47.9%, and 50.7% of graduates attend college. The school offers 5 AP classes and two foreign languages (English and Spanish). The school offers a Fine and Performing Arts magnet program, a Digital Journalism and Global Environmental Studies programs (which students need to apply to get in). The clubs include an Anime Club, a BuildOn Club (a community service club), a chess team, a debate team, a Gay-Straight Alliance, a Guitar Club, an Indian-Pakistani Cultural Club, a Math Team, a Model UN, a Photography Club and a Spanish Club.
In Chicago, neighborhood high schools are a default. They are the ones that accept any student that lives in their attendance area. The ones you don't have to test into an apply. And, depending on where you live, what you get can vary quite a bit - and your chances of success can vary with it.
we know hat neighborhood high schools can be good. Taft, Kenwood Academy and Lincoln Park are a testament to that. So I don't buy that things have to be the way they are.
I'm just not sure how to make it better.