Noble Street College Prep is a remarkable example of what a school can do for kids who’ve never known success. The public high school in Chicago takes mostly poor and immigrant students. A hundred percent of the students graduate, and almost all go to some of the nation’s top colleges.
So begins a report on … National Public Radio! (If NPR can be positive about charter schools, then the day is coming, folks!)
Here’s the written report. Here’s the audio.
Why can’t every student go to an outstanding free school? Chicago Public School teachers Michael Milkie and Tonya Hernandez Milkie asked this question, as they saw their students struggle in large, impersonal schools. They answered the question for 127 Chicago high school students when they opened the doors of Noble’s Original Campus at 1010 North Noble on August 19, 1999 – very intentionally creating a school based on the core values of scholarship, discipline, and honor.
Since then, Noble Street’s dedicated teachers and staff have educated over 1,300 of Chicago’s most deserving and hardest-working students. Each year, more than 75% of our students enter our school below grade level, and each year, more than 85% of our graduating seniors go on to college.
From the Noble College Prep site.