As college admissions results roll in, here’s some good news to consider: For the fourth year in a row, all of the 167 seniors in Chicago’s Urban Prep Academies schools have been accepted into four year colleges or universities.
The Urban Prep Academy network has expanded since GCP reported their success last year (“And Now For Some Good News from Urban Academy Prep”, April 3, 2012), and now boasts three all male charter schools in the Chicago area. These college bound seniors attend two of the three Urban Prep Academy schools; the third school will graduate its first class next year. The Huffington Post covered their celebration of this event in an article which can be found here.
The all-male preparatory charter school network was founded in 2006. At that time, only four percent of its freshman class at its flagship Englewood campus was reading at grade level at the start of the school year. By 2010, all 107 of its graduating seniors were headed for college or university programs. 85 percent of the students at Urban Prep’s campuses come from low-income families and many of the students start at least two grade levels behind where they should be. All of this year’s graduates are African American males, as are the majority of the network’s students.
How are these students succeeding? The old fashioned way, with a lot of hard work. CEO Urban Prep’s founder and CEO Tim King dismisses talk of the “magical” success rates of his students, noting, “the only magic going on at Urban Prep is the magic that these guys put in with their hard work and dedication.”
Check out the pictures in the Huff Po article of these young men beaming at the celebration of their college bound status. They are proud of themselves, as they should be. And we are proud of them as well! Congrats to them all.