Noble Street Charter High School
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Noble Street College Prep is a public charter high school located at 1010 Noble Street in Chicago, Illinois, serving approximately 470 students. The school is overseen by the Chicago Public Schools.
The school was cofounded by Principal Michael Milkie and Dean of Students Tonya Hernandez Milkie in 1999. As of 2005, its principal is William Olsen. Prospective students are chosen through blind lottery. In order to receive an application, prospective students are required to come to the open house in order to get a feel for the school before deciding to register if accepted.
The official name of the original campus was changed in 2006 from "Noble Street Charter High School" to "Noble Street College Prep" as part of an expansion to offer more opportunities for Chicago public school students to enroll.
Noble Street College Prep is a college prep high school that has a focused curriculum in reading, math, science, and English. It incorporates the use of computers and word processing into all of its academics using the third floor computer lab to conduct technology classes that all students take as freshmen.
All students are required to wear a uniform. The uniform consists of white, maroon, and navy polo shirts that have the school name on the left breast side. Juniors and seniors are permitted to wear gold polos. Students in National Honors Society (NHS) are permitted to wear black polos on Fridays. All polos must be tucked in to the pants. Black belts must be worn with khaki pants. Black dress shoes are required. Noble Street keeps a strict dress code policy in order to enforce professionalism and eliminate distractions within the school. Demerits are issued for any infractions of the dress code.
Mayor Daley has designated money to build more small high-performing schools (including charter schools, contract schools, and performance schools) by 2010 [1]. He made it official when he visited the Noble Street in 2006. This has allowed Noble to expand into the Noble Network of Charter Schools. The network opened two additional campuses--Rauner and Pritzker College Prep--in August 2006, and two more campuses in the fall of 2007 making a total of five schools. The five current campuses are Noble Street College Prep, Rauner College Prep, Pritzker College Prep, Golder College Prep, and Rowe-Clark Math and Science Academy.
The only foreign language taught at Noble Street is Russian. Students take Russian during their Junior and Senior year. Every month the Russian Club organizes an event in which students can attend and learn more about the Russian Culture while also receiving extra credit.
Noble has had lots of visitors from around the country. Representatives of Bill Gates' Gates Foundation are among the many visitors. Visitors are welcomed to classrooms by the "greeter system." When students hear a knock on the door during class, an assigned student greeter gets up from his/her seat and welcomes the visitor to Noble Street while the class that is in session is not disrupted. This has made quite an impression on visitors, many of whom have become current teachers.
Noble Street's Drama consists entirely of Noble Students. Every year, the students with the help of teachers write a play and perform it. The title of 2008's play was "Time After Time" which revolved around the conflict between super heroes and super villains. The show is also run by Theater Tech Club, an after school class for students.
Noble Street also offers 4 year electives which students can take to earn enrichment credits. They have such activities as Concert Band (freshmen), Wind Ensemble, Concert Choir (freshmen), Chamber Choir, JROTC, Art, Study Hall, and much more. As of the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year, Band class is no longer offered as an elective option. Now, if a student wishes to be in a Band class, he/she must commit to the after school Band class that is being offered
