Noble Street Charter High School

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Noble Street College Prep is a public high school located at 1010 Noble Street in Chicago, Illinois, serving approximately 470 students. The school is administered by the Chicago Public Schools.

The official name of the original campus was changed from "Noble Street Charter High School" to "Noble Street College Prep". Each new campus that is opened will have an individual name and will end in "College Prep" to reflect the curriculum of the network.

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.

Noble Street Charter High School 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.

Noble Street also places great emphasis on physical fitness. Students attend two gym classes per week (Monday and Wednesday for girls; Tuesday and Thursday for boys). Each student can choose from a wide variety of gym classes. The majority of the gym classes are in the morning but some are offered after school. Students are required to wear the school gym shirt, sweatpants/shorts, and gym shoes. Gym grades are out of five every class. Instead of gaining points, all students automatically start out with the full five. They keep these points if they a) are on time b) are wearing their gym uniform and c) fully participate in class activities. A required fitness test is taken at the end of the year in order to determine if the student can be promoted or not. There are required number of push ups and sit ups for each grade along with a certain time for running a half mile. This promotes physical fitness which in turn supports academic excellence.

The school may have policies that the students do not agree with but there are policies that greatly benefit the students. If students have an excused absence from any class or lose points in gym, they have one week to make up points therefore helping their grade.

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 has opened two additional campuses--Rauner and Pritzker College Prep--in August 2006, and will open two more campuses in the fall of 2007 making a total of five schools.

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 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 who also have become current teachers.

Noble Street also offers 4 year electives which students can take to earn credits. They have such activities as Concert Band (freshmen), Wind Ensemble, Concert Choir (freshmen), Chamber Choir, JROTC, Art, Study Hall, and much more.