Hyde Park ACT scores & good news from the Hyde Park Alumni Association

The members of the HPHSAA Board want to take this opportunity to share some good news about your former high school with you.

It was announced in the local papers three weeks ago that Hyde Park High was selected as one of five high schools in the CPS system to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB), program for all entering students starting in 2014.  The long term goal of this move is to provide the IB program for all students from their freshmen through senior years.  The school will draw their population from the Woodlawn community without an entrance exam to qualify for admittance.  The only requirement is the student reside in the Woodlawn community.  The details for implementing this high quality program are being worked out with members of the Woodlawn community, Hyde Park Career Academy and CPS.  Stay tuned for further information on this important matter.

We were also recently informed that the class of 2012 had a graduation rate of 98%.  There were 311 seniors eligible to graduate and 295 completed the proper course work and received their diplomas.  This is a major accomplishment for the students, school administrators and teachers of HPCA given the school accepts all students without regard to test scores.  The alumni extend their congratulations and well wishes for such an outstanding accomplishment.

The current graduating class of 2012 also exceeded the two million dollar record scholarship awards for the class of 2011 by receiving a total of eight million dollars in scholarships.  Members of this class will be attending colleges across the U.S. from Vassar to the Chicago City Junior Colleges.  Included in the eight million are three scholarships awarded by your own HPHSAA.  We will continue to support our alma mater with this effort as we have done for the past seven years.

Finally, there is also good news on the ACT testing front as well.  Hyde Park students increased their test scores for the third straight year.  This year’s ACT results came in at 16.2 which is above the 15.6 of last year.  More importantly the current IB test takers averaged 21 with their lowest score being 18.  These are the kind of results we can expect to achieve as the school morphs into a total IB program.  For your information the national ACT test score average is 21.

As alumni of Hyde Park we should all be proud of the academic advances the current students are achieving and share these positive results with our friends and neighbors.  These academic accomplishments can go a long way in dispelling the urban legend that our children cannot learn at the same level as others and that Hyde Park Career Academy is somehow a bastion of negative outcomes for all that attend.  It’s clear from the above news that this is not the case.

The Alumni Associate intends to stay engaged in order to be a part of the solution instead of a part of the problem.  Contact us at: hphsaainc@sbcglobal.net or mail a request to:  Hyde Park High School Alumni Association, Inc.

                  P.O. Box 6550

                  Chicago, IL 60680 – 6550

To join the Alumni Association and become a part of this positive Hyde Park Career Academy renaissance.