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Hyde Park Academy High School


Hyde Park Academy High School is a public four–year high school located in the Woodlawn area on the south side of Chicago, Illinois. Hyde Park, opened in 1863, is run by the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and situated south of the University of Chicago. Hyde Park became Chicago's fourth public high school to receive the IB diploma in 2012. The Chicago Board of Education founded Hyde Park High School in 1863. The school moved about until 1886, when the board of education built a three-story school structure at Kimbark Avenue and 56th Street in Hyde Park. In 1910, Hyde Park moved to a new location to accommodate the school's rising population. Officials chose a site bounded on all sides by Stony Island Avenue, Harper Avenue, 62nd Street, and 63rd Street. In July 1914, Hyde Park moved to 6220 South Stony Island Avenue. The school was extensively renovated in the twentieth century. Hyde Park's student body has always been largely white. Whites were the majority in the area. The school's demographics changed in the mid–1940s as the government pushed for school and neighborhood integration. Beginning in 1947, the school's white population began to dwindle due to whites' opposition to accepting low–income African–Americans. In January 1966, the Chicago Board of Education authorized a plan to upgrade Hyde Park (due to its expanding African–American population) and establish a new high school that would serve both the current white student body and attract other white students nearby. The plan, which would have violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act, was never implemented. By 1967, the school had a 97 percent African–American population. The teaching personnel stayed unchanged despite changes in student demographics. By 1970–1971, all 1,268 pupils enrolled at Kenwood High School (now Kenwood Academy) were Black. In April 1973, the school became a magnet and was renamed Hyde Park Career Academy, a "career academy". Former principal Weldon Beverly Jr., who led the school from 1975 to 2003, pushed for the name and curriculum changes. In the 2000–2001 academic year, Hyde Park began offering IB classes. The Renaissance 2010 program was launched in 2004 by Arne Duncan and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. During a two–year period, Hyde Park had to admit over 300 more pupils than any other high school in the city. In 2012, Hyde Park Academy High School joined the International Baccalaureate.







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