Little Village Lawndale High School Campus & Social Justice High School

Location: Chicago, IL

On May 13th, 2001 fourteen community residents of Little Village neighborhood in Chicago staged a nineteen day hunger strike demanding the construction of a new high school. The high school had been promised, but was put on hold for monetary issues. Almost four years later the Little Village Lawndale High School Campus opened its doors to four hundred students in the fall of 2005. The campus is comprised of four autonomous small schools: Multicultural Arts H.S., World Language H.S., Social Justice H.S., and Infinity: Math, Science, and Technology High School. Each school has its own principal and teaching staff. Each school houses approximately 385 to 400 students from the neighborhoods of North Lawndale and Little Village.

Our learning communities are specific to each theme of the school, but some facilities are shared. For example, students share the library, swimming pool, courtyards, auditorium, dance studio, child care center, gyms, health center, long distance learning labs, and the literacy center. Thus, students get the advantage of a tight-knit school environment without sacrificing the advantages of a larger facility. The architectural structure of the campus has won numerous awards, and has been replicated in other parts of the country. Students from every school participate in the same sports and after school activities. All four schools are public, neighborhood schools, open to every student within the boundary area. All teachers and staff are Chicago Teacher's Union Members.

Highlights:

Social Justice High School Vision:

• The purpose of the school of social justice is to assure that all students become critical thinkers through a curriculum that is rigorous, innovative, and implemented through meaningful school relationships.
• Project based and problem based learning that addresses real world issues through the lenses of race, gender, culture, economic equity, peace, justice, and the environment will be the catalyst for developing our curriculum.
• Service learning will be the center of our curriculum. Our community and the city will be our classroom. All learning will be relevant to the lives of our students.
• We will increase student learning and achievement by building on what our students know and utilize their everyday experiences in order to build the excellence of basic skills and literacy.
• The professional community composed of administrators, teachers, students, parents and other community members will learn together and from one another.

Links:

• About the campus (website) - http://www.lvlhs.org/our_campus.jsp
• Social Justice High School (website) - http://sj.lvlhs.org/index.jsp

Submitted by Scott Nine on: Sunday, February 20, 2011 - 8:13 pm

Tags for this entry:
social justice, high school, community organizing, chicago