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University City High School Promise Academy

University City High school Promise Academy is a public secondary school located at 3601 Filbert Street in West Philadelphia PA 19104. The school serves 9th to 12th grade. UCHS was built in the late 1960s and early 1970s. School opened for students on December 6, 1971. In 2010-2011, UCHS became a promise academy, offering extra enrichment as well as replenishing the staff to accommodate a better education for all students. The main purpose for building UCHS was that the Redevelopment Authority is the saving of every possible residential structure.

History: In 1806, the bottom was called Green-ville. Green-ville was inhabited by both African Americans and European decendents. The name was given because of residents' practice of raising sheep and cattle in open spaces north of Lancaster Ave. Then, in the 1910s and 20s, more African Americans began to migrate to Philadelphia, especially in the west Philadelphia area called "The Bottom". The term "Black Bottom" was used to describe parts of the area of west Philadelphia in which blacks lived. In the 1940's through the 60's, the area between 46th to 32nd street was referred to as the "bottom", or lower class, whereas the area inhabited by the upper and middle class was called the "top" stretched from 46th to 63rd street. Former black bottom residents decribe the neighborhood as a place where everyone looked out for one another. Black Bottom became an all black neighborhood, however this tight community began to fall apart when the federal and local governemnt planned an urban renewal project and a need for expansion of the universities in the area.

The Redevelopment Authority is responsible for saving every possible residential structure in west Philadelphia. About 2,653 persons were affected by this new development. The citizens (primarily African Americans) did not own the houses or property they lived in. It was rented out by Europeans who lived in suburban area of Philadelphia. So the money that was offered by the government to get the property was only given to the property owners, causing many to become homeless. On April 30th 1966, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development announced it had approved a grant of almost $13 billion to the Redevelopment Authority RDA for the Redevelopment of Urban Societies. The RDA is a law to save residential structures. The University City Science Center submitted development and marketing proposals to the RDA in July 1965, and City Council held public hearing on the 14th of October 1965 to discuss theses plans. Due to this new development, 250 citizens living in the west Philadelphia area formed a Citizens Committee of University City, Area3. They protested against the government taking homes from west Philadelphia to build science centers and other construction that benefitted the universities in the area (University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University) but as the issue became more and more public, students and faculty members of the universities in the area got involved in protests with the community against the government. The key, they said, was collaboration.

The people in the center wanted to create a high school that reflected new approaches to education. ES'70 Cycle I (Educational System of 1970) was created to help change overcrowding, low test scores, and generally improve High Schools in the whole city of Philadelphia. Through this system, three new high schools were build, reflecting a traditional comprehensive school challenging the new advices of technology in the 70's. The District and Community and Universities in west Philadelphia argued to make UCHS a math and science magnet school. The most gifted (mostly white students at the time) student were eligible to attend. UCHS was created to represent a new approach to learning in Urban education. New in the sense that it would utilize the latest education, technology and community resources to provide a meaningful individual program for each student regardless of what race or economic background. It was developed to create a college based environment before entering college. UCHS first day of school was Dec, 10, 1972. It was opened like a normal high school(not the original mission) because the circumlum and teachers were not ready and organize for the date as well as construction of the school were continuously delayed, pushing the opening date to december. The initial mission or ciriclum of the school was implented in part of the school as the Individualized Study Program (ISP). But it only last 3 years.The building was made for the capacity of 3,000 students but on the first day of school only a few hundred students attended. Since other high schools in west philadelphia were overcrowded, by feburay the school numbers rised as new students integrated to University City High School. University City High School mission was lost due to gang related crimes that occurred in school. There was no set structure of discipline from the begining of the school causing the students freely act out of control.

During the 1980's, University City High School was recognize for its racial clashes or tension amoungst the black and asian students. There were incidents of stabbings and massive brawls in and out side of the school grounds. Along with violence, drug abuse took a raise in school. According to "Standing up for their school and neighborhood" article written by Martha Woodall February 3, 1986 ,"UCHS are going to lose more people in one year from drug overdoses than all the lynchings in history," Wrice said firmly. "I could combat racism better than I can combat drugs." This was said by a teacher at University City High School that was a member of "Students against Drugs and Alcohol" who wanted change in his work place. Teachers and students feared for their life every second of the day. In 1994,school security increase to help reduce violence at school. School officials also created a single lunch period at the end of the day,bringing Chicago police officers to speak to the students about violence, and started a peer mediation/ conflict resolution program.

Extracurricular activities/ Fun facts: o	University City High School offered track and field, soccer, football, dance, basketball, volleyball, swimming and many more. o	’96 a modeling afterschool program partnered with UCHS o	’97 Loc Dai Nguyen was the first student to get accepted into an Ivy League Institution. He attended the University of Pennsylvania o	‘97 work roster was created for students to work at jobs or internships in the morning. o	Graphics Multimedia took a big toll in U-cities community in 1998. Students made CDs, made school news broadcast, and worked heavily on computers. o	Due to high pregnancy rates in 1997, a daycare center to help the teenage mothers and fathers at U-city. o	’97-8 There was a program called twilight. Twilight was created for students 17 years and older who were not on track to graduate in time or have been in High School for too long. It was a 15 week program from 3pm-5pm, offering 5courses to help specific students graduate. o	’98 there were block schedules. It consist of 90 minute classes and two semesters per a year

Present Day:

During the 21st century, University City High school struggled keeping up with the required test scores of the Philadelphia school district system. In 2009-2010 University High School became a Promise Academy school. Promise Academies mission is to capitalize on the skills that students bring with them to school and it is our goal to create academic environments where students not only have ample opportunities to achieve at grade level but to become life long learners. music, arts, and language are Enhanced with a wide variety of options. An additional hour was implemented to support academic and social enrichments. While other High School gets out at 3pm, UCHS promise academy students lives school at 4pm. The extra hour was place in our schedule for all students to participate in a sport or club as well as receive extra help or tutoring from staff to ensure we are well grounded students. Also with Promise Academy schools, new staff and teachers, are redistributed each year. There are a handful of community groups and organizations that assist our school through our change. To name a few University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, Philadelphia Education Fund, Enterprise Center, Princeton Leadership Group, College Board, and many more assist our school into a big change.

The Student Success Center also known as the SSC, plays a huge role on providing and coordinating services to each student. There main focus is student academic and social advancement. Located in the basement of UCHS, the SSC Staff, provide resources to help students achieve their post- secondary goals. Students, from all grades, get help with career planning, college planning and apps, internships, jobs, academic support, college decisions and visits, etc. Through out the academic school year, there is University of Pennsylvania and Drexel university students that intern with the SSC. The college students, all years, each assignment to specific classrooms that teachers request for assistants. University city students build a relationship, respect, and confidence about attending a 2 or 4 year school after graduation. They enhance their academic and social abilities through a one-on-one help on the specific work and one-on-one advice of the college experience.

Extracurricular activities/ Fun facts:

o Sports/Athletics- Boys: Football, flag football, basketball, Soccer, volleyball, batmitten, cross country, track and field, baseball Girls: Cheerleading, soccer, volleyball, batmit, cross-country, track and field, softball o	Arabic Club o	Spanish club o	Dance Club: Modern and African o	Yearbook Committee o	Double-Dutch Club o	Newspaper Club o	Leaders Of Change: Social and Educational Entrepreneurship o	Poetry Slam Club o	Peer Group Connections is a leadership and mentoring program. A group of seniors and juniors work with partners to teach and mentor 9th grade advisories once a week. The goal is to provide guidance through their first year of high school. Expressing the importance of education and what it means to be successful.

Bibliography

Boyer, B. ( Man stabbed on steps of University City) 2006 Schiera, A.J. (College paper) 2010 Schiera, A.J. ( UCHS: A Documentary History) 2010 Schiera, A.J. ( Rooster and Schdules) 1960's-1980's School District of Philadelphia ( http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/schools/u/universitycity) School District of Philadelphia (http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/schools/u/university-city- promise) Stoiber, J. ( The UCHS students carried out and videotaped beatings) 2006 UCHS ( Yearbook) 1995 UCHS ( Yearbook) 1996 UCHS ( Yearbook) 1997 UCHS (Yearbook) 1998