HIGH JUMP

High Jump seeks to provide the foundation of academic and life skills that each student needs to be successful in high school, college, and beyond. Our program goals and objectives are:
- To help students gain access to, and prepare for success in, rigorous boarding, parochial, public and independent college preparatory high schools
- To provide an educational setting in which it is safe to be smart and rewarding to work hard
- To introduce students to a diverse cultural environment
- To empower High Jump students and families to successfully exercise high school choice
- To introduce High Jump families to financial aid options and scholarship opportunities

Rigorous academics, leadership development, powerful networks, and high school choice are the four pillars of High Jump’s program:

- Rigorous Academics: The academic instruction that students receive at High Jump enhances their critical thinking and problem solving skills. Students benefit from small classes of no more than 15 students and take advanced coursework in math, science, humanities, writing, visual and performing arts, social studies, and physical education.

- Leadership Development: High Jump’s instructional approach fosters independence, analytical thinking, self-advocacy, and self-expression through our leadership development course, Learners & Leaders, daily interaction with near-peer role models, and discussions with professionals from a wide range of fields at the program’s annual career day.

- Powerful Peer Networks: The High Jump culture provides students with a powerful peer network that is designed to inspire in its students both a love for learning and the discipline to excel academically. High Jump also hires near-peer teaching assistants who are High Jump alumni and can model what high school and college success looks like.

- High School Selection: During the eighth grade year, students focus on their high school selection process. High Jump provides extensive high school admissions and financial aid counseling for students and their families, in addition to exam prep classes. During our annual High School Fair, students and their parents have an opportunity to meet with representatives from over 35 boarding, parochial, independent, and public college preparatory schools from across the city and country.

With the capacity to serve 280 students annually, High Jump operates three campuses at the Latin School of Chicago, Francis W. Parker School, and the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. Students are admitted and begin the summer before their seventh grade years. The program consists of six weeks (8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. days) of daily intensive programming in the summer and two to three Saturdays each month during the school year. This amounts to more than 350 instructional hours annually — or 33% more class time — beyond their regular schooling.

Since High Jump’s inception in 1989, High Jump has graduated 28 cohorts of students, amounting to more than 1500 alumni. 100% of High Jump alumni have gone on to attend rigorous private and public college preparatory high schools — and now more than 98% of High Jump's high school class of 2017 (Cohort 23) attend four-year colleges and universities.