Urban Prep Academy Meets Goal of Getting All Seniors Into College

(MYFOX NATIONAL) - Only four percent of this year's senior class at Chicago’s Urban Prep Academy for Young Men read at grade level as freshmen, says school CEO Tim King.

On Tuesday, all 107 seniors had been accepted at 72 colleges and universities across the United States, reported the Chicago Tribune .

It’s the first graduating class since the school opened in 2006.

College acceptance letters are always a huge accomplishment, but they’re even more significant in Chicago. WBEZ reported that only three of every 100 African-American boys who start high school in Chicago Public Schools will have earned a college diploma by their mid-20s.

Rayvaughn Hines, an 18-year-old from Back of the Yards, had questioned if school was even for him during much of his time at Chicago's only public all-male, all-African-American high school.

Now, he has to count the number of colleges that have accepted him, according to the Tribune . “Do you want me to name them all?” he asked.

In the fall he plans to attend Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga.

The Urban Prep students were surprised Tuesday by Mayor Richard Daley and Chicago Public Schools chief Ron Huberman, who congratulated them during an all-school assembly.

A strict uniform code requires students to wear black blazers, khaki pants and red ties. Students trade their red ties for red and gold ones when they learn they have been accepted to college.

The goal of attending college is heavily enforced at Urban Prep. Before students even begin their freshman year they visit Northwestern University, and every student is assigned a college counselor when they begin attending the high school.