Roberto Clemente Community Academy | |
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Address | |
1147 N. Western Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60622 United States |
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Coordinates | 41°54′09″N 87°41′10″W / 41.9026°N 87.6861°WCoordinates: 41°54′09″N 87°41′10″W / 41.9026°N 87.6861°W |
Information | |
School type | Public Secondary |
Established | 1974 |
School district | Chicago Public Schools |
CEEB code | 141325 |
Principal | Marcey Arlene Sorensen |
Grades | 9–12 |
Gender | Coed |
Enrollment | 755 (2015–16) |
Campus type | Urban |
Color(s) |
Blue Gold |
Athletics conference | Chicago Public League |
Team name | Wildcats |
Accreditation | North Central Association of Colleges and Schools |
Website | rccachicago |
Roberto Clemente Community Academy (commonly known as Clemente, Roberto Clemente High School) is a public 4–year high school located in the West Town community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Clemente is operated by Chicago Public Schools district. The school is named for Puerto Rican baseball player Roberto Enrique Clemente (1934–1972).
Gina M. Pérez, the author of The Near Northwest Side Story: Migration, Displacement, and Puerto Rican Families, wrote that in Chicago the school is known as "the Puerto Rican high school". Jennifer Domino Rudolph, author of Embodying Latino Masculinities: Producing Masculatinidad wrote that the school "is strongly associated with Puerto Rican cultural nationalism". Ana Y. Ramos-Zayas, author of National Performances: The Politics of Class, Race, and Space in Puerto Rican Chicago, wrote that the school was portrayed in the media as "the property of Puerto Rican nationalists" and "as part of Puerto Rico". Rudolph stated that media depictions of violence from Puerto Rican nationalism movements caused the school to become controversial, and that the school was associated with much of the "backlash against manifestations of Puerto Rican identity". According to Pérez, as of 2004 most West Town area residents have a sense of pride in the school, while also lamenting issues common in Chicago public schools that appear at Clemente, such as gangs and school violence, dropouts, and low test scores.
The school was established in 1892 as Northwest Division High School. It was renamed Tuley High School in 1906. In 1974 the school moved to a new facility across the street named Roberto Clemente High School. Overcrowding was the reason why the old Tuley building closed. The students had demanded that the school be renamed after Clemente, as well as asking for the removal of the existing curriculum and principal when they had the school closed in 1973.
Circa 1988 Clemente High established a new curriculum that was centered around students and involved involvement from parents and multiculturalism. Parents and area community activists as they shaped the school's curriculum in a manner of the traditional American education system. In addition the school hired parents as mentors, hall monitors, office workers, and tutors. The school added a legal clinic to assist parents, students, and immigrants.