But it's quite a different story for young black men at a public charter high school in Chicago. For five years running, 100 percent of the graduating seniors at Urban Prep Academies have won admission to four-year colleges, and they've collectively earned millions of dollars in scholarships and grants.
Urban Prep's first campus opened in 2006, in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood, an area plagued by gang crime, shootings and vacant homes. Two more campuses have since opened elsewhere in Chicago. Founder Tim King says he wanted to locate schools in challenged neighborhoods.
"Often times with our students, the images they see are black males hanging out on
the streets, being absentee fathers, being unemployed," King says. "So we do think that part of our job has to be to provide positive images."
