Harper is part of the Chicago Public Schools district and is named for scholar and educational administrator William Rainey Harper and opened in 1911. The majority of the school's students are African-American. In 2008, Harper was the first public school in Chicago to be a part of the Turnaround project started by former Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan. Harper High School is a non-selective enrollment high school with attendance boundaries. Students within the attendance boundary may immediately be enrolled without a form of admission. Those outside of the boundary will have to receive permission from the school to enroll. If there are more applications than spots available, the school will perform a computerized lottery.
Programs and performance
The school was also adopted by the BET Network in 2011. Harper performs a B.A.G. program yearly. They are involved in AVID and CTE programs. B.A.M. has appointed themselves to Harper High School, as well as Embarc, W.O.W, and City Year. Harper continues to improve in areas such as five-year graduation rate, college enrollment rate, test scores, attendance, college graduation rate, and college retention rate. In the 2012-2013 academic school year, 75.7% of Harper freshmen were on track to graduate, and the five-year graduation rate was 68%. In 2010, the college retention rate was 25%. In 2012, it has been increased to 42%. That gives the school a 17% increase within the standard two years. Overall, the school has accumulated a graduation rate of 76%.
B.A.G.
Harper High School had a program called B.A.G. The letters stands for "Behavior, Attendance, and Grades". The program which was created during the 2016–2017 school year helps the administration know which students are on track to graduate and go to college.
National attention and phasing out
Harper High School gained national attention when the school was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show. The show discussed Harper High School's lack of computers and other essential learning tools for its students. The Rev. Jesse Jackson has been a big advocate for the school and its lack of funding. Harper High School was the focus of a 2012 WBEZ report concerning the 27 past and present students who were casualties of gun violence in the preceding 13 months. The school was subsequently the subject of a two-episode, five-month immersive investigation by This American Life that aired on February 15 and 22, 2013, focusing on gun violence and the lives of students; the series earned a Peabody Award. In April 2013, two Harper senior students; Devonte Tanner and Brittney Knight, won Bill Gates Millennium Scholarships. They were the first students in Chicago school history to do so. T.I., Common, and Michelle Obama had also made a short appearance at the school. In February 2018, the Chicago Board of Education decided to phase out and ultimately close Harper along with three other neighborhood high schools due numerous reasons including low–enrollment, lack of courses offerings for students and operational costs of the buildings.
