This is the fifth installment in our occasional series on poverty and segregation in Chicago’s schools.
Castro’s happy about the choice she made. Some prejudices she bore against African-Americans have been dispelled by having them as classmates, she says. Her boyfriend, also a Wells junior, is African-American. She likes her teachers. “A lot of them stay after school to help their students. They make sure you understand a topic before they move on.” She’s getting mostly As and Bs.
The large percentages of poor minorities are typical of neighborhood Chicago public schools. The district’s enrollment is 45 percent Hispanic, 40 percent African-American, and 85 percent low-income; about the only schools that aren’t predominantly poor and minority are some of the selective enrollment and magnet schools.
Wells offers specialized programs in law, teaching, and logistics. It’s a “neighborhood” school because it takes all within its boundaries who apply; but neighborhood schools with space can also enroll students, like Castro, who are from outside its boundaries.
She was taking on a daunting challenge. The school has been a low achiever since at least the 1970s; in 1973 its dropout rate, 17.3 percent, was almost double the citywide rate.
She considered leaving as well, but in 2008 Wells got another exemplary principal—Ernesto Matias—and the hallways and classrooms grew more orderly.
