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Our History
Collins Academy High School, a joint educational collaborative between Chicago Public Schools and the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL), is a small, college-prep high school located in the North Lawndale community on the west side of Chicago. The school, situated in Douglas Park, opened in the fall of 2007 with 140 freshmen. Collins Academy will add one grade every year until it reaches capacity (560 students in grades 9-12). Collins Academy owes its existence to two organizations: Collins High School and AUSL.

As one of two small schools chosen to replace the phasing out Collins High School, Collins Academy occupies a beautiful building that houses a host of wonderful memories and a rich legacy of community activism and school pride. Collins High School, one of only two public high schools in the city located in a park, was started as a result of the persistence and insistence of a concerned and active community. Almost a decade of social activism led to the founding of this high school which, in addition to its tradition of athletic and artistic success, has the distinction of being the first 100% African-American school to get off academic probation. Out of respect for this history and from a desire to continue the Collins High School legacy, Collins Academy has retained the name and the colors (purple and gold) of the school it was chosen to succeed.

Collins Academy is also walking in the footprints of its six other network schools that are also operated and managed by AUSL (www.ausl-chicago.org). AUSL is a non-profit organization started in 2000 with the goal of improving student achievement by attracting, training, and retaining the next generation of outstanding Chicago educators. To achieve this goal, AUSL recruits promising teacher trainees (called 'residents') to its 12-month intensive teacher preparation and master's degree program. Residents spend one year working full-time in a CPS class led by a mentor teacher. After graduation, residents contract to work in a CPS school for at least five years. Five of AUSL's seven schools, including Collins Academy, are teacher training academies. Collins Academy is continuing the legacy of successful AUSL schools (www.ausl-chicago.org).
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