• Small learning communities, each nurtured by its own teacher-team, ensure personal attention. 25 students per class. 75 students per teacher-team.

. A Four-Block schedule allows for “double-dosing,” which gives students an opportunity to earn credit in 8 additional courses over the 4 years of high school.

. The Freshman Success Academy addresses the distinct needs of incoming ninth-graders.

. Interest-based Career Academies in grades 10-12 provide relevance and engagement within a college-prep environment.

• Research shows that 75 percent of America's high school dropouts can be identified between 6th and 9th grades by tracking poor attendance, poor behavior, and course failure in English or Math. Diplomas Now! provides a data-driven intervention process that delivers the right intervention to the right student at the right time, to help keep all students on track towards graduation.

. Diplomas Now! partners include: Johns Hopkins University, Communities In Schools, and City Year, an Americorps program and a leader of the national service movement.

. City Year brings diverse teams of young leaders to schools. These City Year corps members engage in full-time service, working as "near peers" who focus on improving students' attendance, behavior, and coursework-supporting overall student success.

. Communities In Schools provides a school-based coordinator who connects students with community resources, such as healthcare, mentors, tutors, and after-school programs to address students' unmet needs, so that students can focus on learning.

. We believe teachers have the greatest impact on student achievement, and we have organized the school to develop, support, and promote great teachers.

. We view teaching as a profession. Entering this profession requires rigorous and extensive training and certification, as well as ongoing professional development.

. Teaching is viewed as an art and a science, and throughout the year learning opportunities are imbedded into the structure of the school workday.

. Union Park high schools foster a cooperative work environment. All professionals are responsible for the success of each child, and for the success of the school as a whole. Teachers are responsible for their students' academic growth and are open to public accountability for their classroom success and teaching practice.

. The professional culture is driven by senior faculty who take on the enculturation of new teachers and constantly review, update, and enforce the accepted high standards of practice.

• Union Park high schools engage in Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) designed to uncover local resources, cultivate partnerships, and connect with local organizations and residents in strategic ways-in order to support the academic outcomes and social development of students.

. Each institution's School Advisory Council includes representatives from local community organizations, associations, and businesses, with parents representing the majority. The School Advisory Council partners with the school in decision making regarding the use of Title 1 funds, recruitment initiatives, school culture, and school safety, and also plans special events for students, parents, and community members.

. Student-led report card conferences engage community members and lead to greater awareness of students' successes, while also highlighting the need to work with students one-on-one in order to help foster positive academic changes.

• Schools establish a safe, orderly environment that is free from the threat of physical harm, and is conducive to teaching, learning, and positive self-development.

. The essential underlying component of each school is the age-old strategy of Nag & Nurture-where all adults in the building take on the persona of each child's grandparent.

. A climate of high expectations for success is prevalent everywhere. All students are assumed to be at-promise rather than at-risk.

. Wrap-around services are provided for students in need, ensuring that students' social, emotional, and physical needs are met, which allows educators to focus on teaching, and allows students to focus on learning.

. Ongoing mechanisms are provided for continual family and community engagement.

• A late-start school day addresses adolescent development needs.

. Faculty have 70 minutes each morning for common planning and development time, and 90 minutes each day allotted solely for instructional preparation.

. With 175 instructional days and 360 minutes of instructional time per day, Union Park high schools are in session the equivalent of 40 additional days per school year, compared to a Chicago Public School. Over a four-year period, this amounts to almost an entire additional year of school.