Latin School of Chicago

Background: Latin's upper school after the fifth floor and Loggia additions. afford to send our kids there,' which I saw as an opportunity to talk about our need-based financial aid program," Greenwood said. "My interest was reaching out to Chicago's vast elementary school market, and I found that people were receptive when you talked about opportunities for children. We chipped away at it little by little and saw some amazing kids come to the school." For the 1994-95, year the school saw a 51 percent increase in applications overall, with a 98 percent increase in applications for ninth grade. By 1998, Latin had grown to more than 1,000 students. During the Hogan years, the amount of financial aid the school was awarding increased from $615,000 to $2.4 million annually. Latin made incremental progress attracting students of color to the school. The number of students who self-identified as students of color increased from about 15 percent of the student body to about 18 percent. Today, 30.4 percent of Latin students self-identify as students of color. As the upper school grew, more students chose to remain at Latin after eighth grade as well, Greenwood said. "It brought back a life blood to the upper school," she explained. "It was only natural that kids who had been here since junior kindergarten would be looking for a different experience for high school, whether at boarding schools or other schools in Chicago. The school grew a little larger, we were able to add a few more programs and enrich our extracurricular activities, and we brought in 40-50 new ninth graders each year. That was a real game changer for our students as they thought about high school." With the increased socioeconomic diversity of the student body, Latin also increasingly had to be aware of the needs of different kinds of families – particularly families where both parents work. Both the full-day senior kindergarten and the Extended Day programs that were launched in 1996 helped to address these needs. Throughout the '90s, the academic program continued to evolve, more students than ever were taking Advanced Placement exams, and at one point 18 Advanced Placement courses were offered. The school also increased the number of classes focusing on areas outside the western hemisphere with the introduction of African and Asian Students switched over to whiteboards after the renovations. In the mid to late '90s, the school focused on math, science and technology programming. LATI N SCHOOL OF CHI CA GO 111

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