Military Academies By: Esmeralda Alarcon
Military academies are a part of the Chicago Public School network although very few. The number of military academies you can locate in Chicago are merely 6. However the location of these schools are typically found in low income, non-gentrified neighborhoods. Phoenix Military Academy and Air Force Academy,of the six schools, are labeled as level one schools and the chances of getting into these is much less.
The goal of these schools are to develop,”responsible cadet leaders of character through high quality instruction and enrichment opportunities that enable the development of the life skills, aspiration, and expectation to be college and career ready.” (Department of JROTC) When accepted into these schools, your main focus is what the school focuses on military wise. For example, at Air Force Academy, one of the six Chicago Military Academies, students focus primarily on Aerospace Science and take occasional field trips to places like airports to study the way airplanes or other flying machines work. Doing so does nothing to nurture any other career aspects except that in the field or Aerospace and Air Force Military service. These schools, although claim that it isn’t in their interest, are providing the background support, training, and experience towards a career in public service.
The process into applying to one of these Military Academies are like that of applying into a selective enrollment high school. However, in order to apply “students must have a combined stanine of 10 in reading and comprehension total math on 7th grade ISAT” (Chicago ROTC) Unlike Selective Enrollment high schools, it does not run on the tier system so every student has an equal chance of getting in and no student is chosen over another prior to the application process reassuring the concept of equity in education. However, students scramble for these spots because there are very few and those who are not accepted are left to once again look elsewhere to get a high quality education. Although equity is proven true in acceptance at these schools, compared to many other programs offered, equity and excellence are being compromised because there is a failure to open up opportunities outside of the military field leaving that to be the only rode a student gets to choose upon.
Works Cited:
The goal of these schools are to develop,”responsible cadet leaders of character through high quality instruction and enrichment opportunities that enable the development of the life skills, aspiration, and expectation to be college and career ready.” (Department of JROTC) When accepted into these schools, your main focus is what the school focuses on military wise. For example, at Air Force Academy, one of the six Chicago Military Academies, students focus primarily on Aerospace Science and take occasional field trips to places like airports to study the way airplanes or other flying machines work. Doing so does nothing to nurture any other career aspects except that in the field or Aerospace and Air Force Military service. These schools, although claim that it isn’t in their interest, are providing the background support, training, and experience towards a career in public service.
The process into applying to one of these Military Academies are like that of applying into a selective enrollment high school. However, in order to apply “students must have a combined stanine of 10 in reading and comprehension total math on 7th grade ISAT” (Chicago ROTC) Unlike Selective Enrollment high schools, it does not run on the tier system so every student has an equal chance of getting in and no student is chosen over another prior to the application process reassuring the concept of equity in education. However, students scramble for these spots because there are very few and those who are not accepted are left to once again look elsewhere to get a high quality education. Although equity is proven true in acceptance at these schools, compared to many other programs offered, equity and excellence are being compromised because there is a failure to open up opportunities outside of the military field leaving that to be the only rode a student gets to choose upon.
Works Cited:
- "Chicago JROTC." Chicago JROTC. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Mar. 2014. <http://www.chicagojrotc.com/>.
- "U.S. Army JROTC." U.S. Army JROTC. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Mar. 2014. <http://www.usarmyjrotc.com/>.