In its first year of eligibility, East Dallas charter school Peak Preparatory was ranked No. 11 among the nation’s top 1,900 high schools in the Washington Post 2011 Challenge Index, which was released Sunday.
“Our goal and our legacy is that we have 100 percent college acceptance among our high school seniors,” says spokeswoman Britni Manry of Irving-based Uplift Education, Peak Prep’s parent company. “Part of our method in getting 100 percent acceptance to college is that we offer a very rigorous curriculum in our schools.”
All seniors enrolled at Peak Prep take AP courses. All of them graduate, and all of them go to college. The K-12 open-enrollment charter school school accepts students through a lottery, and preference is given to kids who live in area codes around the school, including 75204. Enrollment now is about 960, and the waiting list to get in is about the same, Manry says.
Most students at Peak Prep are from low-income families. The Post reports that 97 percent of Peak Prep students receive free or reduced-cost lunches.
All of the students in the Peak Prep class of 2010 stayed in school and finished their freshman year. When students graduate from the school, they stay in touch through alumni counselors.
This year’s senior class is impressive too. Two students were accepted to the Dell Scholars program, which provides $20,000 scholarships and mentoring throughout college. And one student, Noe Nuñez, is a Gates Millennium Scholar. He gets a full ride for his undergraduate and graduate education, and he’s going to Vanderbilt University, which also offered him a full-ride academic scholarship. Like many Peak Prep grads, he will be the first person in his family to attend college.
