Tim King received an education fit for royalty. Now, he is trying to make sure other students have that opportunity.

The professor in the African American Studies department will start a charter school called Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men this fall. The school will be the only all-boys public high school in Chicago and will include grades nine through 12. It will be located in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. Because of the neighborhood’s demographic, King said he expected all students to be black.

Charter schools are independently operated public schools. King said he founded the school because of “the dismal statistics facing young black men in Chicago Public Schools.”

The drop-out rate for black males is 70 percent for Chicago’s school system, King said. The college completion rate for the system is 2.5 percent for black men, meaning only 2.5 percent of the black male students who enter high school as freshmen graduate from a four-year college, King said.

“When we see statistics and data like that, we have to do something to help young men,” King said.

King, a graduate of Georgetown University and Georgetown University Law Center, said he wants students to receive the type of education he received.

“I’ve benefited from some of the best schools around,” he said. “Urban Prep is about academic and social justice. Students, no matter where they are, should get a good education.”

King also ran Hales Franciscan High School, an all-boys private high school in Chicago.

“It definitely informed my vision of what Urban Prep can be,” he said.

The school will help students realize the importance of college, King said.

“We hope to have a group of young men who realize that college is an attainable goal,” he said. “College is an option for them. It is a necessity.”

Students will need to complete four years each of science, math and social science classes.

They will also have to complete eight years’ worth of English courses. Each year, students will take a year-long literature course and a semester-long writing and public speaking courses.

“Research indicates that boys lag behind girls in language arts,” King said. “Since we are an all-boys school, we want to hit that area the hardest.”

Each student will have access to laptops during the school year, King said.

King said he chose to open a charter school rather than reform a public school in order to avoid the restraints of a traditional public school.

“A charter school empowers the founder and the board to implement the program they want,” he said. “We’ve got complete autonomy.”

King said Urban Prep is required by law to have nonselective admission because it is a charter school. One hundred sixty students were selected by a lottery system out of a pool of 250, King said.

“It prevents us – and this is a good thing – from doing any type of ‘creaming,'” he said. “We want to serve the student population.”

But charter schools do not get as much funding as public schools. King said the school will spend about $8,000 per student but will receive $6,000 per student from the state. The school will hold fundraisers to obtain the additional money.

“We’re basically creating a new business,” King said. “We have to get customers, hire employees and deliver profits.”

According to its brochure, the school will offer a comprehensive education involving a college-prep curriculum, community service, extra-curricular activities and work experience.

McCormick sophomore Sylvester Ogletree worked as an intern for Urban Prep. He said he gave testimonials to students about the importance of college.

“I felt it was important that I do it because they can see someone like them in college,” Ogletree said. “In their social network, they do not see many people going to college.”

Reach Ketul Patel and [email protected].