Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School (PACHS) is an alternative high school located in the Humboldt Park neighborhood on the Paseo Boricua in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is named for Puerto Rican nationalist Pedro Albizu Campos, and was founded in 1972 as La Escuelita Puertorriqueña, originally in the basement of a Chicago church.Antrop-Gonzalez, "This School is My Sanctuary: the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Alternative High School" , JSRI, Jun 2003 The school is NALSAS accredited, a founding member of the Alternative Schools Network, and a campus of the Youth Connection Charter School in Chicago. PACHS celebrated its 50th anniversary in October 2022.
School history PACHS was founded by concerned community members in response to a March 1971 studyIsidro, "Puerto Rican Dropouts in Chicago: Numbers and Motivation", Council on Urban Education, 1971 that cited a 71.2% high school dropout rate for Puerto Rican youth. "Our School History" Originally named "La Escuelita Puertorriqueña", the school began in the basement of a Chicago church as a response to alleged Eurocentric curricula and purported negative pedagogical conditions faced by Puerto Ricans in public schools. By 1974, the school had been moved two miles northeast of [Paseo Boricua], where it remained until moving to its current location on Division.
The Lolita Lebrón Family Learning Center is a satellite program of the high school which integrates educational activities for young adults and children, provides daycare services, and offer classes in women's health and wellness at the high school.Family Learning Center In March, 2011, PACHS inaugurated a rooftop greenhouse as an extension of its science labGreenhouse in order to teach students about urban agriculture and help address the high rates of obesity and diabetes in Humboldt Park, which may explain its 2006 designation as an urban "Food Desert".Greening of a Food Desert
See also Puerto Ricans in Chicago
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