Lane Tech College Prep High School


Lane Tech College Prep High School, is a public 4-year selective enrollment magnet high school located in the Roscoe Village neighborhood on the north side of Chicago, United States. It is a part of the Chicago Public Schools district. Lane is one of the oldest schools in the city and has an enrollment of over four thousand students, making it the largest high school in Chicago. Lane is a selective-enrollment-based school in which students must take a test and pass a certain benchmark in order to be offered admission. Lane is one of eleven selective enrollment schools in Chicago. It is a diverse school with many of its students coming from different ethnicities and economic backgrounds. In 2019, Lane Tech was rated the #3 public high school in Illinois and #69 in the nation.

School History

Founding

The school is named after Albert G. Lane, a former principal and superintendent. It was founded in 1908 and dedicated on Washington's Birthday in 1909, as the Albert Grannis Lane Manual Training High School. It originally stood at Sedgwick Avenue and Division Street. During the early years of the school's operation, the school was a manual training school for boys, where students could take advantage of a wide array of technical classes. Freshmen were offered carpentry, cabinet making, and wood turning. Sophomores received training in foundry, forge, welding, coremaking and molding. Juniors could take classes in the machine shop. Seniors were able to take electric shop which was the most advanced shop course.
By the 1930s, Lane had a student population of over 7,000 boys. Since the school's building was not originally planned for such a huge student population, a new site for the school was chosen, and the building was designed by Board of Education architect John C. Christensen. On its dedication day, September 17, 1934, the student body—over 9,000 boys—and faculty gathered at Wrigley Field and from there walked en masse several miles west to the new campus. Lane's huge student body necessitated that classes be held in three shifts. That year, the school name was changed to the Albert Grannis Lane Technical High School to reflect the school's expanding curriculum, but was known to all simply as "Lane Tech." In 2004, the school name was changed to Lane Technical College Prep High School to reflect a college preparatory mandate.

Student admission during the Cold War

Lane adopted a closed admission policy in 1958 on the school's 50th anniversary. All remedial classes were eliminated and only top tier students were admitted to the school. This coincided with the beginning of the space race between the United States and the USSR. Lane changed its educational policy to help ensure that the United States would not fall behind the Soviets in science and technology.

Admission of female students

In 1971, changes were made to the admission policy due to a drop in enrollment and lack of technical schools for girls. To solve the issue, Superintendent James Redmond recommended that girls be admitted to Lane Tech. The Chicago Board of Education concurred and girls were admitted as students for the first time. Due to a fear of having a drop in academic achievement, 1,500 male students protested the admission but the decision was not changed.

Campus

Lane Tech is located on a campus at the intersection of Addison Street and Western Avenue.

Lane Stadium

During the spring 2007 season, Chicago city building inspectors declared Lane Stadium unsafe and condemned the eastern half of the stadium. The age of the stadium and the fact it was built on landfill raised concerns that using the stadium to full capacity would cause a structural collapse. Events affected were the 2007 - 2014 graduating class ceremonies, the annual Letterman versus Faculty Softball game, the annual Memorial Day assembly, and the 2007, 2008, and 2009 Pep Rally. Lane Stadium reopened September 7, 2007, with a new turf field. The stadium also features a new IHSA regulation track.
At the west end of the Memorial Garden is the Ramo I. Zenkich Memorial, consisting of a flag pole and granite monument inscribed with the names of the students from Lane Tech who lost their lives in the Vietnam War. The Memorial Garden was rededicated in 1995. During the school's 90th anniversary celebration in 1998, a commemorative plaque was placed near the "Shooting the Stars" statue. It explains the significance of the Memorial Garden to Lane Tech and its students.

Academics

Honor level courses are offered to qualified students. Advanced Placement courses are available in English, history, math, science, art, music, computer science and world languages. Students can also replace their normal physical education classes with a class in Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps. The program sponsors the Proctors Club, Color Guard, Honor Guard, Drill Platoon, Drum & Bugle Corps, and Raiders of Lane. As of 2018, Lane has a 94% graduation rate.
As of 2018, 94% of Lane students take at least one AP class throughout their time at Lane.
Lane offers courses in Aquaponics and is the only Chicago Public School to do so.
Lane Tech has the most graduates who complete PhD's in the nation as of 2018.

Athletics

Lane offers many sports including, but not limited to baseball, basketball, bowling, cheerleading, cross-country, football, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track, volleyball, wrestling, women's rugby, and water polo. Lane garners, on average, 7-10 city-championships per year and has won 16 state championships since 1908. Numerous Lane Tech athletes have competed beyond the high school level and achieved success at the college level and beyond.
In 1934 the NFL-champion Chicago Bears held their practices for the Chicago College All-Star Game at Lane Tech.

Notable alumni