Roberto Clemente Community Academy

Roberto Clemente Community Academy (RCCA) is located in Chicago's Ukranian Village, on the West Side of the city. The Acting Principal is Mr. David Gilligan.


The school takes its name from the famous Puertorican baseball outfielder, Roberto Clemente, who lost his life while bringing relief supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua, on New Year's Eve 1972. Roberto Clemente Community Academy serves a community which used to be predominantly Puertorican.


Today, the school population of about 1,700 students is quite varied, including large groups of students of both Puertorican and Mexican descent, as well as African American and East European students (mostly of Ukranian and Polish extraction).


Before construction of the new building, in 1974, RCCA was called Tuley High School. Murray Floyd Tuley was an influential Chicago judge in the 1850's.


RCCA is a school with lots of opportunities for students. Relevant to the current trends in education is the pervasive use of technology. RCCA's infrastructure is second to no other school in the Chicago Public School system, with about 650 computers, 15 computer labs, 12 servers, an integrated news and video broadcasting system, videoconferencing, and... the list goes on!!! The school leadership has recognized, through an intense investment in resources, the importance of technology in today's education.


In the fall of 2003, Roberto Clemente Community Academy implemented the "Small Schools" system, where students were grouped according to their academic interests during their four years of high school. RCCA was the only school in Chicago chosen in the Best Practices report by the United States Department of Education on high schools which successfully applied Best Practices in their daily implementation of teaching. RCCA's original seven Small Schools were:


Dual Language Bilingual Academy (DLBA), Fine & Performing Arts Academy (FPAA), Journalism, Communication & Law Academy (JCLA), Roberto Clemente Military Academy (RCMA), Math, Science & Technology Academy (MSTA), and World Language & Career Academy (WLCA). The School also hosts the Roberto Clemente Achievement Academy (RCAA), a remedial program for students graduating from junior high.


Today, the seven original Small Schools have been consolidated into three: MSTA, JCLA and RCAA.


The variety of these programs, the proximity of classes in the same core (all classes in a "small school" are housed on the same floor), and the fact that students study together in the same cluster for four years, guarantee that teachers can follow their students' progress over a longer period of time than previously possible. RCCA is staffed with knowledgeable, dynamic and caring personnel, deeply concerned about their students' learning environment. The variety of learning opportunites at Roberto Clemente Community Academy is a proof of this!