The following elements are consistent on every Noble Street Charter School high school campus:

Noble Discipline Code
Freshman orientation and minimal transfers assure that students are invested in the Noble Street culture. A well established and consistently enforced merit and demerit system ensures an environment conducive to learning. Rules and consequences are clearly communicated. Students are given demerits when they violate rules defined in the school/student/parent contract. Additionally, the strict uniform policy requires dress shoes and belts, as well as a tucked-in school polo shirt. In order to be promoted to the next grade, a student must limit the number of detentions received. 

Collins Writing Program:
The Collins Writing Program provides teachers with a universal format for assigning writing to students and a structure to guide evaluation of students’ work.  The Collins Writing Program provides guidance for teachers to include writing in every subject area. As a result, students practice writing skills consistently in all classes every semester.

7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens 
Using Sean Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, students are given a powerful overview of the 7 Habits. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens are essentially seven characteristics that happy and successful teens have in common.  The training provides students with a step-by-step framework for boosting self-image, building friendships, resisting peer pressure, achieving goals, improving communication and relationships with parents, and much more. The habits build upon each other and foster behavioral change and improvement from the inside out. The 7 Habits are listed below.

Habit 1: Be Proactive

Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

Habit 3: Put First Things First

Habit 4: Think Win-Win

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
Habit 6: Synergize
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

Marine Corps ROTC
The Noble Network's Marine Corps Junior ROTC (MCJROTC) program is one of only three such programs in the City of Chicago and 225 nationwide. The program advances the Noble Network's mission by helping students develop skills to become valuable, contributing members of the community.  Noble Street Charter School focuses on preparing students to enter college after graduation, and the MCJROTC program helps students develop positive character traits and values necessary for success in college using the tenets of Marine Corps leadership: Honor, Courage and Commitment. The program provides a motivating course of instruction, which enables students to develop improved attitudes of personal integrity, self-reliance, good citizenship, patriotism, leadership knowledge and skills, and discipline.   Emphasis is placed on five categories of training: leadership, citizenship, personal growth/responsibility, career exploration and public service, and general military subjects.

In addition to classroom work, MCJROTC cadets participate in Color Guard, drill competitions, parades and community service to highlight their work to their peers and the community at large. MCJROTC programs exist at all Noble Street campuses. Students choose to join the MCJROTC in the beginning of the school year and normally enter the program as freshmen.  About 30% of students participate in MCJROTC. A central coordinator for the MCJROTC program oversees the program at all Noble campuses and one MCJROTC instructor is responsible for program implementation at each campus. MCJROTC instructors are retired Marines who are certified as instructors by the Marine Corps.

 

Instead of using a traditional college counseling system, seniors take a class that provides students and their families with personalized, consistent guidance through the college application and admission process.  The daily class for seniors is taught by a teacher who is dedicated to helping students research colleges and complete applications for admission, financial aid, and scholarships.

Single-Sex Advisory Class

Each student is assigned to a single-sex advisory group when they are a freshman. Students meet daily with this group and remain in the same group for all four years of high school. A caring adult advisor leads the group and holds each advisee accountable for their own success. The advisor guides advisees through high school by taking daily attendance, monitoring students’ preparedness for school each day, presenting school announcements, monitoring the academic progress of students, and conferencing with advisees’ parents.   

 

Every student learns to be a classroom greeter. Students greet visitors by introducing themselves and detailing class objectives. Greeters are responsible for welcoming visitors to the classroom and answering any questions about their school and their class.  By acting as greeters, students develop speaking skills, confidence, and the ability to articulate their own learning.

 

Interim assessments are powerful tools for the improvement of teaching and learning.  Based on the input of all teachers, a team of teachers maps out the skills that will be taught each quarter. The teacher team also creates a set of tests that will measure these skills, aligned to the ACT College Readiness Standards. All students complete interim assessments four times each year to measure their comprehension. Interim testsare given toward the end of each quarter. These tests are one way for teachers to see how much students have learned since the beginning of the quarter. The results of these tests help teachers to make decisions about what skills they will reinforce and how they will teach the next quarter’s skills, thereby constantly improving teaching and learning.