About Us
The Fire Project
The Fire Project was envisioned by founding English teacher, Angela Sangha-Gadsen. Since the inception of the Fire Project, a variety of other Social Justice teachers have played a pivotal role in revising and retooling the Fire Project curriculum through reflection and collaboration. The Fire Project is an open-sourced curriculum and the founders of the Fire Project welcome its free use.
The Fire Project was envisioned by founding English teacher, Angela Sangha-Gadsen. Since the inception of the Fire Project, a variety of other Social Justice teachers have played a pivotal role in revising and retooling the Fire Project curriculum through reflection and collaboration. The Fire Project is an open-sourced curriculum and the founders of the Fire Project welcome its free use.
Social Justice High School
Social Justice is a Level 1 Chicago Public Schools high school that serves both the Little Village and North Lawndale communities.
Our Mission
Social Justice High School (SOJO) is a reality because of the principles of social justice. Our belief in self-determination inspired a community to act on its convictions to affirm its right to a quality education. Through a system of support, guidance, and accountability our students will graduate high school, be prepared for college and implement a post secondary plan. Our students will cherish and preserve their ethnic and cultural identity, will serve and determine the future of our community, and will have a passion for peace, justice and the dignity of all people.
Our Vision
The purpose of SOJO is to assure that all students become critical thinkers through a curriculum that is rigorous, innovative, and implemented through meaningful school relationships.
Project based and problem based learning that addresses real world issues through the lenses of race, gender, culture, economic equity, peace, justice, and the environment will be the catalyst for developing our curriculum.
Service learning will be the center of our curriculum. Our community and the city will be our classroom. All learning will be relevant to the lives of our students.
We will increase student learning and achievement by building on what our students know and utilize their everyday experiences in order to build the excellence of basic skills and literacy.
The professional community composed of administrators, teachers, students, parents and other community members will learn together and from one another.
Core Beliefs
Truth and Transparency
We will practice honesty and authenticity in our communication and relationships with students, our community, peers, and ourselves.
Struggle and Sacrifice
Our struggle is against systems of power that have been historically used to deny, regulate, and prohibit access to the most basic human rights that should be granted freely to members of society regardless of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, or religious belief. We accept the reality that such struggle will require sacrifice from all involved.
Ownership and Agency
We will take responsibility as agents and catalysts of change to expose the truth about the functions of power, work (unite) to interrupt their operations, and operate as producers of power to meet the needs of the Greater Lawndale community.
Collective and Community Power
Through collective community power, we commit to a conscious effort to overcome the intended historical obstacles that have been designed to dis-empower and divide our communities, and thereby meet the needs of all members of Greater Lawndale for continual betterment and progress.
Below you will find the Social Justice curriculum framework that was used to inspire the Fire Project:
Community Knowledge:
To Our Families
- We view our community as equal partners in education.
- Community residents, from Little Village and North Lawndale, are knowledgeable of their life experiences and therefore are able to participate meaningfully in the design of our curriculum.
- We invite you to be a part of the school community that partners with us in creating a transformational and culturally relevant curriculum.
To Our Students
- We will use math, science, english and history classes to equip our students with the analytical tools to investigate the injustices around us.
- Culture, ethnic identity and language will be valued and used for relevant learning.
- Social justice issues of race, equity, peace, gender, and the environment will help us address the real life needs that impact our kids and of our communities.
- We must also understand our youth, their struggles, their identity, the way they learn and their pain if we want them to be come powerful change agents of our society.
What we will do:
- Develop the power of knowledge in our students.
- Prepare them to excel on standardized assessments i.e. PSAE and ACT.
- Empower our students to dominate the dominant curriculum.
- Every student will have a personalized learning plan.
- Every student will set his/her academic, social/emotional and college goals.
- Each student will create and implement a service learning project on something they are passionate about.
- Each student will apply and be admitted to a college, university or other viable post secondary institution.