Acero – Major Hector P. Garcia M.D. High School, Chicago | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

I went to ACERO from 2008-2012 back when it was still UNO- Hector P. Garcia High School.

Back then I came into the school because my parents wanted me to avoid the overall underachievement at Kelly HS. Sure, with the uniforms and getting all-dressed up I felt this as some cruel and unusual punishment for being a teenager.

But to potential students and those attending now, the truth is this– the high school will provide you with THE OPPORTUNITY to find a great college. Should that be your path. If it’s not? Don’t fret. You can still find work through learning a trade or vocational training.

Understand that I mentioned opportunity. Because success is NEVER guaranteed even if you go the college route. I say this because there was this insistence from teachers and directors at the time to force my friends and peers to attend college, even if they had no desire to go.

Most of the teachers that taught there are GONE. Most that came into the school at my time were relatively inexperienced teachers from Teach for America, fresh out of college and still with the wide-eyed optimism to change the world. Not that there’s anything wrong with that… but this leads to HUGE turnover with teachers. Most either suffered from burnout and quit teaching altogether or moved on to more lucrative teaching positions outside UNO/Acero. It doesn’t help that these teachers don’t have many union advancements compared to their CPS counterparts.

Students, do yourself a favor enjoy your time in high school. Those are some of the years I took for granted. Those “friends” you make will either stay in your life or leave it, so soak it up as much as you can.

You’ll receive a decent quality of schooling here… but if you really want to understand more about the world, take an interest in Googling topics that interest you. Learn to see trends and patterns throughout history and educate yourself on how to research.

I promise you’ll learn more in a week of doing your own research and digging deep for the truth than accepting the textbook as your only source of learning.

Horrible. The students and parents are trashing our neighborhood. Everyday I watch them throwing trash on our lawns while walking to school or dropping their kids off. I pick up 2 to 4 bags of trash every week off our block alone. It gets worse and worse every year. They have no plan for neighborhood impact. We had to petition for permit parking and now we are starting a petition to get them to put some garbage cans around their campus to hopefully lessen the amount of trash ending up on our lawns. They need to educate their students and the parents that littering on private or public property is not only disrespectful , it’s illegal.