Sacramento Charter High

Sacramento high school has a “strong record of graduating more college-eligible

African American male students than all other high schools in the district.”

- Dominique Amis, chief operating officer for St. Hope

Sacramento Charter High School was established through the efforts of former NBA All-Star Kevin Johnson who served as Mayor of Sacramento from 2008-2016.

In 1989, while still an NBA player, Johnson founded St. HOPE (Helping Others Pursue Excellence) as an after-school program for kids in Sacramento, California. St. HOPE eventually expanded to run as a nonprofit umbrella organization that consisted of three divisions: St. HOPE Academy, St. HOPE Public Schools, and St. HOPE Development Corporation.

One of the schools St. HOPE impacted was Sacramento High School (Sac High) now the Sacramento Charter High School.

In October 2002, Sac High was at risk of being shut down and restructured due to low test scores. But by January 2003, Johnson had raised seed money from the Gates Foundation and drafted a petition to reopened Sac High as an independent charter school. By 2010 Sac High's California standard Academic Performance Index score improved to 719, compared to 610 in 2006. The number of students who completed all courses required for University of California or California State University. College admissions also rose between those years from 84% to 90.6%.