{"monthlySchoolDonationEnabled":true,"callToActionDisplayName":"Taft High School","outOfStateSupporters":25.3,"allowSchoolLevelGiving":true,"hasFundedProjects":true,"projectGratitudeData":[{"teacherId":8579692,"projectId":10034453,"letterContent":"Thank you for funding this unique project. The materials you've help provide will engage students for years to come in all the bio and chemistry calsses across our entire school. Students have already started engaging with these card decks and materials. Although I only have one of each, this project ensures that every student will be able to participate and learn through this gameplay. These stoich decks have been an effective tool in teaching these complex topics that go beyond just chemistry. These build the foundation for future science classes and dimensional analysis in life beyond the school.","fullyFundedDate":1778225478254,"projectUrl":"project/gamify-chemistry/10034453/","projectTitle":"Gamify Chemistry!","teacherDisplayName":"Mr. Nguyen","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp8579692_orig.jpg?crop=179,179,x1,y0&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1727500947639","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/8579692"},{"teacherId":8579692,"projectId":10095291,"letterContent":"Thank you for making this dream come true. The end of the year is always a challenge to engage and occupy students with meaningful activities. This project has enabled me to gamify and have students critically analyze these complex science games. One of the largests complaints thus far has been the 20 some page rulebooks behind these games. However, by chunking the rules, grouping students, and making them teach the rest of the class the rules, students are critically analyzing, digesting, and teaching these games to continue to see how their practice can become real product. Thank you!","fullyFundedDate":1778225486007,"projectUrl":"project/gamify-biology/10095291/","projectTitle":"Gamify Biology","teacherDisplayName":"Mr. Nguyen","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp8579692_orig.jpg?crop=179,179,x1,y0&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1727500947639","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/8579692"},{"teacherId":8430414,"projectId":10116665,"letterContent":"Thank you for supplying our classroom with some much needed year-end pick-me-ups. The treats are getting us through many a difficult afternoon, and the allure of a drawer full of snacks is sometimes the only thing that draws students into the classroom this time of year. The refilled and refreshed candy bag acts both as a reward for winning a game of Jeopardy or Kahoot, and as a quiet \"I see your effort\" when students need a little extra push. \r\nYour support of the little things in our classroom means the world. Sometimes the tricks a teacher needs aren't big or flashy; they're a well-placed bag of Goldfish. Thanks for helping make that happen for me and my students.","fullyFundedDate":1772634122977,"projectUrl":"project/classroom-snacks-odds-and-ends/10116665/","projectTitle":"Classroom Snacks, Odds and Ends","teacherDisplayName":"Mr. Morris","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp8430414_orig.png?crop=694,694,x2,y0&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1651148901202","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/anakinmorris"},{"teacherId":8579692,"projectId":10206877,"letterContent":"Thank you for supporting this important project towards our sustainable 3d printing goals. Because of this project, you've enabled our students to be able to print in multicolor designs with the minimal amount of waste possible. These changing heads allow our printer to print colors with minimal purge, enabling their imaginations to run wild. I know your impact will go far despite not being known directly. The most beneficial experience is that with the least friction and you enable that. Thank you.","fullyFundedDate":1777895558508,"projectUrl":"project/3d-printing-accessories-to-keep-our-mach/10206877/","projectTitle":"3D Printing Accessories to Keep Our Machines Working at Fullest","teacherDisplayName":"Mr. Nguyen","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp8579692_orig.jpg?crop=179,179,x1,y0&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1727500947639","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/8579692"},{"teacherId":8579692,"projectId":10192062,"letterContent":"Thank you so much for your donation to making this project come alive. Because of your gift, I've been able to start a lending library of science books in my classroom. Your contribution ensures that my students and students for years to come have compelling novels for students to explore and borrow. From the immediate unboxing and the first weekend after receiving these books, I've already gotten requests from 12 different students to borrow specific book titles. This project is revitalizing reading for my class. Although I am not an english or reading teacher, the science lens behind these titles makes it particularly connected to our classroom topics. Your gift has enabled us to get students back into reading and to reincorporate reading activities in class.","fullyFundedDate":1776384228541,"projectUrl":"project/science-fiction-and-nonfiction-for-biolo/10192062/","projectTitle":"Science Fiction and Nonfiction for Biology Lovers","teacherDisplayName":"Mr. Nguyen","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp8579692_orig.jpg?crop=179,179,x1,y0&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1727500947639","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/8579692"},{"teacherId":5631363,"projectId":9991570,"letterContent":"I cannot thank you enough for your incredible generosity in funding \"Second Semester Supplies for Super Seniors.\" When the boxes arrived, the energy in the room shifted instantly. My students were genuinely touched to see a fresh mountain of notebooks, folders, and pencils waiting for them. One of my seniors joked that they finally had \"no more excuses\" to not take notes, but in all seriousness, seeing their faces light up over brand-new supplies was a beautiful reminder that they feel seen and supported by their community. The addition of cleaning supplies and tissues has also been a game-changer; we've finally moved past the \"sweater-sleeve-as-a-tissue\" phase of the semester, creating a much more dignified and hygienic environment for everyone.\r\n\r\nWe are already putting these resources to work in our current Senior Capstone Portfolios. Having matching folders and sturdy notebooks has allowed my students to organize their research and college transition checklists with a sense of pride and professionalism they didn't have before. A specific moment that stood out was during our \"Goal Setting\" workshop last Tuesday: instead of the usual scramble to find a scrap of paper or a working pen, every student was able to open a fresh notebook and start mapping out their future. It felt like a fresh start for the second half of their final year.\r\n\r\nLooking ahead, these supplies are the backbone of our upcoming \"Letters to My Future Self\" project. Students will be using their new folders to archive their best work from the year and their notebooks to draft reflections on their high school journey. Because of your help, my \"Super Seniors\" can focus entirely on their academic finish line rather than worrying about whether they have the basic tools to get there. Thank you for investing in their success and for making our classroom feel like a space where they truly belong!","fullyFundedDate":1768435536053,"projectUrl":"project/second-semester-supplies-for-super-senio/9991570/","projectTitle":"Second Semester Supplies for Super Seniors","teacherDisplayName":"Mrs. Cipicchio","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/272x272/tp5631363_272x272.jpg?width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1533989299080","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/mrs-cipicchio"},{"teacherId":1484608,"projectId":9968361,"letterContent":"The original plan was to teach this book next year to my second year (senior) IB Language and Literature students to help explore global issues. However, an opportunity presented itself in which I decided to teach this book of short stories to my sophomores, an advanced group of students, paying immediate dividends to your generosity!\r\n\r\nWe began by watching the author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's talk about the \"Danger of a Single Story\" in which she warns against flattening a people's stories to just ONE story. \"The problem with stereotypes,\" she says, \"is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.\" And it seems particularly fitting that this book by Adichie is a collection of stories, all presenting both Nigerians and Americans through a multifaceted lens.\r\n\r\nWe are only just three stories in and still feeling out the style and form of the stories, but in the second story \"Imitation,\" many students were able to grasp the false ideals that the characters found themselves living up to, both as men and women, as Americans and Nigerians, as husbands and wives, as the rich and poor, and as humans separated from reality.\r\n\r\nThank you for making this unit possible, even earlier than I had anticipated!","fullyFundedDate":1773840595234,"projectUrl":"project/finding-our-shared-humanity-through-lite/9968361/","projectTitle":"Finding Our Shared Humanity Through Literature","teacherDisplayName":"Mr. Moon","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/272x272/tp1484608_272x272.jpg?width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1449180969847","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/jmoon"},{"teacherId":8579692,"projectId":9680806,"letterContent":"Thank you for your contribution to this strange project. You've enabled me to reach more students with this project. By getting these beginner sets, students are introduced iteratively into the world of lock sport. This activity is one of the highest levels of engagement and cooperation I get out of students, especially towards the end of the school year where seniors are checking out. Your donation ensures that this project will be able to engage hundreds of students year after year. Students who were poor with their hands found expertise in this activity and became mentors to others, supporting each other in ways I didn't see them do in the year. This activity has been invaluable in boosting the confidence in students that believed they couldn't do other ones.","fullyFundedDate":1762265304366,"projectUrl":"project/bring-locksport-to-my-forensic-science-c/9680806/","projectTitle":"Bring Locksport To My Forensic Science Class","teacherDisplayName":"Mr. Nguyen","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp8579692_orig.jpg?crop=179,179,x1,y0&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1727500947639","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/8579692"},{"teacherId":8579692,"projectId":9907285,"letterContent":"thank you for your contribution towards this strange project. The joy and excitement I've seen in students that I do not know has been incalculable. This project of outreach and charity has spread far and wide throughout our school and students are actively seeking out information about our steam programs and asking valuable questions. Your donation has enabled this project to impact students far beyond the 100s of trinkets that were passed out. The word of mouth and breadth of participation across our 4700 student body demonstrates just how far and interested students are.","fullyFundedDate":1764859537872,"projectUrl":"project/kindness-and-3d-printed-toys/9907285/","projectTitle":"Kindness and 3d Printed Toys","teacherDisplayName":"Mr. Nguyen","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp8579692_orig.jpg?crop=179,179,x1,y0&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1727500947639","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/8579692"},{"teacherId":9785954,"projectId":9716450,"letterContent":"Since receiving the scale, hot plates, and other materials so generously provided, my students have been thriving. In a classroom designed to teach students whose native language is not English, having access to hands on materials and tangible experiences has bridges the language gap for many of my students and has created so many positive learning experiences. \r\n\r\nFor starters, students used their access to hotplates to discover properties of ionic and covalent compounds. They designed an investigation and used these instruments to help them collect quantitative data to support their findings. I saw a soaring 95% grade average on their work after being able to use these materials rather than traditional learning methods. \r\n\r\nIn addition to this, the students used the electronic balances to investigate the creation of rust. They explored the question: How does a new substance like rust form in the first place? With their ability to relate something from their lives to the scientific practice of lab methods, students gathered findings to support their answers to the driving question. Using this experiential learning as a bridge to the language, students were able to practice their English in a way that felt authentic, real, and meaningful. \r\n\r\nI want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving my English Language Learners the opportunity to soar to new heights with not only their language acquisition, but their appreciation for science.","fullyFundedDate":1766502457133,"projectUrl":"project/chemistry-for-all-students-supporting-d/9716450/","projectTitle":"Chemistry for ALL students (Supporting DL and EL student populations)","teacherDisplayName":"Mr. Castillo","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://cdn.donorschoose.net/images/placeholder-avatars/272/teacher-placeholder-8_272.png?auto=webp","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/9785954"},{"teacherId":8579692,"projectId":9818084,"letterContent":"Thanks to your contirbution, not only were we able to support our robotics team but also foreign teams including hosting the croatian robotics team in our space. The supplies your provided directly supported multiple robots this season and ensured that hudnreds of students were able to get their robots to work. As a result, our team was able to construct two fully function robots this year and include our middle school students in this robotics season. This ensured we had more engagement, more spirit, more teamwork than years before winning us the award for team spirit at every regional event we went to!","fullyFundedDate":1763588409147,"projectUrl":"project/its-time-for-more-robotics/9818084/","projectTitle":"It's Time for More Robotics","teacherDisplayName":"Mr. Nguyen","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp8579692_orig.jpg?crop=179,179,x1,y0&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1727500947639","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/8579692"},{"teacherId":8579692,"projectId":9816549,"letterContent":"Thanks to your contribution, we have had the most successful, most impactful, and most accessible robotics season yet. Your contribution not only ensured that more students were able to engage in robotics, but it improved the lives of those reached by the breadth of our program. The addition of dozens of students impacted the lives of hundreds of students in the local community. Additional available resources allowed the inclusion of new students into robotics that did not stick with robotics but started accessability projects and outreach programs for K-8 schools around our community. Such support projects include accessibility tools, toys, and even adolescent wheel chairs!","fullyFundedDate":1761960187805,"projectUrl":"project/frc-robot-supplies-needed-for-a-strong-s/9816549/","projectTitle":"FRC Robot Supplies Needed for a Strong Season","teacherDisplayName":"Mr. Nguyen","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp8579692_orig.jpg?crop=179,179,x1,y0&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1727500947639","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/8579692"}],"pageName":"schoolpage_5334","usesDonorsChoose":true,"infoPageType":"school","demographicsInfo":{"numStudents":4440,"numTeachers":164,"percentFrplEligible":75,"percentAsian":6,"percentBlack":2,"percentWhite":41,"percentIndigenous":0,"percentLatinx":43,"showFreeAndReducedPriceLunchInfo":true,"showDemographicsInfo":true,"sourceTooltipString":"the National Center for Education Statistics","percentHawaiianImputed":0,"percentMultiracialImputed":3,"gradesServed":"7 - 12","studentTeacherRatio":"27.1:1","demographicsDataSource":"MDR School","equityFocus":true,"titleOne":false,"metroType":"URBAN","ncesMetroType":"CITY_LARGE"},"inStateSupporters":74.7,"schoolId":5334,"financialInfo":null,"twitterShareText":"Learn more about Taft High School on @DonorsChoose:","schoolName":"Taft High School","canonicalPageUrl":"schools/illinois/chicago-public-school-district-299/taft-high-school/5334"}
Join the 667 supporters who believe in this school.
About this school
Taft High School is
an urban public school
in Chicago, Illinois that is part of Chicago Public School District 299.
It serves 4,440 students
in grades 7 - 12 with a student/teacher ratio of 27.1:1.
Its teachers have had 292 projects funded on DonorsChoose.
Supporting this school will directly impact historically underfunded classrooms.
Public School
Grades 7 - 12
4,440 Students
164 Teachers
6530 W Bryn Mawr AveContact info is sourced from our partners at MDR Education, and DonorsChoose updates our site ahead of each school year.
Boost support for this school! Share this page with friends, family, alumni, and fellow supporters. Every connection helps teachers get the supplies they need and shows how much your community cares about its students.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for public school teachers.
Every donation funds real needs — pencils, books, lab equipment, art supplies, and more — helping students learn and thrive. We ship supplies directly to the school, and you'll see exactly where each dollar goes.
of students receive free or reduced price lunch
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
Source: the National Center for Education Statistics
51%
of students are Black, Latino, Native
American, or Asian
Data about school demographics comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. The numbers in this chart may not add up to 100% because of limitations in the available data.
Taft High School Support on DonorsChoose
Last updated May 21, 2026
DonorsChoose makes it easy for anyone to help a teacher in need, moving us closer to a nation where students
in every community have the tools and experiences they need for a great education.
Taft High School
$193,409
raised using DonorsChoose
292
projects
funded
130
teachers
funded
667
donors
48
projects
for
basic supplies
69
projects for
technology
46
projects for
books
15
projects
for
art supplies
Taft High School has received support from
498 individuals from Illinois and
169 individuals out-of-state.