Walter Payton College Preparatory High School
magnet high school in Chicago, Illinois, United States
Walter Payton College Preparatory High School is a public four-year magnet high school located in the Old Town neighborhood on the near–north side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 2000, Payton is operated by the Chicago Public Schools district. The school is named for Walter Payton, African-American football player for the Chicago Bears and humanitarian. Since 2019, Payton has been ranked the No. 1 public high school in the State of Illinois, and No. 4 in the United States, by U.S. News & World Report.
Background
Payton opened in 2000 by the Chicago Public Schools, The school is named for Chicago Bears star player Walter Payton (1953–1999). In addition to the school being named for Payton, the school colors are blue and orange (the colors of the Chicago Bears) and bear his jersey number (34) throughout the identity of the school. Payton is one of the city's eleven selective enrollment high schools. Payton is known for its advanced academic programs provided within an international model for teaching and learning.
“Walter Payton College Preparatory High School” enters the record as magnet high school in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Walter, Payton and College can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7965805. Authority coordinates are 41.901, -87.634. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2000, 2019, 1953 and 1999.
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This entry incorporates text from “Walter Payton College Preparatory High School” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.