Noble Street Charter School was founded by Michael Milkie and Tonya Hernandez Milkie in 1999 in cooperation with Northwestern University Settlement Association. Mr. Milkie is now superintendent and CEO of Noble Street.

In 2005 the Board of Directors opened additional Noble schools and established the Noble Network to manage the expansion and maintain Noble’s high standards across its campuses. Noble now operates ten high school campuses in come of Chicago's highest need communities.