When Witherspoon came to Evanston nine years ago, the tall, white-haired superintendent expected to find a different kind of job.
You can't program your way out of these kinds of disparities in achievement."
"I'll mention one concept that is critical to this," Superintendent Eric Witherspoon tells me when we meet in his office. Now it's challenging old assumptions about who belongs in advanced academic classes. In the 1950s, the school was one of seven that piloted the College Board's AP program. With the goal of making AP courses better reflect Evanston's diversity, ETHS has launched an ambitious, expensive, and sometimes controversial set of initiatives. Lower-income-usually minority-students do not. More-affluent-usually white-students tend to take honors and Advanced Placement courses. But for generations, the student body has separated like oil and water. In theory, it's a place where teenagers from all over town mix and interact. "Like Evanston!" calls out a student from near the pizzas.Įvanston Township High School (ETHS) is the only public high school in Evanston. "And what do we want to look like?" calls out Dale Leibforth, chair of the math department. We want to hear from the people in the AP classes," says Kevin McCaffrey, the school's head of AP recruitment and retention. Arms shoot up from the crowd of 30-odd teenagers munching and chatting around the room. "Who's coming?" calls out Beth Arey, the school's college and career coordinator. There's free pizza and lemonade, and a stack of T-shirts that say "teamASAP" on the front and "FOLLOW ME" on the back.Īt the top of today's agenda: planning the annual "Pathways to AP" forum, an event that informs younger students and families about Advanced Placement classes. Evanston, Ill.-It's lunchtime at Evanston Township High School, and a group of students, teachers, and staff are meeting in a classroom.
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