The resignation of OPRF Superintendent Steven Isoye prompts a look back on successes and achievements. It is also an opportunity to reflect, as a community, on the future of our schools and whether they will live up to the promise of excellence with equity. In my opinion, we can no longer afford to boast of the community’s love of “diversity” without actively working to ensure that race and income are no longer predictors of student success. We must change our focus to identify what is wrong with our K-12 system — not our students.
Despite decades of discussion and heated debates about the achievement gap in our community, the gaps persist. In 2003, composite ACT scores were 25.1 for white students and 18.4 for black students. In 2015, those same scores were 27.4 and 19.1. A D200 report in January showed a correlation between achievement and freshman class placement. Enrollment in a freshman transitions course in any of the four core areas correlated with an average ACT composite score in the range of 15.9 to 16.3; a score of 21 to 23.6 for students in college-prep; and 28.6 to 30.7 for students taking honors-level courses.
Class placement falls along racial lines. Combined honors/AP course placement for 2015 shows that nearly 57% of white students were enrolled in these classes, but only 18.56% of black students.
These disparities don’t begin in high school. According to information provided by Oak Park Elementary District 97 in 2014, while approximately 27% of D97 middle-school students that year were black, the Advanced Algebra 8 class was 3% black. In K-5, 21% of our students were black, but gifted reading and math classes were less than 5% black. When a child has never had access to advanced material, how can he or she possibly score as well as a child who has been in gifted, honors, and AP classes for nearly a decade by senior year?
This is not an achievement gap, but an opportunity gap.
Our children take in messages from their earliest experiences in school when they see white gifted classes but mostly students of color in resource/remedial instruction. Our kids navigate the world with racial messages of who is “smart.” These are the young adults we send out into the world as we boast of raising them in a diverse, progressive community.
Best Intentions was recently chosen as a community read by D97 Superintendent Carol Kelley. Over a period of five years, the authors studied a high-performing high school to understand why great schools produce stark inequalities. The authors argue that the history of race in our country continues to define our social interactions and even the way students are treated in the school setting due to things like implicit bias. Groups of people are thought of as more or less criminal, intelligent, athletically inclined, or trustworthy.
More than 2,000 people provided input on the strategic plan under Dr. Isoye’s leadership with a vision to “become an ever-improving model of equity and excellence that will enable all students to achieve their full potential.” We are not there yet, despite our best intentions.
Equity is not an idea but a goal that requires a theory of change, strategies, and measurable outcomes.
All families have hopes and dreams for their children and want the best for them. We have committed teachers and administrators in our districts using proven strategies, including personal relationships with families and students, data-driven instruction, social and emotional learning, after-school tutoring and mentoring, restorative practices, and courageous conversations.
Equity initiatives that work and align with the goals of the strategic plan must become written policy in order to change outcomes and create sustainable change. We must consistently bring the voices of students and families into our policies and create space for an open dialogue about race.
It would be difficult to find a community that has more resources. Too often, however, we focus on the success of our own children in the race to the top. We need to change our perspective and realize that education is not a commodity. When all children and families are empowered to reach their potential, we are a better, stronger community. I cannot think of a community better poised for success.
Frances Kraft is a District 97 teacher and member of the Equity Team of Oak Park and River Forest on leave to attend Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, where she just completed a master’s in education policy and management. She has lived in River Forest for nearly 25 years with her husband, Jeff, and their two daughters, who both attended D90 schools and graduated from OPRF.
