Issues of improving student involvement and achievement prompted discussions among board members, students and faculty at Evanston Township High School’s board meeting Tuesday.
Reports about extracurricular activities at ETHS and from a student conference for minorities held earlier this year both highlighted the need to increase participation and involvement among minorities at the school.
At ETHS, there is an underrepresentation of Latino and black females in athletics, said Athletic Director Chris Livatino.
Livatino attributed this underrepresentation, especially in sports such as tennis, golf and swimming, to self-segregation among students.
“If we can get all of our sports to be as diverse as our school is, then every kid will have the opportunity to be exposed to those different backgrounds,” he said. “One of the key ways to try to make any progress on that is to expose kids at an earlier age.”
In addition, Associate Principal Richard Bowers spoke of student extracurricular involvement beyond athletics.
Some board members voiced their concerns regarding the underrepresentation among gender, race and class groups in extracurricular activities.
Board member Deborah Graham said ETHS needs a broader array of activities to appeal to minorities.
“The data you have gathered is disheartening because it shows some great disparities,” she said. “I think the extracurriculars we do offer are white-normed. We have debate and speech, but we don’t have a spoken word club. Do we leave it to students to generate these things or is there some responsibility on us?”
Before the extracurricular agenda, ETHS teacher Kamasi Hill and several students presented their experiences at the Minority Student Achievement Network Conference earlier this year. The conference, which has been annual event for ETHS for 10 years, brings students across the nation to foster dialogue and leadership about race, equity and student achievement in schools.
While Hill announced the success of the conference, students who attended offered solutions to address school-specific problems of race and equity.Board member Martha Burns said it was important for students to continue their work even after the conference.
“We’ve had a lot of students come and present before us, and it seems year after year you present and as far as you say you’d like to do going forward, we don’t necessarily get that feedback,” Burns said. “How do we make those things happen?”
Both Hill and the students in attendance said school-wide student initiatives have to be taken to make progress.
“One of the things I see about ETHS is a lot of programs and great ideas,” Hill said. “What I don’t see is a collective student force that is centralized to come together as student leaders to flush out these issues. I think this has to be a student-led thing.”
Student board member Alex Block said ETHS must reach out to students who aren’t as motivated to be involved.
“Something has to be done to reach out to those students and involve them in this issue,” he said. “Students across the school, I firmly believe, know there is some kind of problem. We talk about what our biggest difficulties are, but if everyone is on board, if the student body is willing to dig into this issue, progress can be made.”
Burns said mixed-level classes, instituted in freshman and sophomore classes, have contributed to providing a different experience for students.
“What I’m saying is that in order to engage students who are not engaged, it has to be in a non-judgmental environment to bring them in,” she said. “I think that’s what part of (the Minority Student Achievement Network Conference) should be about, to work on these ideas and to make ETHS a better school.”
