Challenge all students.

Josh and Nate’s Priorities

We need to ensure all students are academically challenged.

While a one-room schoolhouse with 30 students may require a single classroom with one teacher for all students, we are blessed to have a well-resourced high school of over 3,200 students. We can afford to have courses with different degrees of difficulty in which each student is challenged. Forcing students into a single-level classroom for freshman classes does not challenge those students who are more academically advanced and it overly stresses and fails to adequately teach students who are still growing into their potential and need more assistance.

While common sense tells us that detracking is not effective, recent objective data also points to the same conclusion.

PSAT 8/9 and PSAT 10 scores showed the gap between Black students and white students has not improved since the start of detracking.¹

The PSAT 8/9 test is taken each spring by all freshmen. The first cohort of freshmen who went through the detracking was in 2022-2023 (reflected by the “2023” year at the bottom of the graph). The English scores (“EBRW” (evidence-based reading and writing)) went down that first year, compared to the previous year, and then returned generally to its pre-detracking level in 2023-2024. The detracked courses at the high school were the non-math classes. Of concern, though, are two demographic groups: our Hispanic and Black students. Our Hispanic students have seen a drop from 499 on the English scores in 2021-2022, the year prior to the start of detracking, to 471 in 2023-2024, an almost 6% drop in just two years. For our Black students, the English scores have stayed about the same. The gap between our Black students and white students has increased since the start of detracking; since the last full year prior to COVID, the gap has remained about the same.

This lack of progress for our 9th graders is also reflected in how they compare to comparable districts in the state. Compared to 11 other comparable high schools, OPRF is last on whether 9th graders are on track (defined as having failed more than one core class). For our Black students, only 75.4% are on track. What does that mean? One in four of our 9th grade Black students got an “F” in at least two core classes. We are failing these students. For Hispanics, only 79.8% are on track.

Similarly, the PSAT 10 English scores for the students who have been through detracking (the first cohort were now sophomores in 2023-2024) showed a decrease in their English scores from the previous year’s sophomores in 2022-2023, who did not go through the detracked classes. Black student scores decreased as well.

One of the main goals of detracking was to decrease the performance gap between students of color, particularly Black students, and white students.² After two years of detracking, the gap between Black and white students has not changed. And Hispanic students have seen an even greater drop in scores. 

Further, in the September 2024 “Restructured Freshmen Curriculum Analysis” report, only 52-61% of all students surveyed said that learning materials in their English, History, and Math classes captured their interest and attention and that the pace of the lessons was neither too slow nor too fast for their learning.³ Only for their Science classes did the students report higher satisfaction rates (70-79%).⁴ When parents were surveyed, only 31-50% believed teachers were effectively differentiating instruction to meet the needs of all learners in class.⁵ Perhaps most significantly, in focus group conversations with students, the analysis found that:

…course units are not effectively supporting students who either come into the unit already knowing the material or lack foundational learning important to the unit. Ultimately, this meant to students that most courses are teaching to the middle.⁶

While we will continue to look at data and listen to all voices, the data suggests detracking is not accomplishing the goals it set out to do. Nonetheless, we recognize that more objective data will be forthcoming, including the ACT scores this spring, which will measure the first cohort of students who went through detracking as freshmen. We will conduct rigorous oversight of the program to ensure every student and faculty member is getting what they need.

Further, separate and apart from detracking, student performance overall is declining. In 2019, the last year before COVID, SAT scores showed that 58.5% of OPRFHS 11th graders met or exceeded state standards in math and 65.6% met or exceeded state standards in English and Language Arts (ELA). In 2024, only 55.3% met or exceeded standards in math and 64.1% met or exceeded standards in ELA.⁷

What has shown to clearly work to improve test scores is tutoring and intensive summer programs.⁸ Let’s do that.

We also are supporters of Collaboration for Early Childhood, a non-profit funded in part by an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) between D200, D297, and the Village of Oak Park, to support the development of children during their crucial first five years. Though the benefits of this IGA will not impact District 200 until these children reach high school, it is this type of long-term strategic collaboration that will pay dividends in the reduced need to spend more dollars on remedial education at the high school level and reduce the achievement gap that currently exists.

In summary:

We care about the achievement gap. But we also want to follow the data and research. Students believe detracking doesn’t work, parents believe it’s not working, common sense suggests it doesn’t work, and the school’s own objective testing now says it doesn’t work. What does work is tutoring and intensive summer programs.

We can do better.

We need to recognize what all parents of two or more kids already know: children can grow up with the same parents, with the same upbringing, and with the same economic opportunities, and yet have very different academic needs. Regardless of the reason, each student should be academically challenged.

Our own policy statement at 1:02 on Human Dignity demands it: “Each individual shall be considered as unique with individual strengths, talents, skills, and shortcomings; shall have equal access to all school-related opportunities; shall be regarded in the same high esteem; and shall equally be encouraged to fulfill his or her potential as a human being.”⁹

We need to provide adequate resources and opportunities to those with lesser economic resources so they have the opportunity to succeed. We support expanded tutoring and intensive summer preparation programs for incoming freshmen.

With regard to tutoring, we can build on a system already in place for student athletes. If coaches see that their athletes’ grades are struggling, the coaches intervene and send their athletes to “study tables.” We want to expand the active monitoring of grades and use of "study tables" for all students. Teachers and counselors should monitor all students, not just athletes, and when they see a drop in grades or see that they are struggling, we want teachers and counselors to reach out to the students and parents to actively encourage the students to participate in “study tables” (thank you to Cory Wesley for this valuable suggestion). Equity is for ALL students.

And for students who are more academically mature in the 9th grade, we want them to be challenged and not restrained from reaching their full potential, just as our own D200 policy states. 

We also want to ensure students who need more support in the 9th grade get that support. This is not a judgment on a student’s potential or intellect; it is simply a recognition of how students are showing up at OPRF to the 9th grade and a desire to meet their needs. We all understand that students are unique and may enjoy math class more or English class more. Students have certain likes, dislikes, strengths, and weaknesses when it comes to school. We want to meet all students where they are and challenge each of them.

Josh and Nate will keep the goal of ensuring each child is academically challenged at the forefront of each decision they make.

Josh and Nate’s Other Priorities

Click each priority below to read more:

Keep our kids safe.

Keeping our kids safe will always be our top priority. Having a safe learning environment is critical to enabling our kids to learn.

Josh and Nate will improve the school’s Behavior Education Plan to reflect state law and ensure it is enforced, they will ensure the school is as prepared and is as safe as possible for active shooter situations, and they will be transparent on disciplinary action taken and the discipline imposed.

Safeguard taxpayer dollars.

We will always scrutinize costs before agreeing to any tax levy increase.

Josh and Nate will scrutinize spending on high-paying administrators, get to the bottom of why teachers are absent more than the state average, hold the line on property tax increases, and pay close attention to spending on the over $100 million-plus Project 2.