Achievement Gaps...And Why we want to crush them BEFORE students reach high school

 Let's get a sense of why academic achievement gaps MUST be greatly reduced, and ideally eliminated, for students of color BEFORE they enter high school. 

Keep in mind that the short answer is achievement gaps lead to opportunity gaps, and having a reduction in opportunities, for anyone in any field, places limitations on what one is able to do moving forward. And opportunity gaps create conditions where chances of attaining racial equity and equality are greatly reduced.

Additionally, here is a list of twenty research-aligned reasons why closing gaps, before students reach high school, are critically important:

1. Prevents compounding learning deficits
   

   Gaps in literacy and numeracy tend to widen over time.

2. Expands access to rigorous coursework
   Students need strong middle school preparation to take honors, AP.

3. Improves high school graduation rates
   Early academic success strongly predicts graduation rates.

4. Increases college readiness and access
   Students entering high school behind tend to have college limitations.

5. Supports STEM pathway participation
   Foundational math, science skills essential for HS STEM success.

6. Strengthens student identity and confidence
   Persistent gaps can damage academic self-confidence, sense of belonging.

7. Reduces disciplinary disparities
   Students struggling academically are more likely to disengage and act up.

8. Promotes equity in long-term economic outcomes
   Early academic disparities are strongly linked to income/career limitations.

9. Enhances engagement and motivation
   Students who feel capable are more likely to participate and persist in HS.

10. Builds critical literacy for civic participation
    Strong reading and reasoning skills essential for informed societal participation.

11. Supports social-emotional development
    Academic success tied to EELS like self-efficacy, perseverance, goal-setting

12. Interrupts intergenerational inequity
    Closing gaps early helps break cycles of generational educational disparities.

13. Ensures Algebra readiness by 8th–9th grade
    Algebra is a major gatekeeper in all levels of STEM in HS.

14. Reduces need for remediation in high school
    Students who enter high school behind fall into opportunity gap.

15. Increases attendance and reduces chronic absenteeism
    Students who experience success in earlier grades have better attendance.

16. Supports language development across disciplines
    Academic language (especially in science and math) builds cumulatively.

17. Improves teacher expectations and opportunities
    Early demonstrated success can positively influence teacher expectations.

18. Strengthens peer academic culture
    When students are on track, classrooms shift toward a culture of achievement.

19. Enhances executive functioning and learning habits
    Skills like organization, time management, and persistence develop earlier.

20. Positions students for leadership roles
    Students with academic confidence more likely to take on leadership roles.

In SOS, we work to do just this: reduce and, hopefully eliminate for as many students as possible, achievement gaps, by working with the Evanston Rising Coalition!

Issue: Food Insecurity is Rising

 Today, NPR reported on a study coming from the New York Federal Reserve, which does occasional surveys to track food insecurity, and found it is at higher levels than during COVID shutdowns six years ago. Other states are finding the same thing. About 10% of American households are missing meals and 16% are relying on food donations; for lower income families below $50,000, 20% have missed meals. This is not good for anyone, and hurts our low-income students' ability to learn if they are hungry. 

In order to do our part, some ETHS students are helping maintain and get harvests of fresh produce from tower gardens we have in our Chem/Phys rooms and research center. In partnership with a community nonprofit called Evanston Grows, we donate all fresh produce to their farm stands and to the food pantry at Faith Temple Church. For the 2025-26 school year, 809 bags (mostly gallon size) at 166 pounds were donated to the 25 families supported by the church. We are looking to break 1000 bags for the 2026-27 school year, and welcome the help of additional towers from our Urban Agriculture classes! We'll also add student-built grow systems in some of the elementary schools we partner with in Project Excite. 

If you would like to help support this, especially with donations to help purchase additional towers and materials to build our own systems, email Dr. Vondracek (Doc V) at vondracekm@eths202.org. 

We get beautiful lettuces, arugula, rainbow chard, kale, parsley, and basil from our towers. We will add mushrooms next year. Students, of course, maintain these and help with the harvesting! 

Issue: Academic Achievement & Opportunity Gaps - Let's Attack This!

 A 'forever problem' in the Evanston community - and to be fair, this tends to be a major problem in nearly all racially diverse communities around the country - are the academic achievement gaps that exist between white students and students of color. These gaps already exist in kindergarten, and remain, if not expand, as students go through the K-12 education system. 

Despite numerous programs, speakers and consultants, and other attempts to make a dent in these gaps, the differences remain the same now as they were thirty years ago. It is a horribly frustrating and persistent problem, because when certain groups of students are two or three academic years behind others, by the time the students make it to the high school they will be limited in the opportunities to pursue academic and other related interests...an opportunity gap opens up for students of color that do not typically limit the good majority of white students. This can be in the form of honors and AP classes, academic clubs, teams, and competitions, and ultimately places limitations on options for college and the workplace. 

The one program that has made a difference, and even eliminated the achievement gaps between kids of color and white students, was Project Excite. This ran from 2000-2017, and had good success for nearly all its participating students. It was funded almost entirely through Northwestern University (NU) and run through its Center for Talent Development (CTD), but around 2017 NU decided it wanted to pursue a slightly different pathway and pulled its funding, despite Excite's success. Since then, some of us have tried to resuscitate it each year, and were about to begin a club-style solution, but COVID shutdowns prevented this from happening. For the last 1.5 years, we are in three elementary schools and working with 3rd and 4th grade students. Below is a video describing the original Project Excite model. 

Let's make use of a model that has worked in the past, and reignite it to help as many students close the gap as we can, and help them take advantage of any and all opportunities we offer at ETHS!! We can do this, and students will be leading the way to help make it work!

Here's a photo from one of the Excite sessions with 3rd grade students. 

Here is a presentation of recent achievement data and how Excite relates. 

Welcome to the SOS Website!!

 We have a new student organization at Evanston Township High School, called Students Offering Solutions, or SOS!

This is a student-led club that has a focus on allowing our students to get involved in numerous activities and projects that go after a variety of problems and issues. These may be local, national, or even global issues, but it is so important that students learn they are capable to help find solutions that can ultimately help others. We are taking numerous projects and activities we've been running through our Chem/Phys Program, and putting them under the SOS umbrella in order to both include more students, and also make things more efficient and effective in the long-term. 

The pages will have information more specific to individual projects, and all the sub-project activities that students do. The main page will have more general posts on issues and projects, updates, interesting articles and video materials that are relevant to some of the things students are working on, information on new problems that arise that students are interested in pursuing, success stories of students here and at other schools, and organizational notes and commentaries. 

We just want to celebrate students in general who are finding success in helping others and taking on problems at any level! We too often underestimate and hold back young people from trying new things or listening to their concerns or possible solutions to problems - BUT NOT HERE! 

Let's encourage students to offer solutions, and see if their ideas work out...it is time to unleash young people and see what they can do!!