The Evanston Township High School District 202 Board of Education weighed in on the Year in Review report for 2024-25 at its Monday night meeting.
The report provides an overview of student academic performance, well-being and post-secondary education indicators, focusing on the past school year and comparing trends from previous years.
A main point of concern for the district, shared by ETHS Director of Special Education Amy Verbrick, is the continued racial disparity in discipline incidents.
Last year, 779 students had discipline incidents. Of the male students with discipline incidents, 35% were identified as African American or Black. For female students, that number was 47%. Of the 2024-25 student body, nearly 24% of all students identified as African American or Black, according to the report.
“It’s clear to me, as it is every year — no matter what kind of data we’re looking at — that we have to really continue to consider race,” Board President Pat Savage-Williams said. “Those numbers are alarming, and as well as we’re doing in some of the other areas, I am still very concerned about discipline and suspension.”
For the rest of the male students with discipline incidents, 27% are Hispanic or Latino, and 28% are white. For the female students, 27% are Hispanic or Latina students, and 16% are white. Of the student body, about 20% identified as Hispanic or Latinx and 43% as white.
Board Vice President Monique Parsons also expressed concern about the relationship between discipline incidents and race.
“In all honesty, we know that we are a very, very good school,” Parsons said. “But we also know that we have some huge historical issues that we need to face and confront.”
Another concern is attendance, which has been trending downward since the 2023-24 school year, according to ETHS Associate Principal Mia Lavizzo. She said attendance rates around the country are “grim,” and that ETHS, with an average attendance rate of about 92%, is still “doing much better than other schools.”
ETHS Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Pete Bavis reported that 99% of the graduated Class of 2025 took at least one AP, Project Lead The Way, dual credit or honors course, which he called an “incredible” achievement.
Bavis cited District 202’s goal of eliminating the predictability of academic achievement based upon race, saying that this statistic is “concrete evidence” of their progress.
“This is the work of an entire school,” Bavis said. “This is the work of an entire group of dedicated folks that goes back to the beginning of my tenure here at ETHS, and well before I ever got here.”
Another area of success is that 85% of students with an Individualized Education Program are on track for a four-year graduation, a 14% increase from the 2023-24 school year.
Verbrick credited this increase to the work done by the special education administrative team, who guide IEP coordinators through a tiered intervention process, allowing the team to monitor individual students’ weekly progress.
“I’m really proud of the work of our department related to this statistic,” Verbrick said.
Starting this school year, Evanston/Skokie School District 65 will begin administering the Star Assessment for reading and i-Ready for mathematics. This new testing system will better align with the one District 202 uses and allow the schools to “really look at student growth across both districts,” Bavis said.
District 202 Superintendent Marcus Campbell said that going forward, the Year in Review report will set the context for conversations about quarterly reports.
When the board looks at the 2025-26 school year report next year, the results should be different, he said.
“This is going to be a great way for the board to progress monitor what’s happening day-to-day (in) real time,” Campbell said. “I am optimistic about what we’re doing now to get at some questions and issues that we know that we’ve had, (so we can) address those questions differently.”
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