Detracked — Bey And going strong A diverse high school detracks its freshman courses and sees impressive gains down the road in terms of AP attendance and achievement scores. By Peter Bavis fownship High School dramatically changed its” incoming students. The school detracked fresh~ “nan English, history, and biology courses for the vast majority of “students — and, by doing so, removed barriers for historically” underrepresented student groups and provided greater ac- cess and opportunity to all. ‘The school’s rationale? Students who have access tor sand succeed in the most tigorous courses have op- portunities ro attend college and earn more dur-- _ ing their careers than those without similar - access orsuccess: ‘The fact is, income gaps are widening, and gaps in academic achievement persist. Across the United States, gaps of between 25 and 30 points in reading and mathematics between whites and blacks and between whites and Hispanics have been consistent from 1992 to 2013 (Kena et al, 2014). These gaps contribute to op- portunity gaps — and Evanston Township decided to do something about it. “The change was met with controversy in the community and in the media, The Chicago Tribune editorial board (2010) character ized our freshman restructoring as “Honors? Horrors!” claiming that restructuring would not have a positive effect on student achievement prospects for top students. success in honor ‘We've received national attention in both the National Jounal PRS NewsHour (Friedman, 2015). In addition, we hosted a sold-out American Fducational Research Association site vist. PETER BAVIS (bavsp@ethski2ilus) assistant superintendent for curiculum and instruction at Evanston Township High School Evanston, Il. YEN tappanmagsenens 57 ‘Winsock/Stock PES‘The impetus for change Evanston ‘Township High School, located just north of Chicago, enrolls 2,300 students and is 30% black, 16% Hispanic, 439% white, and 41% low in- come. Throughout its 132-year history, the school hhas wrestled with the achievement gap. Although Evanston was a founding member of the Minority Student Achievement Network — a national coali- tion of multiracial, suburban-urban school districts that came together in 1999 to eliminate achieve- ‘ment and opportunity gaps — incoming freshmen ‘were rigidly tracked. They were assigned to honors, mixed-honors, mixed-regular, and regular tracks based on a single standardized test score from 8th sgade. The designation of “honors” didn’t even take into consideration how students actually performed in class. This approach resulted in a structural bar- rier to mobility, which all but excluded students in regular tracks from accessing the most rigorous cur- ticulum throughout their high school careers. ‘Access to AP courses was constrained through a rigid set of prerequisites and teacher recommend: tions. Asa result, although the percentage of success- fal AP students was high, participation and diversity were low (Bavis, Arey, & Leibforth, 2015). Before the restructuring, there was also great vari- ability in the curriculum. Inconsistency of expecta~ tions, assessments, and semester exams resulted in a student experience that largely depended on the student’ placement and teacher. Tn 2010, the board of education adopted an equity ‘and excellence statement to guide the districts works “Embracing its diversity, Evanston Township High School dedicates itself to educating all students to their fllest potential.” Central to this statement is the dual focus on raising achievement for all stu- ‘dents. Concurrently, the board approved restructur~ ing freshman English, history, and biology courses. Superintendent Erie Witherspoon clarified the benefits of restructuring, noting that it: ‘The eamned honors credit model “Teams of English, history, and biology teachers developed the detracked courses. High expectations came in the form of the earned honors credit model. In this system, students work. toward earninghonorscreditby participating in ase- ties of assessments that use common rubrics aligned to AP skills and expectations. Honors is determined by the quality of student work, All students in the courses participate in these rubric-driven assess- ‘ments, Students who earn honors credit in these courses are able to demonstrate the depth and breadth of their skills by successfully completing a series of assessments, Forexample, one ofthe earned honorsassessments, in English isa literary analysis essay. Student essays are scored using a rubric that assesses focus, content, organization, style, and mechanics. This rubric is shared with students carly in the semester, and seu- dents receive feedback on their work. Social psychologist and educator Claude Steele” (2010) has found that feedback grounded in high — ereotype threat in stu dents of color. In stereotype threat, students feel at tisk of conforming to usually negative stereotypes about their social or racial group. Feedback works when students of color see it as a means to mect a high standard delivered by teachers who believe students can achieve that standard. Central to the feedback students receive in freshman restructur-/ jingiis the message that they can meet the high stan- dards in the rubries. This enables students to focus ‘on meeting high standards instead of doubting their intellectual abilities. ‘Freshman restructuring also put the focus on the ‘workstudents doin the classas opposed totheirplace= "ment in a class. Students work toward earning hon- ors credit throughout the semester. They're becoming (aiecemadenseterconjasceang eee students before the start ofthe course. In this way, re~ ‘structuring embraces what Stanford researcher Carol teachers identified the skills students would need” Dweck (2006) calls a growth mindset. [38 Kapgan December 2016/louay 2017‘Alok at AP and honors courses Listening to students of color talk about their aca~ demic experiences was also important. Many spoke about the challenge of being the only student ofcolor in their AP or honors class. Gentral to the school’s approach was increasing the critical mass of diverse ‘students in AP and honors courses — critical mass being the point at which there are enough students, Steele points to critical mass asa key strategy to improve the trust, comfort, and achievement of students of color. Having more students of color in AP classes signals that students of color belong in that space, ‘A primary goal of freshman restructuring was for more students to have access to and be successful in honors and AP courses as they progress through 11th and 12th grade. (Bowen, Chingos, & MePher- son, 2009; Jackson, 2010; Keng & Dodd, 2007). Re~ searchershave found that students who earnedan AP exam score of 2 (5 is the highest score) had better college performance and higher four-year gradua~ tion rates than students who didn't take an AP course (Hargrove, Godin, & Dodd, 2007). a Ry detracked freshman Humanities course. What was your freshman Humanities class like? Humanities dass was inspifng It was the beginning of a joumey. The class becarne ike «family. We spent a lot of ime getting to know our peers. Today when | see them, | fee! ‘connected and close-knit, Desegregation was essential in the dassroom, too. | leamed new stories and met new people. The dass opened my eves. What did 9th grade prepare you for? Student Shirine Marzouki describes her experience in Evanston Township High School's “The idea isn't new. More than 15 years ago, aU'S. Department of Education study found that: . the impactofa high school curriculum of high aca~ iemie intensity and quality on degree completion is farmore pronounced —and positively — for African ‘American and Latino students than any other precol- lege indicator of academic resources. The impact for Alsican-Ameriean and Latino students is also much {greater than its for white students (Adelman, 1999). Ht works! We're now five years into the freshman restruc~ turing. Our first group of students to take earned honors English and history graduated in 2015. on average), took the most AP courses in school his iterature that toryandearned the highest number ofcollege-ready a student’s lore important, each subgroup posted the best results they've ever seen on each of these measures. For our 2016 graduating cohort, across all his- torie placement groups, there was an increase in the percentage of students enrolling in a least one [AP course in Ith grade. The greatest increase — 113% —involvedstudents who would normally have My second language i Engish. In 98h grade, | focused on my wring and having people ect my work | started to get sentence structure. This sunk into my brain. Now my writing is really, rally good. When | started sth grade, | ‘didn think | could have made i toa 20 in waiting on the ACT. But in junior year, learned a 33! What did earned honors mean to you? It means working hard over the entirety ofthe semester. its nat about judging a person's growth on a test. You start to think citicaly In the tracking setup, which was based on Bth-grade test scores, some students were privileged belore they came to high school. If the system had been the same in my case, | would have entlled in a reguarievel dass — not because t'm not smart enough or don't have the work ethic, but because English was my second language, and | wasn't atthe same level as other students on the B-grade test ‘The earned honors model provides a GPA boost and a challenge. Now | take and do well in AP courses. voo we lepposmagainen, 5340. Kappe Performance of Evanston Township High School graduates on ACT exams Bris iy ry Degen Sas 2s UC 2011 gaduates — 9 7298 17% 22% 418 48% 149 feamed ACT composite of 24 or higher 2015 graduates —% aa a 30 eae oe 2% teamed ACT composite of 24 or higher placed into a regular-level course freshman year. Put another way, 91 students who would have been placed into regular-level courses in 9th grade took AP courses in 1th grade. When asked about what’ different now in her feeshman humanities course, English teacher Julie Mallory started by pointing out what's the same: “Tstll have a classroom full of 14-year-olds with a variety of skill sets and learning styles — all class= rooms do, no matter how we label them, as AP) honorsyorregular.” What's different, she explained, is that she’s much more aware of the effect of those labels and of the assumptions they carry. “Phere The importance of noncognitive factors aetereenshereninenbeaialiey rs also shape students’ school ee 2006; Farrington etal.,2012). "ihe include behaviors, skills, and aticudes that are essen- tial to academic achievement but are not necessarily reflected in test scores. For example, students ho ‘possess a sense of belonging, believe that effort pays: ‘off, and that academic work has personal value have stronger academic outcomes than their peers who do not possess these beliefs. The research suggests that interventions focused on changing students’ beliels certain level of student pro- » about their intelligence and on other psychologi- ‘tendency to assume a. “ficiency based on the label a course carries,” she: said. “Removing the stigma of a label has enabled ‘students to focus on the learning that needs to hap pen, instead of assuming a role the institution has. awarded them based on a standardized test they” ‘took inmiddle school.” As a result, Mallory’ teaching is more focused. SheSintentionalaboutsending amessage tostudents thatall students can master these skills thatlearning. requires effort, and that she doesn’t expect them £0 ‘get things right the first time they try. She's found this message is particularly effective with traditional hhonors-leve students, who often believe they should already know everything and who may be reluctant to try new things for fear of failure Tsitworking? Yes. Noted Mallory, “Morestudents achievingathigher levelsisthe trend inall my classes: “These trends aren't just highly rewarding; they also validate the hard work of teaching.” Evanston Township has partnered with North ‘western University to form a technical advisory group to evaluate the long-term outcomes of fresh- man restructuring. This group islooking ata variety of academic outcomes: the increase in enrollment in honors and AP courses, the increase in academic achievement as measured by course grades, the in- crease in ACT scores, the increase in AP scores, the increase in graduation rates, andthe increase in col- lege acceptance and retention rates. December 2016/anuay 2017 eet cal factors can have transformative effects on their school experience and their grades. In particulatyin= -terventions designed to change academic mindsets. have been shown to have significant effects on the. achievement of racial and ethnic minority students (Aronson, Cohen, & McColskey, 2006). Belief systems relating to motivation, effort, and locus of control — that is, how strongly students believe they have control over their lives — are in~ terrelated; together, they can influence academic be- havior. I'students believe ability is fixed, they're less likely to be self-motivated and persistent compared with students who believe that their own efforts ean increase their academic ability and performance. IF students believe they can be successful in school, they're more likely to put forth continued effort Farrington et al., 2012) ‘As part of the restructured freshman year evalu ation, Evanston surveyed students in freshman re- structured classes to monitor their effort and locus ‘of control. Seudents who score high on this measure cexhibitan internal locus of control; they believe they have command over their learning, Students who score low exhibit an external locus of control; they believe that external factors have command over theirlearning. With the restructuring, we found that most students reported putting forth effort in these courses, We also found racial differences: White stu- dents reported having 2 higher locus of control thanPerformance of Evanston Township High School students after detracking How do “regular-level” students do? ter devacking “regular level students enrolled in honorsevel courses in greater numbers and subsequently improved their performance on Advanced Placement exams and on the ACT exam. 70% cen, so 35% 30% aw 20% 13 10% 6 ACT 24+, act 27+ ‘AP Enrollment AP 3+ Mi Before detracking IM After detracking How do “honors-level” students do? ‘Alter detrackin, “honors deve” students continued to envoll in Advanced Placements courses and continued to have high performance on both the Advanced Placements exams and on the ACT exam. 100% 96% 0% 8036 40% 30% 20% 10% ow Act 24+ ACT 27+ 'P Enrollment apse Miseioedevadking, Aer deactng edi! oan lappanmagmnearg 41black or Hispanic students. Just being aware of this information informs classroom instruction, Future ‘work includes looking at L1th-grade survey results ‘on locus of control. We're also partnering with re searchers from Northwestern University to explore this topic and possible interventions. ‘The importance of supports ‘Friday: Teachers are on hand every morning before school starts tohelp students with any questions or con cerns. senteris open Monday through “Thursday afer school. Wealso offer academic support an academic intervention team of trained profession- als identifies and assists students who are struggling. ‘As a result of conversations with students about achievement, AP students created teamASAP — team Access and Success in Advanced Placement — to support fellow students to and through AP courses. The team empowers students with the tools they need and with abeliefthey can successfully nav gate the most challenging coursework. For example, each fall, many students new to AP classes struggle ‘to adjust to the workload. As part ofthe work, team- ASAP members confirm to new AP students that the first few weeks of an AP course are often the most difficultand that over the semester these courses get easier. Members also encourage those new to AP to form study groups to review challenging content. “This affirmation of struggle and hope isan essential ‘component of the peer-to-peer support teamASAP offers. The team includes more than 275 members from diverse backgrounds, from students who have taken or are taking AP courses to faculty and staff. Our overarching purpose ‘With the overhaul ofthe freshman year, afar wider range of students now has access to and is experi- cencing success in advanced coursework. If we have any hope of reducing persistent achievement gaps and ever-widening income inequality, increasing students’ access to advanced courses and improving their chances of suecess in those classes are good places to start. « Roterences ‘Adelman, , (1990), Answers nthe toolbox, academic Intensity attendance pattems, and bachelor’s degree attainmert. Washington, DC: Economic Poy institut ‘Aronson, J, Chen, G., & Meals, W. (th Montrose, 8 Lewis K, & Mooney, K). (2008) Reducing stereotype threat 42 Keppen December 2016/2017 In classrooms: A review of sock psychologtalntarvanton stucos on improving the achievement of black students. ‘Washington, 00: U.S. Dopartmant of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Cantar for Education Evaluation ‘and Rogional Assistance, and Regional Educational Laboratory ‘Southoast ites od.gouncosledabs/egions/southeast! jpdvREL_2000078.pd avis, P, Arey, B, & Labo, D, (2015). Advan Placement: An opon rwtaton. Educational Lasdersip, 72 (3 96-40. 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