Advanced Placement classes, honors, and dual credit courses can be a tool to simulate a college-like environment. These courses can help a student further develop their academic skills and understanding of the world, as well as offer helpful tools and opportunities for navigating these spaces.
However, not every student has the resources and support necessary to pursue these classes.
District 128 has hired Equal Opportunity Schools, an educational nonprofit that partners with public schools to break down the barriers between students and more rigorous courses than what they are currently enrolled in. They address the barriers that contribute to the nationwide trends of underrepresentation of students who are low-income, and Hispanic or African American in rigorous academic courses.
The common barriers they aim to address are encouragement, general knowledge, access, and belonging. Based on EOS’ work with schools, they have found that, for example, students might not have had adults in their life encourage them to enroll in these classes, or they might not have enough information to understand what these courses entail. They might also feel like they do not belong in these classes, can not succeed, or that their identities are not welcomed.
Equal Opportunity Schools’ approach is to identify students who have the potential to excel in more advanced classes by gathering data, and then to provide them with the support needed to achieve in these classes.
According to data from the D128 Data Profile for the 2021-2022 school year, Black and Hispanic students are underrepresented in VHHS AP courses, as only 27.3% of Black students and 36.3% of Hispanic students are enrolled in AP courses. Only 25.1% of students who participate in the fee waiver program are enrolled in AP courses. When looking at the population as a whole, 54% of the school population was enrolled in AP classes.
Larry Varn, the director of equity and inclusion for District 128, explained how the data is gathered:
“We look at the overall percent makeup of our student population by race and ethnicity, and then we look at the enrollment of AP classes by ethnicity. We look by race [for example] of the students who identify as Latino, and how many of those students are enrolled in AP classes, and we do that for each race,” he said. “Then we look at those [equity] gaps, to see where our students of color are in terms of course levels enrollment.”
While the efforts of the EOS partnership will apply to all students apt for more rigorous courses, Varn shared that the main goal is “To close the [enrollment] gap with students of color. We are narrowing that gap through this work, targeted and intentional around identifying students who we believe have a potential, but have not tapped into that potential yet,” Varn said. “[Students] may not take an AP class because they don’t feel like they belong [in the class], or see other students that look like them and share their identity.”
After looking at the district’s data and noticing some trends in AP enrollment, Varn attended a conference on EOS’s work and brought back the information to the district. After that, district administrators went on to visit York High School in Elmhurst and talked to representatives from Glenbard Township High Schools in Glen Ellyn, since both entities were already in partnership with EOS.
The Board of Education approved D128’s partnership with Equal Opportunity Schools in April of 2023. Administrators underwent training in July to then launch the partnership for the district during an Institute Day in October, where all staff members took a survey for the data gathering step of the process. Students took the survey one week later.
The data gathered from staff consisted of teacher recommendations and staff perceptions of equity in classes. Students reported how many AP classes they have been enrolled in, their study habits, post-secondary plans, subjects of interest, trusted adults at school, perceptions of AP classes, and how much support they have been provided to make informed decisions within the school.
The partnership is still in its data-gathering phase. Students who have been identified as having potential for advanced classes will have conversations with counselors or other staff about the possibilities of taking advanced level courses.
“Conversations will occur with those students in order for them to see and feel they can overcome whatever barrier was preventing them from taking an AP course,” Varn said. “They’ll go into course selection [in January] being empowered and knowing they can make an informed decision around more advanced coursework.”
Before the school year starts next fall, teachers will start looking into how to make their AP classroom more welcoming for all students who are coming in, and how to create a sense of belonging for them, Varn explained.
A tool that will be provided to all staff members in order to better support students at school are the insight cards. The insight cards will have all self-reported information from the survey and will serve as an aid for teachers to help students, where they can see a student’s interests and self-identified barriers.
Varn shared how the decision to hire EOS reflects the district’s DARING mission.
“Our mission is to develop graduates who are DARING. We’re trying to make sure that graduates are prepared for the level of rigor they will see after high school,” he said. “We want to make sure that our graduates are globally competitive; [D128] wants [students] to be able to go to any space in the world.”
He believes hiring Equal Opportunity Schools is a step in the right direction.
“As the Director for Equity and Inclusion, I think any opportunity to increase representation in our courses is positive. We are demonstrating that we are committed [to the belief] that all students can have [high achievements] regardless of race, religion, sex, and we truly believe in the potential of every single student,” he said.