North Cook News

Chicago's Morning Answer radio talk show host Dan Proft recently made fellow Chicago residents aware of the practice of race qualifiers for math classes in the Evanston Township High School (ETHS) district.

On April 30, Proft tweeted screenshots of course descriptions from Evanston’s course catalogue that describe different sections of an AP Calculus course, with some being restricted to students who identify as Black or Latinx, though they made no distinctions between genders or student gender identities.

“Neo-segregation is the absurdity of identitarianism taken to its logical end,” he said in the tweet.

Economics professor Mark J. Perry responded to the screenshots via Twitter, commenting that the offerings were illegal and that he would immediately file a complaint with the Chicago Office for Civil Rights.

People were quick to point out that it could be that the different course codes were used for data collection purposes and that all demographics were still mixed into a shared instructional classroom. But Proft pointed out a quote from a January article: “ETHS also offers other classes specifically intended for Black students, including an AP Calculus AB class reserved for students who identify as Black.”

The district's course catalogue additionally promotes an Algebra 2 course and a precalculus class for Latinx students, as well as a precalculus class for Black male students.

ETHS Board of Education members have been taking purposeful steps to increase enrollment in their advanced placements courses in recent years, especially after the impact of the pandemic. The Daily Northwestern reported that while they have seen positive changes in the numbers, they expressed concern over the racial disparities shown in how their student body takes advanced courses. Board member Mirah Anti noted that 77% of their white students take an AP class, while Black students show only 20-22% and Latinx students approximately 38%. There were no reports on Asian students or classes targeted to them, nor were there any demographics of female students.