West Cook News

Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 has replaced the pursuit of its students' academic achievement with a new goal: the equalization of white and black student test scores.

That's according to the the school's Board of Education newsletter, distributed via email to school parents and community taxpayers on Monday.

"The district’s number one priority is ensuring that we eliminate race, socioeconomic status, and other social factors as predictors of student academic achievement and social emotional growth," the newsletter said, under the headline ""Racial Equity Programming - Priority 1: Racial Equity."

The board announced the hiring of LaTonya Applewhite as the district's new "Office of Equity and Student Success (OESS)," where "the focus was on strengthening the practices and procedures that were currently connected to the district’s racial equity policy, rather than creating large-scale systemic change or undoing what had already been created."

"Racial Equity" is a Marxist concept that says treating students of all races equally in public schools would be unfair to black students. It argues low black student test scores are due to "white supremacy" which, with the help of administrators like Applewhite, can be eradicated.

A linked Powerpoint deck describes Applewhite's "action plan," which outlines her four "guiding principles as well as the roles of her team members, including a "trauma-informed interventionist" and a "community outreach coordinator."

Applewhite's "principles" are "continuous improvement," "systemic change, "student development" and "community," which she says will "improve the district's culture" and improve "feelings of inclusion and collective investment."

OPRF students don't feel safe

Goals of Applewhite's office, per her presentation, include conducting "at least one trauma-informed training session with each (OPRF) department by July 31, 2024" and to "increase the percentage of students responding positively to the Illinois Youth Survey question 'I feel safe in my school' by 3% annually."

OPRF's 2022 Illinois Youth Survey results found 36 percent of 9th graders, 40 percent of 10th graders, 38 percent of 11th graders and 35 percent of 12th graders responded that they felt safe at OPRF. 

Some 15 percent of OPRF freshmen-- 124 students-- reported skipping a day or more of school because they felt unsafe. School-wide, 471 students said they skipped school to stay safe.

A 2019 OPRF school discipline report found 699 black OPRF students committed 1,269 school rule infractions, or more than half of the total, while making up just 18 percent of the student population. The school is 55 percent white, 14 percent Hispanic and four percent Asian, according to the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE).

OPRF has furiously been implementing "racial equity" measures for the past decade. But the test scores of its black students continue to decline.

Only 20 percent of black OPRF students passed the state's annual English examination in 2022, down from 23 percent in 2021 and 30 percent in 2017, according to ISBE. 

In math, 15 percent of black OPRF students passed the state examination last year, up from 12 percent in 2021 but down from 18 percent in 2017.

According to ISBE, 48 percent of black OPRF students were "chronically absent" from school in 2021-22, or missed more than ten percent of school days without a valid excuse. That's versus zero percent of OPRF Asian students, and eight percent of white ones.

Last year, OPRF announced a new race-based grading system that would bar teachers from docking black students for missing class, misbehaving in school or failing to turn in their assignments.

Applewhite, 43, of Bronzeville, joined OPRF last July from Rich Township H.S. District 227 in south suburban Richton Park. Her last position there was as "Freshmen/Sophomore Academy Leader," in which she managed a "budget for academic and social support of the academy," according to her LinkedIn page. 

Applewhite also spent three years as an associate principal for Chicago Public Schools. She's a graduate of Alcorn State University (Miss.) and Chicago State University.

Cofsky, 62, of Oak Park, has served on the OPRF District 200 board since 2013. He is a vice president with Oil-Dri Corporation of America.