West Cook News

River Forest District 90's curriculum chief hired an $85 per hour consultant to help her inform school parents that their children's state standardized math and English test scores continue to decline.

That's according to district emails obtained by West Cook News.

In October 2022, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Alison Hawley tasked Phil Earvolino, a self-described "data analyst and student assessment specialist" from Wilmette, with helping her create a presentation on District 90 state test score results for a November 2022 board meeting.

"Community members insist we are failing and out (sic) test scores are falling (but) don’t understand that scores are volatile and that increasing or decreasing a couple percentile points is not a significant change," Hawley wrote in an email to Earvolino.

After reviewing scores that showed sharp dips in District 90 student performance, compared to students nationally, Hawley proposed to Earvolino that they change the analysis and presentation to show more variability in test scores, comparing "fall to fall," which would include students' "summer slide," rather than "fall to spring," as was done previously.

Earvolino made the changes.

"Is that what you were looking for?" he wrote to Hawley.

She responded.

"Yes, that is what I am looking for. Thank you!"

Between 2019 and 2021 in English, 6 of 7 grades showed a decline in achievement over the period, with the fifth grade falling the most, from the 93rd percentile in 2019 to the 78th in 2022.

In Math, 6 of 7 grades showed a decline, with the biggest decline being third grade (93rd to 82nd).

The declines continue a trend that began in 2016, which led Hawley to de-emphaize student learning growth in her community presentation.

Earvolino told Hawley in an email that state-tracked rates of growth were "so low" that he was "not sure you even want to discuss" them with district parents.

"I think we want to focus on (overall) achievement," Hawley responded.

Earvolino, 57, whose Linkedin page says he spent 12 years as "data systems manager" for Wilmette School District 39, invoiced the district $1,785 for 21 hours of work.

"A balanced approach to assessment"

Hawley has been emphatic, however, that raising student test scores is not her mission in her new position, to which she was promoted last spring.

The first slide of the "District 90 Student Growth and Achievement Overview" deck produced by Hawley and Earvolino states the district's academic "philosophy."

"District 90 is committed to a balanced approach to assessment to ensure educational excellence for every child," it says.

Hawley previously worked in Winnetka School District 36 before moving to River Forest in 2016 to implement a new "equity-based" curriculum devised by then-school board president Ralph Martire.

Martire, a teacher's union lobbyist and political activist, wanted to equalize white and black student test scores in the district, rather than raising them. He later moved to the Oak Park & River Forest H.S. board, where he implemented a race-based grading system.

According to the Illinois State Board of Education, River Forest District 90 has 1,387 students, 870 white, 181 hispanic,  94 Asian, 74 black, and 164 of mixed-race.