We don’t hear much about the “Achievement Gap” at OPRF High School anymore. It was very much highlighted in almost every academic conversation and school communication for years. A few years ago, the name somehow morphed into the “Opportunity Gap.” And now it also feels like we’ve stopped talking about it altogether. Why?
Some believe our current lack of attention to the original achievement gap was totally predictable. OPRF painted itself into a weird corner of suggesting they could close the gap and raise overall achievement for all students by suggesting to the community it was mostly due to systemic racism and employee biases embedded inside OPRF High School and in our communities (pertinent link: Strengthening Anti-Racist Educational Leaders). Thus, if OPRF failed to close the achievement gap, they’d have to either admit that they couldn’t get rid of enough of the racism and biases in our school community (an indefensible position), or they would have to subtly stop talking about the gap altogether and quietly begin trying the next big thing.
Before sharing the official and independent state data on OPRF’s achievement gap, below is a useful timeline we all should understand:
America To Me was filmed during the 2015 school year. One clear motivation was to shine a spotlight on the stubborn achievement gap.
Our previous superintendent was hired in the summer of 2016 as the interim superintendent and then was elevated to the official role later that same year to very much address the achievement gap.
Our current superintendent was hired in 2017 as the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.
America to Me was released in 2018.
After an expensive hiring search, our current superintendent was offered the job as an internal promotion in 2021.
So it is now 2024. OPRF’s current movement is no longer new. There is a long record of student achievement data to evaluate. And we owe it to our students to evaluate progress, or lack thereof.
If you study the Illinois State Report Card from 2018 to 2023, you will find that OPRF is not closing the achievement gap. In fact, it is widening in English.
We should not allow our community to be gas-lit as the many strategic changes over the last decade were intended to close the gap and it’s not working. Stay the course, as some have recommended? Let’s hope not for the sake of the next decade of students and families in our wonderfully diverse community. Let’s simply get back to more math, more science, more reading, more targeted supports, more critical thinking and frankly more “school.”
It’s time for a new — or some would say old — movement that prioritizes growth in learning with a focus on the students and teachers in the classroom as opposed to growing administrative bureaucracy and paid consultants. We need more common sense and less politics. Our leaders’ philosophy and implementation may be well intended, but a decade is more than a fair amount of time to evaluate the effectiveness of such a philosophy on high school academic outcomes.
It’s time for a change. The real question is if our community has the courage to listen and act.
Go Huskies.
Ross Lissuzzo is an Oak Park native, current River Forest resident, OPRF alum, and parent of a Huskie.