D202 Candidate Gretchen Livingston: Focus On Individual Student Achievement

1. How long have you lived in Evanston? 

I have lived here for over 23 years, minus two years in England when we kept our home here.

2. How long have you served on the District 202 board?

I have served almost one term, which is 4 years.

Click here for information on the other District 202 candidates.

3. What would you say are your greatest accomplishments as a school board member?

At my urging and with my support, the Board unanimously adopted goals this spring that include measurable objectives—a notable improvement from the prior set of goals.  I advocated for an inclusive goal setting process, including community input and extensive Board discussion and collaboration with administrators that resulted in those goals.  The goals focus on increasing “each student’s academic trajectory” and providing “individualized supports, programs, services, and curricula” to ensure that growth, among other things.

I led the way in advocating for outside experts to evaluate changes in our freshman humanities and biology classes.  Dr. David Figlio of Northwestern University, along with a team from other research institutions, is performing the evaluation at no charge to ETHS. Those experts are working with our administrators to determine if the changes are having the intended benefits, and are not having unintended negative consequences.  We must make adjustments as necessary based on the evaluation that is currently in progress. 

4. What do you think are the biggest issues for District 202? How would you address those?

We continue to face some of the same challenges we faced 4 years ago when I was first elected, including continuing disparities in the achievement of our students across racial and socio-economic lines.  At the same time, we are seeing some notable successes: the highest average ACT scores, increased numbers of AP classes, more students taking AP classes, and doing well on them, and rankings that place ETHS among the top 2% of high schools in the country.  Freshman year changes were made to improve achievement, and I urged the plan of evaluation that will ensure we make that improvement without unintended consequences.  ETHS is well positioned to continue its improvement.  I want to be there to make certain the improvement continues.

The first two goals, in particular, relate to student achievement.  Goal 1 is to “increase each student’s academic trajectory as demonstrated through multiple measures” and Goal 2 is to “provide individualized supports, programs, services, and curricula to ensure that each student will demonstrate significant academic and social-emotional growth during their experience at ETHS”.  Even more importantly, the targets for those two goals include measurable objectives ( for example, 100% of students meeting expected growth, 71% of seniors scoring 3 or higher on at least one AP test, 84% of juniors and seniors enrolled in honors and AP courses by race and income; 100% of freshman on track to graduate by subgroup, and 100% of students on track for ACT College and Career Readiness benchmarks).  A theme of the new goals is a focus on “each student.”  Part of student success at a big school like ETHS is recognizing each of our students as individuals.  By acknowledging this point in our goals, we have already improved our approach.  Measuring progress and adjusting as necessary will get us even further.

5. What will you do to improve graduation rates and job placement for those students who do not go on to college right away (if at all)?

It is important to understand the current graduation and college attendance rates.  The 2012 class 4 year graduation rate is 86.7% and the 5 year rate is 90%, well ahead of state averages and improved over prior years.  In order to improve graduation rates, ETHS has instituted credit recovery programs that have had an impact, in addition to its already strong systems of supports.   Our drop-out rate is low and even with changes in how chronic truancy is calculated, our rate did not increase as much as expected under the new calculation (chronic truancy defined as absent without cause more than 5% of previous 180 days). The college attendance rate for the class of 2010 (National Student Clearinghouse data) is 82%.  Besides 2 and 4 year colleges, our students often enter career training programs, go straight to full-time work, enter the military, take a gap year, attend non-US colleges, or attend prep school, and those figures do not count toward the college attendance rate.  ETHS has significantly increased job training and certification programs in recent years.  Those programs now include a nationally certified automotive technician course, early childcare and education training, Microsoft Office Specialist certification, training in public service careers (fire, police, and emergency medical services), and pharmacy technician training.  In conjunction with the City we are adding a new position (still being developed) to make certain students are taking advantage of these courses and then obtaining assistance for placement upon graduation.  We can do much more to partner directly with our local business community, which should look to our students first for their hiring needs.  We are fortunate to have a strong partnership (and on-site office) with the Youth Job Center to help with this work.

6. What will you do to improve safety in and around ETHS?

I have served on the City-School committee and this topic and been subject of good discussion and excellent collaboration.  We recently worked with the City to obtain a second on site school resource officer (an armed police officer) at ETHS, in addition to the one already present there.  In addition, we are fortunate to have a large safety staff at ETHS who have a visible presence both inside and outside the building.  Our students have responded to a survey that they generally feel safe within the walls of the school.  Outside the school, we have used temporary additional lighting for several years, and that lighting has now been improved and made more permanent.  We are working with the City to continue to improve lighting in the area around the school as well.  In addition, we will be adding emergency phones around the school.