New Trier High School Admin Gives Progress Report For Its Equity Goals

NORTHFIELD, IL — Administrators at New Trier High School provided an update to the board on the initiatives to improve the district's culture, climate, equity and belonging for students as part of its strategic plan.

The equity efforts comprise one of six pillars of the New Trier 2030 plan, which was launched in 2019. They emphasize the importance of every student feeling a sense of belonging while encouraging learning from more diverse perspectives.

Curriculums across departments have been revamped to reflect a wide range of voices and primary sources. New texts and films have been added in the English department, the Social Studies department has added an AP African American Studies course and strengthened state-mandated units on LGBTQ+, Asian American and Native American history, according to Superintendent Paul Sally.

The school community in New Trier Township has been strongly supportive of the district's equity work, Sally said.

"[The feedback has been] that the initiatives that we have have been impactful, they've been impactful on students in the classrooms and hallways, that our curriculum looks different, our set of texts look different," Sally told board members at last week's meeting. "And, of course, we never do that and compromise the rigor of our classes. That's a false dichotomy. We can do both and we are doing both."

In 2021, administrators increased their efforts to diversify its ranks of teachers, including by changing some hiring procedures, attending more diverse job fairs and working with a wider array of universities. As a result, Sally said, 36 percent of the new teachers hired in the past three years have been non-white.

New teachers and administrators learn about the district's equity goals when they join the district, and in-school institute days have provided opportunities for professional learning about civil discourse, supporting queer students and helping those with learning differences. And township-wide institute day is planned for February 2025 with more opportunities for faculty to learn how to support diverse students.

The superintendent said focusing on the experiences of freshmen at the Northfield campus can help forge a sense of community for students who enter the high school from eight distinct feeder districts. Some of that work can happen in the Kinetic Wellness department, which was formerly known as physical education and now also includes social-emotional learning within its purview.

"So we talk about responsible decision making, and we talk about microaggressions, hate speech, all of those things, helping students understand that, because they're still young kids and I think we can do our part to continue to build that capacity in our kids for empathy, and understanding how things that they say can hurt others," Sally said, of the freshman-specific initiatives.

"We want to be very explicit about the ways in which we're teaching and our students are experiencing parts of our curriculum related to our culture, climate equity, and belonging," he said.

"And that includes the all kinds of cultural pieces that are in different parts of our curriculum: the textbooks that we read, our focus on making sure we're addressing all forms of hate, anti-Muslim hate, anti-Arab hate, antisemitism, homophobia and others. It's very important that our students are able to be exposed, see and think about those issues as well."

Board Vice President Jean Hahn praised the work of the district's administrators and equity-focused staff.

"It's really complex, hard work. We're trying to celebrate and learn from each other's differences to build a stronger community, so it can seem paradoxical, but it's in our differences that we're stronger," Hahn said. "So it's not easy and it's going to continue to evolve and emerge and expand, as we expand our thinking about who needs to be included so that we're a better, stronger community."