District 65 Hires Consultant to Address ‘Institutional Racism’

A consultant who says there’s a “strong history of institutionalized racism” in the Evanston Skokie School District 65 community has been hired to conduct an “equity audit” in an effort to erase a discrepancy in academic achievement between black and white students. 

Corrie Wallace, an Evanston native who previously worked as the director of equity in Niles Township High School 219, will lead a team that will include one representative from each of the district’s 18 schools, according to the Evanston Review.
The team will gather input from teachers, students and families and study the root of the problem behind the achievement gap, looking at class demographics, busing practices and test scores among other indicators. 

"The intended outcome is to create a road map that will address the findings from the equity audit in a systematic way that will be specifically aimed at addressing the racial predictability of student achievement in District 65 while building a more equitable learning environment that cultivates the cultural capital of all students and their families," wrote Wallace, who will be paid $30,000 for all the work she’s done thus far and $70,000 over the course of the next school year. 

Several seminars will be held as part of the process, which Wallace called “an opportunity” to look at institutional racism and “the impact we’re seeing today as a result of that.” 

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