ETHS Has Many Bright Spots: Witherspoon

Several examples of ways Evanston Township High School continues to succeed were shared by District 202 Superintendent Dr. Eric Witherspoon during Thursday night’s combined “State of the Schools” address with District 65.

“There have been some exciting strides made by this school in recent years,” Witherspoon said, pointing to a number of studies which had ETHS ranked among the best in the nation in several categories.

The superintendent showed the city of Evanston’s No. 4 national ranking when it comes to “most educated communities,” as ranked by Money Magazine.

Rankings from U.S. News and World Report and the Washington Post both had ETHS among the top 2 percent of schools nationwide when it comes to having a challenging curriculum.

“I was a little disappointed to see we were a few ranks behind New Trier in the U.S. News and World Report rank,” Witherspoon said, “but then saw we were several ranks ahead of them in the Washington Post study - so if anyone I asks, I refer them to the Washington Post.”

The school offers more than 250 courses, including 143 at the honors level and 29 Advancement Placement ones. The composite ACT score last year was 23.6, which is second best in school history - only trailing the score of the previous year’s class. 64 percent of students take at least one AP exam and 90 percent graduate within five years, with a dropout rate of an all-time school low 1.1 percent.

“And our school is garnering top awards all the time,” Witherspoon added of the school’s other amenities like the three theatres, planetarium, “state of the art” culinary kitchens and “automotive labs that will knock your socks off.”

The safety of the school was also praised. Witherspoon pointed to a survey of District 202 high school students that inquired as to whether they felt safer in their neighborhood, on their way to school or at school.

“Eighty four percent of them said they felt safest here,” he said.

But reaching out to all students is the most important task ahead.

“Although 90 percent of our students are graduating, that means 10 percent are not - which means we do have work to do,” he said, noting that now it is “harder than ever” to be a teenager and that students should get all the support than can.