Chicago-Area High School Offers Racially Segregated Math Classes

(AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

Evanston High School just north of Chicago decided to offer Advanced Placement classes in math open only to members of specific races.

According to Spectator World, there are at least five courses that are only open “to either black or “Latinx” students.” according to the school’s website. Why this is so is not explained in the course listing.

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Segregating students by race is illegal. The 1974 Equal Educational Opportunities “prohibits, among other conduct, deliberate segregation on the basis of race, color, and national origin,” according to the Department of Justice. Apparently, Evanston High School doesn’t like this information to get around.

Evanston Township High School told The Spectator that while it is “proud” of its work increasing access to Advanced Placement math classes for “Black” and “Latinx” students, they do not “restrict” classes to students based on their identity. The high school acknowledged that language in its online course listings was not accurate.

“We do not have (and never have had) a process that restricts students from taking AP classes based on race. No ETHS student is restricted from taking an AP class based on identity or is required to take any class based on identity,” ETHS said in a statement.

They are lying. In the course syllabus that was accessed and copied by The Spectator, the “Algebra 2” course describes the class as being “restricted to students who identify as Latinx.” The syllabus for the same course now reads, “While open to all students, this optional section of the course is intended to support students who identify as Latinx.

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The high school updated the language in its course listings after our report to indicate that courses are open to all students rather than restricted to students of a particular race or gender. However, certain course sections still say that they are “intended to support” students of color.

“While open to all students, this optional section of the course is intended to support students who identify as Latinx,” one section of Algebra 2 states.

“ETHS course offerings provide additional opportunities for students to take designated AP classes,” ETHS’s statement to The Spectator asserted. “This aligns with our goal to increase access to AP-level coursework at ETHS and is supported by the research on how to effectively increase access and success in AP classes for all students. As a result, access to AP classes for all students, including Black and Latinx students, has dramatically increased over the past decade. We are proud of our work.”

Proud or not, what they were doing was blatantly illegal — until The Spectator called them out for it. It raises troubling questions about the reasons for segregating students by race. Are the courses designated for black and Latinx students less challenging? What is the point in treating one race differently from another — especially in an area of academia where race plays no role at all — math?

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Hitler’s Germany substituted “German physics” and “German chemistry” for Western physics and chemistry by banning the teaching of some discoveries by Jews. Perhaps “black algebra” did something similar.

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