For nearly twenty years, Evanston Township High School (ETHS) was part of a long-term effort, in collaboration with Northwestern University and District 65, to study and try to find a solution to a major problem seen in so many diverse communities and schools around the country - despite great effort, countless conversations and numerous programs, too often we see academic achievement gaps between white students and students of color, that are already in place at young ages and show no signs of improvement through high school graduation. How and why is it that results in things like test scores, grades, participation in honors and advanced placement (AP) classes, participation in academically inclined extracurricular activities and clubs, graduation rates, and college acceptance and attendance become very different between demographic groups, despite the fact that the students all grew up and attended the same schools, with the same resources and teachers, and in theory had exposure to the same potential opportunities? And is it possible to diminish and perhaps even eliminate such gaps before students graduate from the K-12 public school system?
These were the research questions of Project Excite, and the goal was to determine if there is a systematic, comprehensive, sustained and long-term program or method that would have any significant effect on closing the achievement and opportunity gaps in the community.