Project Excite - A Model for Positively Affecting Academic, Opportunity Gaps

 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.

Excite no longer exists, and there are no dedicated efforts trying to address achievement gaps in E-town. We hope to resurrect something soon, on a wider scale. It provides a model that demonstrated a long-term, comprehensive, inclusive and more holistic approach to build up not only academic skills and knowledge base, but more importantly self-confidence and self-esteem for the students as well as families, can reduce and eliminate the measured achievement gaps. We also saw consistent increases of Excite students into honors and AP courses when in ETHS, which is part of the opportunity gap that has historically seen underrepresentation of students of color at these academic levels.

Here's a summary of the original Project Excite, and how it was run.