Editor’s note: District 65 has had more than 70 teacher departures this summer through resignation, retirement or termination, and with just a few weeks to go before the start of the new school year still has 46 vacancies remaining. RoundTable school columnist Simone Larson spoke with one of the educators who left.
When Ashley Stanley graduated with her master’s in education from the University of Michigan, she went directly to a trusted professor for advice on next steps. This was the spring of 2018, and Stanley knew she wanted to teach in a community that was dedicated to achieving equitable outcomes for all children, especially those from historically marginalized backgrounds.
The professor told her about a suburb outside of Chicago that was participating in some groundbreaking work, with a real commitment to equitable education. That suburb turned out to be Evanston.
On landing in Evanston, Stanley realized she had indeed come to the right place. During her initial job interview at Dewey Elementary School, the interview team’s first question spoke to how she might combat racial predictability in the classroom. Stanley was thrilled; she had a sense that Evanston was engaged in doing the kind of important work that she was truly passionate about.
“I loved that they did not shy away from difficult topics, even in my interview,” Stanley said. “They led with such an important and heavy question about race and inequality. I so badly wanted to work in a place where everyone is accepted, loved and can learn, and where all families are valued. Also, let’s combat poverty while we’re at it, too, and let’s talk about all of this. I thought, ‘This is the place where I am going to be able to contribute and grow as a teacher.’”
Stanley accepted the job teaching fifth grade at Dewey.
She said that almost immediately after arriving at summer orientation, teachers and district leaders inundated her with high-quality training programs, each one with equity at the forefront. These were programs like SEED and Beyond Diversity. The district had also begun leading professional development sessions utilizing the work of Zaretta Hammond, author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain. Stanley even opted into a student-centered, research-based science education training program at Northwestern University.
“When I first started in the district in 2018, I was getting some truly rich professional development,” she said. “It felt like a continuation of my master’s program. I was learning so much.”
Embracing those opportunities, she threw herself into the work of teaching through an equity lens, and found the first two years of her career in District 65 to be extremely fulfilling.
Donna Sokolowski, then the principal at Dewey, often popped in to Stanley’s room for impromptu visits, always with empowering, positive notes and encouraging, practical feedback, Stanley said. She also found supportive, nurturing colleagues to guide her. She said she felt truly supported in all of her equity-centered work.
Everywhere she turned, the District 65 community seemed to be attempting to address the problem of white supremacy. Dewey’s PTA ran a program called “How to talk to your kid about race and racism,” which Stanley attended.
Kefira Philippe, a community member, parent and District 65 educator herself, said she remembers working with Stanley at SEED, and Philippe recalled her sincerity and dedication to the job.
“She really cares about the big issues,” said Philippe, “and did more than just pay lip service to these issues. She brought this work into her classroom in a real way.”
Then came COVID-19, and with it, a shift in the district’s vision and leadership style.
Audit brings changes
During the pandemic, an educational audit took place across District 65, Stanley said. Many curricular changes implemented since then have cited this particular audit as the catalyst for these changes.
While Stanley and all elementary educators were teaching 100% virtually, they were also expected to fully implement brand-new elementary curriculum in every subject.
“All of the high-quality professional development we received was gone,” she said. “It was now reduced to online tutorials provided by the curriculum companies on how to navigate that particular curriculum’s website.”
Stanley tried to stay open-minded about the district’s changes, but “many of these new curriculum practices contradicted everything I had recently learned in my graduate school program,” she said.
“I became very dedicated to increasing rigor and making sure every student was learning at grade level, but I didn’t see that the methods we were being asked to use were leading to positive student outcomes. Kids were disengaged and turning in less work than ever before, and I was left relying on my positive relationships with students in an attempt to coerce them through many of the lessons using jokes, songs and mustered enthusiasm. There was such a lack of connection to the real world and an over-focus on questions with a single correct answer, all adapted after this curricular audit.”
More oversight
At the same time, Stanley noticed an increase in upper administrative oversight.
“I had a colleague get questioned by someone at the district office on why he wasn’t logging into one particular math program a certain number of times per week, and it was because he was trying a different approach with his students for that particular unit,” she said. “So it really felt invasive, like we were being watched all the time.”
After three years of teaching elementary education, Stanley decided to broaden her horizons and tackle a new challenge by moving to middle school. She voluntarily transferred to Haven in 2021 and was excited to begin teaching young adults how to analyze literature and write across multiple genres.
Once Stanley arrived at Haven, she celebrated and embraced the creativity that goes into teaching writing. Vivian Afrik’s daughter had Stanley for eighth grade English language arts.
“Ms. Stanley always highlighted my daughter’s strengths. She flipped the narrative on how my daughter saw herself; she made her feel really confident,” Afrik said. “And because Ms. Stanley saw her for who she was, my daughter felt inspired to keep excelling and writing and creating. One day I even caught her writing poetry at home!”
Mandela Okere, a paraprofessional, was placed in Stanley’s Haven classroom to support students in January 2022. Okere said he wanted to give her the space to teach as she saw fit, but Stanley immediately invited him to give feedback on lessons.
“She’d always go over the agenda with me and ask what I thought about it,” Okere said. “So much so that I became an active participant in planning. I even joined a student debate team to support some boys.”
Dismantling racism
Stanley made it clear to him, and all of her students, that as a white woman living in this country, it was her job to dismantle racism and white supremacy, according to Okere. “And as a Black man,” he said, “I loved hearing that. She is truly forward-thinking.”
Despite the joy she experienced while connecting with students, colleagues and parents, Stanley simultaneously felt a burgeoning discontent working in District 65, stemming from both a lack of autonomy to implement research-based teaching best practices and diluted professional development offerings.
Shortly after the curriculum audit in 2020, the middle schools purchased a new English/language arts (ELA) curriculum. This particular curriculum promotes skill and drill methods that rely heavily on rote memorization, Stanley said, as well as answering multiple-choice questions based on excerpts from various texts. She said these texts often felt disconnected and disjointed from the larger units, and she noticed that her students showed resistance and disengagement whenever she introduced lessons involving the new curriculum.
“At the start of the year, I really tried to use the district-provided curriculum with fidelity, while reworking the lessons for hours each night in an attempt to make it more engaging, but even with these modifications, students continued resisting this curriculum,” she said.
Test-prep class
“I teach language arts. The word ‘art’ is literally in the title of the class. But what we’re being asked to teach is really more like a reading skills test-prep class. And if that is the direction District 65 wants to take, that’s up to them, but I worry about the broader implications. What is going to happen to our kids when they go out in the world, and they see there are multiple ways of understanding the world around them? Because being able to answer multiple-choice questions effectively is not going to really serve them in all avenues of their life.”
Stanley said there’s a place for test prep, “but there is always an interesting and creative way to teach any subject, and test prep needs to happen in moderation. Why not have kids read a text and then build test questions and answers themselves? Test prep doesn’t have to be boring.”
Stacy Beardsley, the district’s assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, told the RoundTable in an email this week that every curriculum District 65 uses is reviewed in six-year cycles, according to a four-step process outlined in the graphic below.
The middle school ELA curriculum was reviewed by the curriculum and instruction team and the Curriculum Advisory Committee during the 2020-2021 year, which was conducted remotely. In 2021-2022, the district rolled out the selected new materials in a districtwide pilot, “due to the pandemic and a need to have a standard material during the pandemic,” according to Beardsley.
“In the case of the middle ELA review, several different materials including the District 65 written units of study were reviewed and the committee ultimately recommended StudySync,” she said. “The recommendation was taken to the Curriculum Advisory Committee which consists of educators and was supported for adoption in the spring of 2021. StudySync has received an all green rating from Ed Reports.”
Administrators still “monitor” the curriculum every year, Beardsley said, and the district, based on feedback from department heads, can “make adjustments as needed.”
Despite the district’s recent push to have their teachers utilize the newly purchased curriculum, Stanley continued making an effort to bring more creative, research-based programming to her students.
Book club
During the 2021-22 school year, she participated in a professional book club run by Kristine Schutz and Rebecca Woodard, two education professors at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The group focused on tackling issues related to climate change and teaching climate justice through language arts classes.
The following year, Stanley decided to apply what she had learned from the book club and create her own unit, tailored to meet the needs of her eighth-graders at Haven and aligned to Common Core Standards.
“Ashley has a gifted understanding of how to design units guided by big, important questions,” said Schutz. “She knows that to get the best academic student outcomes, one must honor children’s natural curiosity, while creating lessons that are intellectually rigorous. Kids see injustices in the world, and they’re motivated and encouraged to right those wrongs. She honors this and designs a curriculum that allows kids to explore these injustices and begin to understand the systems of oppression at play.”
As part of the unit, Stanley spent time building background knowledge and content-specific vocabulary, having students research various climate solutions. “But it was so sad,” she said, “because I knew I was doing awesome work, and I wanted to share it, but it did not follow the district-mandated curriculum, even though the unit I built was standards- and research-based. And so therefore I had to keep it a secret from administration. I wasn’t willing to risk being told to follow the district-provided curriculum with rigidity and exact fidelity. And not once during the entire unit did one kid ever say, ‘When are we going to be done with this?’”
Swimming upstream
Having to wrestle with all of these pieces took its toll. Stanley felt as though she was swimming upstream as she balanced trying to stay compliant enough to avoid trouble while also attempting to keep her students engaged.
She said she wants to feel empowered to make choices that she knows are best for kids. She cares about student engagement, and she no longer felt she could maintain her integrity while teaching in Evanston. A singular focus on test scores and a lack of focus on student experience and real-world readiness left her feeling hopeless and uninspired, which made it more difficult for her to reach and teach kids in effective and inspiring ways.
At a crossroads, she decided to contact that trusted professor from the University of Michigan, the very one who sent her to Evanston all those years ago.
”Ultimately, she advised that I needed to protect my own energy, do the work that is right for kids, and to consider my future options,” Stanley said.
She recently accepted a new teaching job in a neighboring suburb for the 2023-24 academic year.
“It’s a scary time to be in education, anywhere. There are some big problems that have to be faced, having to do with achievement and equity and fixing all of the fallout from COVID,” Stanley said, when asked about how she would reflect on her time in Evanston schools. “But there are so many amazing and phenomenal educators remaining in District 65. As we move forward, I just hope we can keep humanity in teaching and learning, while continuing to address these very real problems.”
Thank you Simone for this detailed and thorough article and for the courage and committment of Ms. Stanely. You are a gift to our children. Thank you.
Hey Evanston community – this is the result of not paying attention to your school board and its management philosophy and practices Evanston. Your local school board is just as important as any federal or state wide election. The commentors on this article have been screaming from the rooftops over this ongoing train wreck. VOTE!!
This is an excellent article. Thank you Simone Larson.
Thank you Ashley Stanley.
Thank you Donna Sokolowski for your previous letter about the state of the district.
This letter rings 100% true to me and so many other parents in the district. It’s what we hear from teachers when we get on our 5 minute parent teacher conference calls. They are so fed up that they ask us to reach out to the district. Sarah Speier’s comment is correct as well. We need to address the bullies that are so quick to label anyone with criticism of the administraition as racist. People are afraid to speak up. They are afraid to run for school board. It’s a huge problem in our community. In this last election cycle for school board there was a black women who grew up with me in the 5th ward and ran for office only to be labeled as a white supremacist in ugly smear campaigns via Facebook and other social media. It was ridiculous.
Take one look at the “district 65 parents and caregivers” group on Facebook to see how awful and toxic the dialog is. Some one shared this article and it was first met with kind comments. People saying how great Ashley Stanley was for their kids etc. Then the bullies let loose stopping all other dialog:
While many of the comments on the Facebook group which has over 4500 members are personal talking about how many children are still with out teachers or their beloved teachers are leaving the district there are also a lot of comments that are just flat out toxic:
First the comment of some one who ran for school board of district 202:
“Yikes. This article is gross.
TLDR: Nice white lady who has all the answers and will solve all the problems moves to wealthier, whiter district where she can feel properly cherished.”
Then from some one else:
“Well said, xxx. My impression from this article is that this teacher knows next to nothing about whiteness and how it operates in the world and that made her more of a problem than a gift to District 65 in my opinion. The point of the curriculum audit as I understand it was to try to get everyone on the same page so that outcomes could be assessed classroom to classroom and teachers assisted to improve their outcomes. The point was not to give teachers like this one more “autonomy,” quite the opposite. A young white teacher, not many years out of school, who wants autonomy, seeks to avoid following the lead of district leaders (many of them Black) with far greater knowledge and decades more experience than she has. Whiteness wants to do its own thing, it’s individualism-based rather than community-based.”
Then some one who works with the wife of Stacy Beardsley, (the district’s assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction) who is quoted in the article says:
“Whyte saviorism is a tool of whyte supremacy…. Good luck with that in Winnetka.”
and another person says:
“If a teacher with five years experience believes she knows better than a team of doctorates in education (those who developed the curriculum, those who tested it, those who evaluated it and chose it) most with decades of experience, then I am still seeing a white teacher believing she knows best regardless of data, which is the essence of white supremacy”
and on and on:
“My issue with this story is the white saviorism, false victimization, and the fact that none of the views expressed seem to leave room for the idea that this teacher might not be right about everything… this may be due to the obvious bias of the author”
“There is a small group of persistent parents who continue efforts to illegitimize our board and administration by circulating the disgruntlement of predominantly white teachers who are more committed to real racial equity and progressive reform than anyone ever, apparently. Aside from that being a weird strategy, it’s simply ineffective with an audience who can read or do basic math”
What really confuses me, beyond just the basic disrespect towards teachers that these comments show… is when did it become cool or even acceptable, in Evanston, to blindly cow-tow to authority? Yes, absolutely, many of these administrators are people of color. But they also happen to be IN CHARGE. To question authority and policy is healthy and should be celebrated in a democracy.
I find myself thinking of Audre Lorde: “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.” As I said before, suggesting that following leaders, no matter their race, and disregarding the lived experiences of the adults in front of our children day in and out, well, there’s nothing progressive or anti racist about that.
And for anyone suggesting that Ms. Stanley left because she has a white savior complex, I’m begging you to reread the story, because that was not my interpretation. She left because she fundamentally could not stand to teach ineffective curriculum. Yes, Ms. Stanley cares deeply about equity. According to the article, that is why she came here. But after bad policy is enacted, these policies begin to erode a school system, and we cannot expect families, educators, or school principals to stand by and watch.
We are facing a huge crisis in Evanston schools. There are children set to start in D65 this fall with no teacher at all. And all of the “good work” the district is doing around equitable outcomes means absolutely nothing if the district cannot attract and retain quality teachers.
You seem to contradict yourself. You admit that the district is doing good work around equitable outcomes, and you seem to imply that you support anti-racist efforts, but you say we should question the BBIPOC leaders simply because they are part of “the system” and we should always question authority?
I think we need to separate the individual decisions about curriculum and the new protocols and whatever from the bigger mission of the administration and be clear about what we are criticizing.
And let’s be clear, the lived experience we should be listening to is that of the most marginalized groups in our community.
Every district is struggling to retain teachers, every district is struggling after the horrific effects of the pandemic and the recovery from the behavioral and academic and mental health devastation that is still affecting ALL of us either directly or indirectly. There are classrooms across the country who don’t have teachers this fall – a that is awful for our kids. That is not a d65 specific problem. Leaving d65 for another district which will likely have similar types of problems is not the solution.
Teachers have one of the HARDEST and least well compensated jobs compared to how valuable their impact is on our kids and families….
But teachers can’t just give up on their values without being criticized for it.
I don’t think people said she left because of her white savior tendencies, but simply that the article presented her as if she had those views… And the fact that she would claim to be so committed to helping fix the injustice against marginalized groups but then quit and move to a place where she would have very little interaction or impact with the marginalized group she claimed to be so committed to serving….. THAT is the hypocrisy that is being raised as a potential big problem. It just doesn’t add up to some of us. But we only know what the article told us.
I think you miss the point, Mary. Ms. Stanley is an empathetic person with a deep sense of social justice and cares about reaching her kids, ESPECIALLY those who are marginalized by society. She did not come upon her decision to leave behind District 65 easily. What she did attempt to do (which is a common thread for most teachers who leave the district) is to work with the ever shifting sands of clothing rote memorization or pre-packaged corporate curriculum as an equity measure when these curriculum programs either fly in the face of current research and methodology and are so disengaging in the classroom that all students check out, therefore lowering all around scores and widening the opportunity gap between white and non-white students. We’ve all seen the data posted by the district. Apparently the mode of thought to correct this by some of the loudest voices in Evanston (and on that cesspool of close minded bullying “Evanston Parents and Guardians” group) is to shoot the messenger instead of taking a moment for some self-reflection. At some point we have to give some credence to the idea that maybe, just maybe, we should listen and not outright condemn those opinions that fly in the face of our personal beliefs. Given the huge number of classes beginning the school year without permanent teachers, the time to listen is now.
Brad, your insights speak volumes! I wish every parent whose child had Ashley Stanley as a teacher could be heard. Leaving District 65 was an extremely difficult decision for her, and it took a lot of courage for her to be interviewed for this article. Take it from me, the backlash she’ll get for having a voice will be hurtful, but there will be a lot more teachers who will be grateful because she speaks for many. Evanston has lost many excellent teachers. Ashley is yet another. She stands in her values! As a school leader, I was inspired by the following quote from Brene Brown: “I want to be in the arena. I want to be brave with my life. We can choose courage or we can choose comfort, but we can’t have both. Not at the same time.” Ashley chose courage. She is an amazing teacher and advocate for all children and families.
Gratitude to Simone and Ashley for speaking up about the hostile workplace and administrative directives pushing teachers to leave the classroom. Thank you to Tom and Vicky for calling out the questions that are repeatedly asked, yet never answered. It’s disheartening to witness the decline in teacher morale within our community that ultimately drives these professionals to other districts or exit the profession entirely. New educators come in with enthusiasm and hope, but the overwhelming workload and lack of support leave them struggling to get through each day; swimming upstream.
The promise of open conversations and reflection feels like an illusion, as actions in favor of teachers are rarely taken. District 65 has complicated teachers’ primary role with numerous additional responsibilities, making it nearly impossible to achieve the intended objectives of the classroom. Teachers find themselves juggling specifically independent roles as social workers, behavior specialists, data collectors, curriculum designers, and more, with insufficient time or support to excel in any of them.
If the school board and constantly growing administration genuinely want to see positive changes in student achievement, test scores specifically, it is critically important to prioritize authentic learning experiences that stick with students. As trained, certified professionals, many holding advanced degrees, this is what teachers were hired to do. However, the surplus of pointless meetings, paperwork, mandated lessons, and the expectation of taking on other district professional’s responsibilities only eats up the time needed to connect with students effectively. Empowering teacher professionals to take charge of their classrooms is vital for fostering authentic teaching and engaged learners.
It is time for D65 to prioritize teacher goals and provide support in the process. We can focus on improving test scores while allowing teachers the time and space to teach effectively. Streamlining needless administrative tasks and reducing unnecessary requirements would go a long way in retaining motivated and inspiring educators.
Respect the teacher’s professionalism and dedication to the career they are professionally trained for and hired to perform. Ultimately, a supported teaching force leads to a generation of students who love learning.
As a resident of a nearby suburb, a fellow white anti-racism advocate, and a U-M grad, I love reading about Ashley’s journey as a teacher and her embrace of the best ways to reach and teach kids regardless of their circumstances. I lament the turn that Evanston has taken and wish Ashley all the best – she will be an asset to the kids and schools wherever she teaches and I’m glad to know she’s still doing this vital work. Never give up!
First, thank you for your service, Ashley Stanley. Anyone who reads this as anything other than the heartbreaking tale of a teacher who loves her students and her craft, who would not allow her integrity or the value of her students to be shattered by mismanagement, well, reread and work on your comprehension skills this time. Please, Ashley, keep teaching. The world needs you. Our kids need you.
Second, and as importantly, I have been compelled to comment by a beloved friend who has taught in district 65 for many years and is afraid to tell the truth under her own name for fear of retribution by both administration and professional bullies within the community. READ THAT AGAIN, EVANSTON. If that sentence doesn’t disgust you, you are not the progressive you think you are.
So here’s the hard truth. The exodus has begun and will continue if Evanston does not demand better for its students. Good teachers will not stand by as they are treated like interchangeable cogs. They will not stay when they are made to teach garbage curriculum that does not engage or inspire students. They will not cower when they are bullied into submission by a PR machine that gaslights the entire community into naming them as the problem when right under their noses those same people are “adopting” curriculum and policies rooted in the most foundational racism of the entire American education system: obsession with faulty data, constant testing, one size fits all curriculum, etc. THEY WILL JUST MOVE ON. And rightfully so.
One final note. My friend would like the community to know that she knows of 4 middle school SPED and ELA teachers in the entire district who supported the StudySync adoption. To say that teachers supported this adoption, or that their opinions were even taken into consideration, is a bold faced lie. Please cross check anything you read or hear from management with your favorite teacher, folks. My friend is choosing to feel hopeful about new union leadership, but she wonders where the community that used to be engaged with its teachers has gone.
The article was well written and detailed the failure of the Evanston public schools to respect the students as well as the teachers. Thanks to Simone Larson for writing it. Thanks to the Evanston Roundtable for publishing it. And, thank you, Sarah Speier for writing. You could be writing on behalf of every middle school ELA teacher I know.
My own friend has a long history of teaching language arts as well as social studies. She also has personal history in Evanston – she grew up here and attended District 65 schools from kindergarten through high school. She reports the same things as Ms. Stanley.
While the teachers are expected to teach the curriculum the administration has chosen, they are not supported by the union or by the administration when they have questions or concerns. And yes. They are very much fearful of retribution from both the administration as well as from their own peers who, for some reason, have chosen to favor the administration over the students.
In my friend’s case, she said the person who is designated to deal specifically with the middle schools, has never visited her middle school – either formally to meet with teachers or informally to see what the building looks like. (She also believes no other middle school has received a visit, either.) This person was reportedly new as of two years ago. Still teachers haven’t seen/met her, nor has she seen/met them. There is no connection between teachers and administration. The union does not address this or any other issue that I’ve been told.
Programs that have been effective for years and that Evanston schools have been known for have been cut. Why? No reason given. But the new program, StudySync, which teachers as well as students find burdensome is pushed forward without a thought to the problems it creates. Students are disinterested and bored and teachers are frustrated that they cannot teach effectively. Their love of the subject and their students be damned.
I hope District 65 learns that losing 70 teachers is just the beginning unless something is done to correct the dangerous course it is pursuing. The teachers, students and parents should not be silent while they see education failing the future of the children and ultimately, the future of Evanston.
While not a resident of the area, similar issues can be seen around the country. Sadly, it provides a testament to exactly why full community participation in school board elections is so critical to districts. The board is responsible to the community and is the bridge with the superintendent to ensure the district performs to the expectations of the community. Lack of community participation and apathy regarding elections have led to lots of unfortunate situation’s.
Thank you for writing this piece, Evanston Roundtable.
The board and certain, aggressive, Puritan-like radicals in the community have weaponized anti-racism. Most of these ideas of general DEI notions, almost everyone would agree with yet they approach it with such purity that they’ll brand anyone that disagrees, even on the most subtle and nuanced points will he branded as the R word. The last thing any progressive Evanstonian would like to be branded as. They’ll even create boogie man organizations and declare people as “officers.” Openly smearing and attacking people. I think a lot of people see this and simply decide if I stay out of it, I won’t be attacked.
I bring this up because I want to applaud the courage it took to simple write and participate in this article. Evanston has festered into this grossly toxic cesspool where simply trying to discuss matters is viewed as sacrilege. While working in Evanston I saw this fervor building, stoked by someone openly willing and joyfully using this as a cudgel. I am much happier as an excommunicated heretic.
It will not change until this power they hold is dismissed and people actually show up to vote in these elections. We clearly aren’t there yet judging by the last turnout rate in the school board elections. While I’m generally not a pessimist, I feel that Evanston has a long way to go to get there.
Who are you accusing of the things you are describing at the end of your first paragraph?
Those are serious accusations, and I don’t think you know who you are even accusing. What fake organization was created to accuse someone of r@cism? Are you referring to the very real organization called FAIR, which is actually doing r@cist harm across the country, and here locally? Please be specific if you want to make accusations. Don’t imply that the leadership of d65 has anything to do with people being called out for supporting or being leaders of a known hate group causing r@cist and bigoted harm to schools nationwide.
I’m curious about this allegedly fake organization that you are referring to… Do you mean “FAIR”? That is an actual organization known nation wide (and with a local chapter), and is widely considered to be a hate group because of their efforts against anti-racism work and in favor of stripping rights away from members of the LGBTQIA community.
Please be specific with your accusations because you are implying that d65 leadership is responsible for something but you are not saying what that is…
And calling out r@cist or bigoted harm by a very specific group is something many people in this community are doing – and ALL of us SHOULD be doing. So I’m not sure what you are trying to imply.
I had the privilege to collaborate with Ashley Stanley at Dewey School. We integrated art, language arts, and social studies with a lens on equity in collaboration with local artist, Ben Blount. Our curriculum was aligned with standards, stimulating, and encouraged fifth grade students to identify, discuss, and advocate against inequities in their school, community, country, and world. Ashley is an amazing teacher. Her departure is a great loss to students and educators in D65.
This exact issue is why I won’t go back to teaching in a public school system. I left teaching in Texas 15 years ago for this very same reason.
My son was in her class last year and verified everything she mentioned about the class. I think the rigor in D65 has gone downhill. We need to support our talented, dedicated, and passionate teachers.
I have lived in Evanston since 1982. Both my boys were educated in Evanston public schools. What Ms. Stanley describes is the kind of teaching and schools Evanston was known for back then and even, apparently, when she joined District 65. What has happened recently under the District 65 administration is very sad. Clearly we are not respecting our teachers as the professionals that they are. No wonder there are so many vacancies.
Simone, thank you for caring so much about our children and others who teach from the heart which usually benefits our learners. Your experience in Evanston schools is unfortunate and I hope that upper management takes heed and makes the necessary changes now! The tax payers are paying for the education of our children and we expect value for our money…
I will not pretend to have any expertise on curriculum design or teaching methods, but as a D65 parent, I do have concerns about how the district is engaging our teachers. I have had quite a few conversations on how difficult that job has been over the last four years. While I think we can all agree that COVID has made educations difficult, it seems that D65 is losing more ground than others here. I ask the school board and teachers’ union to closely watch engagement of teachers, especially compared to the surrounding districts. Is Evanston different than other suburbs, sure… but that doesn’t mean we cannot create a climate that attracts the best teachers to our city and district. That should be the goal.
D65 parent of two here. I completely agree with you, David. D65 why aren’t you supporting the teachers? Can you admit this is a problem and tell us what you plan to do to resolve? Also, the communication on curriculum is underwhelming. Our teachers and kids are paying the price and it is incredibly sad and frustrating to see.
We can all make a difference in District 65 right now by showing up in person in numbers at Board meetings, by signing up to speak, by challenging behavior that potentially violates the Open Meetings Act and by reporting questionable delegation of authority to unauthorized persons e.g. turning over the District’s mailing list and Facebook page to non District employees like former School Board Members.
For those commenters hoping the Board members read this column or hope things change with new superintendent, I would not be so optimistic.
It was clear from the outset that Horton was not right for the job–he had never been a superintendent before and didn’t have any experience in a community similar to Evanston.
Since the District ran a closed Superintendent search there was no way for the community to assess the pool of finalists or give feedback on their merits.
Unfortunately all of the board members who have gone up for reelection since Horton’s hire have won, so they obviously are fine with the situation and the way dozens of talented educators left the district.
Because their opacity in the last search was not questioned by the voters, we can assume a similar Superintendent Coronation without any public input. Since they were the ones who hired Horton, why should we expect anything other than Horton 2.0?
This could be written by pretty much any teacher in Maine HS D207. The last great, thoughtful professional development was the Teaching American History PD program through $2 million in grants over 5 years, 2008-2013. Partners with the Newberry Library, Loyola University, the LOC, UIC, and the National Archives saw amazing evening workshops and summer clinics–with zero cost to the district and summer school rate pay for teachers. The grant ended almost concurrently with the D207 internal university. The district leadership headed into the directionless, money-making Chicago Coaching Center. Real PD died in favor of flavor-of-the-month PD.
so so sad reading this……….district 65 needs to get it’s act together. hoping that this new superintendent can pull it together. we used to have a great school system – not anymore. thank you RoundTable for this article.
Beautiful
I had only one teacher in the roughly 50 years of academic study that taught like she has and that was in the 8th grade, which is a critical point in determining if the student will continue on to follow their own bliss or be systematically processed to be a semi functioning cog in what has become a very dysfunctional society.
I think that it is important to listen to the teachers when they tell you something is not working. Allow teachers to incorporate the gift of their teaching skills so the children will remain engaged and competitively excel.
She sounds like such a wonderful teacher. It is so sad that administration and their choices make it so hard for our teachers to do their job.
District 65 has gone from excellence to mediocracy- not from the excellent teachers and staff from doing their best within these guidelines and restrictions they are now given.
I hope every member of the school board reads this column. I don’t think they really understand what the teachers have been through the last 3 years. They have a chance to turn things around now by hiring a new superintendent who trusts teachers and knows how to inspire teachers to be the best they an be.
Ashley is a phenomenal teacher and a positive addition to any staff. What a tremendous loss for District 65.
This article was extremely enlightening and well written. My mother taught in Evanston and Oak Park before retiring. I hope that district 65 can right the ship sooner than later.
Thank you for this interview and article, Simone. Thank you for bringing awareness to a very real and profound problem facing District 65.
We raised three children, all students of District 65. They have long since graduated and moved on to fulfilling careers. When we do get together we often talk about their former teachers and we seem to always conclude that they each received a high-level education in Evanston. An education that has taken them far in their lives. We owe this to their teachers and a district that we felt was second to none in the country.
Reading this interview makes me sad to think that Evanston is losing so many quality educators. We lived here for 43 years and the primary reason my wife and I chose to make Evanston our home was the knowledge we had that the school system here was special. It was special enough to attract teachers and administrators who passed on an enthusiasm for learning to all its students. I hope every board member and administrator reads your article and considers making changes soon before we lose more educators like Ms. Stanley.
I’m wondering if a new superintendent will change the rigid dynamic that drove this talented teacher out of our district? I was never a fan of the recently departed Devon Horton, and this is one more piece of evidence that he did not always have the best interest of students AND teachers at heart.
This is an excellent and important piece, Simone! Thank you for your investment in helping us understand more about what is transpiring in D65!
Wow. Excellent piece. Thanks to Simone Larson for writing it! My husband and I and our two now middle aged children (how can this be?!) all attended district 65 schools.
I’ll never forget how in 4th grade my daughter brought home a worksheet in the fall on identifying deciduous trees in the state of Washington! This was in October, the height of our glorious autumn when all kinds of leaves from our own beloved trees were falling to the ground…why not take the kids out into the playground and school yard and collect leaves for study from our own damned trees????
Clearly, relevant, meaningful, and inspiring curriculum has been a challenge in District 65 for generations. And there have always been amazing teachers as well, in whose classrooms my children thrived and loved learning.
The flexibility and critical importance of having principals with a vision and the ability to support creative teachers is essential to student success.
My daughter is a longtime, gifted high school English teacher who left her position at an inner city public charter school recently when they adopted a canned curriculum and forced all teachers to teach it, despite her own students’ test scores always having been quite high.
This lack of vision and rigidity squelches innovation and depresses teachers with a passion for inspiring their students. It’s a tragedy for districts to lose such teachers, who are worth their weight in gold.
District 65 has an awful lot of work to do, and Stacey Beardsley’s gobbledygook about reviewing curriculum every so many years is mostly bullpucky jargon from a flailing district. It’s a tragedy for a district that likes to promote itself progressive.
Great article and kudos to Stanley
Thanks for the article Simone. D65 and the Haven community will miss Ashley. She’s a great educator and was a fantastic colleague. Unfortunately she is on a long list of dedicated educators who have decided to take their talents to surrounding suburbs. I’m positive that in the new district and other districts teachers have fled to, will treat them with the professional and personal respect they deserve. We need wholesale change in upper admin and school board here in Evanston. To most staff working day to day in D65 and others outside truly paying attention, it’s obvious that the last regime (Hortons) and its remnants do not have the answers for true, transformative change in education – despite what the PR machine will tell you. Starting in 24-25, I hope we can figure it out with a new superintendent and a middle school redesign!
For my blog, I’ve interviewed many teachers who have left the District or are in the process of leaving the District. It’s this same story over and over again: the teacher is innovative (or experienced) and cares deeply about the students but administrators stymie the teachers over-and-over again.
Most of the D65 principals and vice principals have been replaced since Dr. Horton took office. Many of them (such as at Lincoln) were beloved staff that had been there decades, only to be replaced with *political* hires (ie those who align with Dr. Horton).
My question which never gets an answer: Where is the Teachers Union (DEC) in all this? It’s *literally* their job to advocate for teachers and the DEC head has been incognito since the November 2021 thanksgiving fiasco. The only thing most teachers have heard from them in years is their political endorsements made in the last election (which I believe tipped the election against John Martin). I think the problem is that, like D65, the DEC is a political organization now, not an educational or advocacy one.
We’ve lost some of our best staff and administrators in the name of .. what exactly?
Tom Hayden nails this one. Indeed, where is DEC? This union threw the election to incumbent school board members, those that have been complicit in driving excellent teachers from D65. Unions should stand firm with excellent teaching; hardly the case in Evanston.
Also noted is Beardsley’s corporate response to any criticism. Students will never be taught well unless administrators trust teachers to create curriculum. This young teacher was doing just that. She excelled in her classroom practice. An absolute travesty that she was made to feel that in D65, only top-down, managed curriculums are expected and accepted.
It’s past time for new leadership at all levels, including DEC.
Vikki Proctor, retired D65 teacher
PS Thanks to Simone Larsen for this article and best wishes to Ashley and her future fortunate students. Certainly I’m grateful she’s not leaving education.
How interesting you comment on this article Vicki, I thought of you as I read it. Simone Larson is to be credited for her outstanding article. There’s no denying D65 has lost an excellent teacher that could’ve been avoided. How terribly unfortunate administrators, the board and union sit idly while teachers like Ms. Stanley get away. There was a time when teachers lined up to be a part of D65, now they can’t away fast enough. Seventy losses just this summer!—-that’s a shocking figure. No matter how the district fills such a void will absolutely result in one giant question mark as to effectiveness of so many new hires. The magnitude of comments to this article shows a wide variety of sound common sense advice that should be heard. There’s clearly serious concerns within all levels of D65, and shows the next superintendent must be someone the city can count on to make necessary and positive changes. A housecleaning of former superintendent Devon Horton hires and supporters need to go. This greatly depends on who we the people of Evanston elect to the D65 board—-low voter turnouts can no longer be accepted. Once again I applaud Ms. Larson for such outstanding article, wish Ms. Stanley all best toward future success and thank Vicki Proctor for her years of teaching excellence to the kids of D65—they deserve the best we can provide.
We have to get rid of the current board and put in place administrators that prioritize academic excellence and teacher retention.
I moved to Evanston 18 years ago in order to send my incoming kindergartener to Dewey Elementary School. The intervening years have sent my kids (and stepkids) to Dewey, Bessie Rhodes, King Arts, Walker, Nichols, and Chute.
How sad that since my kids have moved on, D65 has lost so many extraordinary teachers and staff. Not just lost, but wasted. If the focus is always on metrics instead of the people, you’ve lost sight of what success will truly mean.
An educator like the woman in this article shouldn’t have to move out of the district. This is energy and ethic to be celebrated, not squandered.
Thanks to the author and those who participated in this article, and also to those sharing their thoughts in the comments. Hopefully D65 will get its act together.
Amen to that, Tom.
Sarah Speir’s comments about a D65 friend being afraid to speak out because of “administration and professional bullies” is chilling.
For the amount of taxes we pay in Evanston, parents and residents have every right to expect a high degree of professionalism, competence and commitment from their schools.
The bottom line is we have declining enrollment as parents are observing D65 carefully and voting with their feet. We have teachers leaving D65 for well-stated reasons. We have declining test scores.
And yet we have a school board that says it stands for excellence?
Evanston can do better.