Board reviews new course slate: ELEAD AP seminar, summer internships for credit, dual-language math, special-education pathways

Evanston Township High School District 202 staff presented a slate of new courses, course changes and deletions at the Sept. 8 board meeting that officials and board members said advance the district's goals for post-high-school planning, equity and expanded access to accelerated work.

The administration said the recommendations originate with department chairs and curriculum forums before moving to the board for approval. Highlights included two new academic-support ELEAD courses (an English 10 AP seminar exclusive to the ELEAD cohort and a second-year leadership/identity seminar), a summer internship course in the arts innovation pathway offered for credit, an early-college AP business and personal finance capstone, and a fashion merchandising dual-credit course in partnership with Harper College.

Staff described a new concert orchestra (an audition-based bridge between string orchestra and symphony orchestra), and instructional-program courses for special education including Algebra 2 Foundations and a life-and-physical-science special-education science offering. In multilingual services, staff proposed dual-language sections of Algebra 1 and Geometry to expand a two-way immersion pre-K-12 pathway that began with Spanish Language Arts 1 and 2.

Board members asked several substantive questions. Board member Leah praised the special-education foundations courses and asked whether the AP business and personal finance course requires a prerequisite; staff answered that students would typically take an introductory business class first. Leah also raised a concern about a prerequisite change for chemistry/physics pathways, noting that requiring "advanced to algebra" rather than geometry honors could affect student placement and access. Staff explained the science-pathway sequencing and said the calculus/physics junior-year course drove the algebra prerequisite; they noted summer-school geometry options and the ALEKS placement program as tools used to diversify placement into accelerated math.

Board member Pat and others complimented the equity focus of the proposed AP offerings and asked clarifying questions about dual-language access for transfer students and the ability of the summer internship course to count toward career-and-technical (CTE) credit. Staff said the internship course is a CTE credit option and that dual-language algebra would be open to students grades 9-12 to accommodate transfers and Spanish-fluent students.

The board did not take a final vote on the course slate at the Sept. 8 meeting; the proposals were presented for review (first reading) and will return for approval in a subsequent meeting if the board moves them forward.

Sources: Curriculum presentation and board discussion, Sept. 8, 2025.