The recent District 65 school board election represented the best of Evanston. I was blessed to run in a cycle with significant collaboration among the candidates and the community.
This cooperative spirit throughout the campaign resulted in some strong solutions for D65, most notably the possibility of moving to a K-8 academic model. Such a model preserves neighborhood schools by increasing enrollments from the 6-8 cohort and shifts potential closures to one or two middle schools.
In addition, research suggests that K-8 schools result in better academic performance, improved culture and climate and improved behavior and attendance, among other attributes.
These benefits are logical and intuitive. The transition to middle school significantly disrupts the social and academic experience. It upends life for children during an already fraught period while introducing an entirely new set of authority figures into their lives with whom they have no prior relationship.
For all of these reasons, this proposal immediately resonated with me when a former teacher raised it at a candidate forum. It also generated enthusiastic feedback from fellow candidates and voters.
Moving to K-8 schools also serves as a symbolic goal. The various crises in D65 allow the board to take bold steps to create a sustainable, high-value school system. Newly elected board members can signal to the community that they’re listening and willing to embrace an evidence-based academic model over traditionalism.
Chris Van Nostrand
Letter to the editor: District 65 should consider a K-8 model is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.