School Board President Shares Strategies Handling ‘White Parents’ in Presentation at ‘White Privilege’ Conference
Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell /
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—An Illinois school board president gave a presentation at a “White Privilege Conference” accusing “white parents” of stirring controversy against racial progress, according to documents obtained by Parents Defending Education and shared with The Daily Signal.
Pat Savage-Williams, the school board president at Evanston Township High School District 202 in a northern suburb of Chicago, gave a presentation called “Our Equity Journey — Evanston Township High School” on April 14, 2023, at a a “White Privilege Conference” in Mesa, Arizona.
Parents Defending Education uncovered a copy of the presentation through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Savage-Williams says in her presentation that many people do not welcome racial change, as “proposals for structural and policy changes towards dismantling what has been in place for decades are not often met with universal approval.” She says this can divide a community because “there is significant controversy surrounding racial equity work.”
“The fact that this controversy is almost exclusively generated by white parents, educators, policymakers and other community stakeholders, most of whom have never personally engaged in racial equity training, presents another significant challenge,” Savage-Williams’ presentation says. “While it is important to continue engaging with them as community members, employ careful and thoughtful responses and strategies.”
In addition to her position as board president, Savage-Williams works as director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at a high school in the district, according to her employee profile. Her base salary in the 2022-2023 school year was $149,478.
School should divide data on student performance on the basis of race to target “inequity,” Savage-Williams says in her presentation.
“Identify areas of inequity in student success and participation, disaggregating data by race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, disability, and English language proficiency,” the administrator and board member says. “Develop statistical measures to assess equity in these areas.”
According to Savage-Williams, “Equity is the process, equality is the product.”
Students should not be taught that their skin color is their defining characteristic, Parents Defending Education President and founder Nicole Neily told The Daily Signal.
“Evanston Township High School has been prioritizing equity over student proficiency and subject mastery for far too long, all to the detriment of the teenagers that the district purports to serve,” Neily said. “With this continuous governance style from the district, it is unlikely that students will learn how to cooperate and thrive in the fast-paced multicultural environments that future jobs might require.”
Savage-Williams promoted her school district’s “Social Consciousness Series” programming, which features “Special events open to the Evanston community that encourage participants to engage in critical thought about their racialized experiences and its relation to the systemic oppression rooted in anti-blackness.”
Programming also includes professional development classes for staff “that center conversations on race and the historic presence of racism within education,” and student summits aligned with the theme “Year of the Black Male.”
Student summits are divided by identity group, with programming for black, Asian and Middle Eastern, LGBTQ, and “Latinx” students. Speakers at school district events have included critical race theory celebrities like Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of “Between the World and Me”; Ibram X. Kendi, author of “How To Be An Anti-Racist”; and Robin DiAngelo, author of “White Fragility.”
The presentation mentions that the school district has a team of 25 teachers dedicated to developing lesson plans using “research based culturally relevant pedagogical standards to engage their students of color.” This is called the Collaborative Action Research for Equity, or CARE, Team.
Evanston Township high schools also have a Students Organized Against Racism, or SOAR, group, which the presentation describes as a “venue for students to talk about race with one another using the protocols.”
“There are several ongoing conversations/field trips where students engage in challenging discussions where they discuss their racialized experience at school and in the larger Evanston community,” according to the presentation.
The district has also worked in “continuing to examine and refine grading practices” and “raising student awareness for racial equity,” the presentation says.
Savage-Williams’ presentation discusses the district’s history of addressing “white privilege.” She says the school district established a cohort to “explore critical race theory” in 2008. In June 2009, the district had a “Beyond Diversity” seminar which is “a nationally recognized seminar aimed at helping administrators, teachers, students and parents identify, define and examine the powerful intersection of race and schooling.” The presentation notes that “100% of staff [have] gone through Beyond Diversity.”
The Evanston Township High School District did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment about the presentation.