Fewer Evanston Township High School students achieved top scores on the math section of of the SAT test this year, but performance on the English section of the exam was relatively unchanged.

Assistant Superintendent Pete Bavis told the District 202 School Board this week that this year’s test was administered on April 13, which was the first day back in the building for students since the schools was closed for in-person learning in March 2020.

It was also the first time those students had experienced in-person COVID protocols, including mask-wearing and social distancing.

Bavis said the situation made the test environment “doubly difficult” compared to when the tests were last administered in 2019.

School Board President Pat Savage-Williams said, “Thinking back one year and remembering how stressed we were at winter break, I can’t imagine coming back to school and the first thing you do was to take this test.”

As in prior years, white and Asian students did better than Black and Hispanic students.

“Our students did comparable to previous years and well compared to other schools in the state,” Bavis said.

Evanston Now reporter Jeff Hirsh contributed to this report.

Bill Smith is the editor and publisher of Evanston Now.