SCHOOL NEWS
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Homecoming Game, Gabriel Coen
Like most social gatherings and events in the past years, fall sports have been stunted due to the pandemic. Finally, after years of playing in masks, forfeited matches, and cancellations, the 2022 fall sports season saw the first normalcy it has in years. Students, families, and opponents alike have enjoyed coming back to celebrate and watch our talented Regents succeed. Another notable difference this athletic season has seen, is construction. This has caused major changes in practicing spaces, temporary locations, and complex schedules, but will ultimately bring better facilities for West Athletics in the years to follow.
With fall sports coming to an end, we want to recognize some huge achievements that were accomplished by Regents this year. With one of our largest rosters, cross country has had a fantastic year as usual. Our full boys varsity has not lost a single meet so far, and JV finished first place four times throughout the season. Girl’s Cross Country dominated the Madison City Championships this year, with West’s Varsity having all seven runners in the top seven spots. Both girl’s and boy’s cross country teams were proclaimed Big 8 champions. Next, six total athletes qualified for state on the girls tennis team. Two of these athletes, Tyra Gustavson and Molly Ryan, beat DSHA and are advancing to the Elite Eight. This fall, our Varsity soccer took home eight wins and two ties. Furthermore, our girl’s golf team had co-captains Brooklyn Fleming and Ava Rikkers represent our school at the Middelton sectional. Brooklyn Fleming tied for 7th, with 84 points and just one stroke short of qualifying for state. Photo from @MadisonWestAthletics twitter One of the greatest, record breaking titles held this year belongs to the girl’s swimming team. Four of our swimmers broke the West pool record, and swam the fastest 200 medley relay in our pool, with a time of 1:47.56. According to the girls, “we surprised ourselves with a very successful swimming year.” Besides this new record, the otherwise great season ended with six out of their eight meets won, and an exceptional team dynamic. In spite of all this success, our team's usual playing fields, courts, and practice arenas have drastically changed due to West's construction. The Van Hise Gym is being completely renovated and is no longer an athletic space. Additionally, the commonly used GEO field has been out of commission and will continue to be for up to three years due to the current construction. Furthermore, Steven's Gym was closed until mid-September. Virtually all sports teams have been affected and uprooted with these new changes, but the promising future for athletics is keeping teams going through these inconveniences. By the end of our construction, West will have an additional pool, basketball courts, locker rooms, and a mixed soccer and football field. Our athletes have adjusted, and not let these environment changes hinder their performance. It’s always sad to see a season come to an end. And as athletes hang up their helmets, pack away their knee pads, and say goodbye to coaches for the year, we would like to congratulate all of the students that gave it their all this season. And of course, special thanks to the coaches that helped them get there. Until next fall, enjoy winter, spring, and year-round sports. And most of all … Go Regents! Sources: West Regent Athletic Dept Website https://madisonwestathletics.com/ Interview with the Varsity Swim team West Athletics Twitter page https://twitter.com/WestRegents MWABA, Madison West Athletic Booster Association https://www.mwaba.org/ for SL
The Future of Advanced Coursework at MMSD High Schools By Samanyu Ambewadkar On Monday, October 3rd, members of the Madison Metropolitan School District’s (MMSD) Board of Education Instruction Work Group met virtually to discuss the future of the advanced curriculum at MMSD high schools. Following the February decision to pause the phase-out of stand-alone honors classes, the future of advanced learning at Madison high schools has been in limbo. However, the district revealed their plans during the Instruction Work Group meeting. Several topics were discussed, related to both advanced learning opportunities and support for struggling students, although the primary focus was a long-term plan to strengthen post-secondary opportunities and avenues for students. The key objective of the plan is to “ensure every scholar will graduate from MMSD with an Industry Certification, College Credit, and/or an Associate’s degree,” a goal MMSD intends to reach within 3-5 years. This target is incredibly ambitious, especially considering that the aim is to reach all MMSD high school students. For readiness, the Instruction Work Group delivered an outline for the 2023-2024 academic year, which included securing more staff with qualifications to teach dual credit courses, strengthening communication and advising students about educational/career opportunities, leveraging student voice, providing professional training to current staff, and considering possibilities of budget expansion. However, the current shortage of teaching professionals suggests that meeting the checkpoints set for the next school year will be quite challenging. Nonetheless, to reach this objective in the coming years, a few changes are being proposed. A large emphasis has been placed on advanced coursework as a medium of college-readiness. Advanced coursework includes Advanced Placement (AP) classes, honors credit, college courses, as well as classes which go beyond the scope of a traditional high school education. In the past five years, participation rates in advanced classes have soared among all demographics, with students identifying as Black/African American seeing an increase of ten percentage points and American Indians by 22%. However, a disparity still remains, where White and Asian students have participation rates well into the 70-80%, while Black, Hispanic, Native American, Multiracial, and others remain 20-30 points behind. In addition to providing continued and expanded support for equitable access, the district surveyed scholars to hear what they wanted. The top requests included more hands-on experiential learning, access to more direct advising for college education, and creative arts coursework integrated into the core curriculum. The district responded with detailed proposals to expand opportunities for Career and Technical Education (CTE), and Nursing Assistant (CNA) certification through Madison College and youth apprenticeship programs, as well as to audit the current arts program, include arts into the core curriculum, and develop partnerships with community artists. Strengthening early college support and communication is key to developing college readiness among the MMSD student population. From fortifying 8th to 9th grade transition, to increasing specialized UW-Madison and Madison College liaisons, the district wishes to cover every step to ensure students who choose to pursue a college education have an opportunity and a plan in place to do so. MMSD plans to expand the general advanced coursework available so that more students can access it. Along with expanded access to Madison college courses, more AP classes are being considered, including AP Precalculus, AP African American Studies, AP Human Geography, and AP Arts (which includes AP Art History and AP Art and Design; however, it is not clear if both are being considered). These courses will offer students increased opportunities to learn in depth about significant college-level topics. The most-discussed topic was the issue of eliminating stand-alone honors classes. The district had originally announced plans to phase out stand-alone honors and replace them with earned honors in 2021. The key difference between earned and stand-alone honors lies within the names. Earned honors allows a student enrolled in non-honors courses to earn honors credit by meeting certain “predetermined criteria,” which remain undefined. On the other hand, with stand-alone honors, all enrolled students complete rigorous instruction and coursework to obtain honors credit. Supporters of the phaseout of stand-alone honors claim that stand-alone courses are exclusionary, whereas earned honors are anti-racist, while opponents argue that the courses provide a good opportunity for students to challenge themselves. The debate on whether or not to retain stand-alone honors continues. Nevertheless, MMSD’s ambitious plan aims to eliminate academic racial disparity by opening more opportunities for students to go beyond the curriculum. Source: Work Instruction Group October 3rd meeting slides. |
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Religious Minority Students Struggle to Balance Religion and School Amid Low Cultural Awareness and Conflicts with West Calendar By Aharon Shelef Three students told the Regent Review this month that they often struggle to balance and choose between their religious traditions and their activities at West High School because the community suffers from low awareness of its diverse cultural traditions and operates on a calendar that accommodates Christian holidays and practices without offering the same flexibility to other smaller religions. Ari Blehert, a Jewish student in his junior year, talked at length about how Jewish customs and holidays do not line up with the school calendar. “Every year in which Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur fall on weekdays, I miss school to attend services for both days of Rosh Hashanah and for one day to attend services and fast on Yom Kippur,” he said, adding that he “also often travel[s] to Minnesota to spend at least the first two nights of Passover [with] extended family.” Ari mentioned that tests can pose barriers to religious participation, as well as that “no or light” homework would make taking the time to observe religious holidays much easier. Ari does not always choose his religious practices over West activities, though. Regarding Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest which spans from every Friday evening to Saturday evening, Ari expressed that “because it’s a weekly opportunity, I often choose the school event over eating Friday night dinner with my family or going to Shabbat morning services.” Another student, Layla Al Ali, a Muslim sophomore, found it harder to observe her religious traditions during the month of Ramadan, when she fasts from sunrise until sunset each day, as students around her carry on with their various lunch activities. “Well, it’s not jubilating per se” to watch others enjoy their lunches throughout Ramadan, Layla admitted. She took a positive view, though, explaining that “it’s one of the many lessons Ramadan teaches. By not eating, we learn the suffering of others, and that makes us want to be more generous to those less fortunate. Ramadan is a true time of giving, reflection, and learning. It’s a pill I’m happy to swallow, at least until after sunset, that is.” Layla continued with a caveat, however, making clear that “it’s difficult to perform at the same academic level when you’re fasting all day,” and that at West and other American schools, “the days are longer and harder [than the shortened Ramadan school days in predominantly-Muslim countries], and you don’t have much of a community to support you.” A third student, sophomore Beli Shrestha, emphasized how West’s calendar makes it much more difficult for her to practice aspects of her Hindu culture. She said that she usually chooses to go to school during holiday festivities, which causes her “to miss out on some of [her] cultural and religious traditions.” “My parents usually make a ‘modified’ version so it doesn’t clash too much,” Beli continued. “If holidays fall on weekdays, it can be difficult to celebrate them, so my parents push them out onto the weekend.” Dashain, the biggest festival for Nepali Hindus, overlapped with West’s homecoming activities this year, which, as Beli put it, “caused hecticness.” All three students described an extremely low level of awareness among the West community of religious holidays, traditions, and customs. Ari explained that he is “frequently asked why [he] wasn’t at school” on holidays. He also recounted some of his struggles to mitigate the conflicts between West’s calendar and the Jewish calendar, specifying that “this year I had to ask for two tests to be moved off of Rosh Hashanah, and last year I had to ask for the school Swing Dance to be moved because of Passover.” Beli reported that “often people do not know when religious holidays are happening,” and Layla called the level of awareness “minimal.” Layla clarified that “when people realize that I’m not eating anything, they don’t know that it’s because of Ramadan because they don’t know what it is.” West usually treats the dates of holidays for religious minorities like business as usual, making it more difficult for students to keep track of the religious traditions around them. The school does not do much differently on these days, usually not even a special announcement, which lowers awareness among the community. The lower awareness also makes staying inclusive of all religious backgrounds more challenging because, when no one knows about religious events, no one can work around them or keep them in mind when planning their own activities. Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) Policy 4039 states that the “[d]istrict shall provide for the reasonable accommodation of a student's sincerely held religious beliefs with regard to all examinations and other academic requirements” and that “[s]chools shall avoid scheduling exams, athletic events/contests and other special events, such as assemblies, field trips, and back-to-school nights” on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Christmas, Easter, Eid-al-Fitr, Eid-al-Adha, the Birth of Baha’u’llah, and Naw Ruz. "We strive to create thriving learning spaces where all feel welcomed,” Ennis Harvey, MMSD’s Associate Superintendent of High Schools, told the Regent Review. “MMSD Board Policy 4039 provides guidance around academic accommodations for religious beliefs. We encourage students to co-create with their school communities, administration, and MMSD Student Senate to ensure all voices are heard and valued." Still, while they recognized that there may not be an easy solution, the interviewed students reported that not all teachers follow Policy 4039 and that the policy does not go far enough to raise awareness of religious holidays and aid students who wish to observe them. for SL
New Teachers at West By Chloe McCulloch After the pandemic, a lot of changes have had to be made in our school and our district. One of these changes is the amount of new teachers coming in to teach and fill positions. I interviewed a few of them, and asked them questions about their opinions and impressions of West, and a few miscellaneous questions from students. Interview #1 “Hi, I’m Mr. Flowers, I’m a World History and Latin American History teacher here at West.” (How long have you been teaching?) “Probably about 2 years now. I’ve known that I’ve wanted to be a teacher since pretty much second grade. I used to work in a library back in New York where they kept all of the yearbooks from every elementary school that the library served. And I happened to go to those elementary schools, and I looked at my yearbook from second grade and it was like “I wanna be a teacher.” and I've just kinda kept along that route. I've always liked teaching and education. I used to work in archaeology and while I was doing that my favorite part was giving tours and talking to people about what we were doing. So I was like “oh I definitely want to continue doing education,” so I got my Masters in education and came back to doing that. My first teaching job- or my first time really being in a classroom and teaching, would have been in the Bronx, New York, and then in Brooklyn, New York where I was doing my student teaching training and then taking over a classroom very briefly and doing some sub work there. Then my first full time teaching job would have been at Hamilton Middleschool in Madison last year. I really like the level that highschoolers can work at. I really like middle school, which I wasn’t expecting to, but the thing about it is that there are just some concepts that middle schoolers are either not ready to grasp or would take too much background before we are able to get to that. So by the time you hit 8th grade, that's when you can really start working on getting all of the background information and foundational skills built up, so then by the time you're in 9th and 10th grade you're able to start doing much higher level work with a lot more student agency. So I like that I can give lectures to the students and they can understand it, and I can have them work independently to learn on their own and participate more actively in their own education.” “I like West! It is a really big school, and a really old school, which is really neat. It has a really strong school community, which is one of the reasons that I chose to work here in the West rather than another school in madison. I really like teaching world history. World history is relatively new to the West. a year and a half/two years ago, before I came here, it was Western Civ, and we’ve moved towards a world history curriculum, which is a lot more inclusive and covers a lot more information. So I get to learn along with my students, which is really great. And I get to find out stuff I didn’t know about history and just learn a lot at the same time and I really like going over interesting, fun, parts of history that otherwise would get lost if we were just doing Western Civ.” (What is the hardest part of teaching at West?) “Like I said, West is a really big school, which is good, but it also means that our class sizes are relatively large. So sometimes it means keeping a class focused and on time can be a little bit difficult. That makes a difference. I really like the school community here. Both the student dynamics and the community that they foster by themselves without having to be led by a teacher. But also the faculty community that gets built and everybody working together and helping each other out is a really great part of working here.” (What would you be doing if you weren’t a teacher?) “I’d probably be doing archeology work if I wasn't a teacher. That or cooking. I thought about going to culinary school briefly but then I realized I didn't like the job aspect of cooking and would just keep it as a hobby.” (If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?) “I'm a really disorganized person, if I'm being completely honest. If I could just flip a switch and allow my brain to focus on a given task for more than 20 minutes, that would be great.” (Who’s your favorite human person?) “My favorite human person? That would probably be my partner, who I just got married to this summer.” Interview #2 “I am Julie Laurent, I am an English teacher here at West High School. This is my 33rd year of teaching. I was at Marshall high school, a small, rural school near Sun Prairie. Of about 350 students. Total. I've taught middle school for 1 year, and the other 31 years I have taught highschool. I like teaching the ninth graders, because they're still young and impressionable and get really excited about things. And when you get to the juniors and seniors they are almost adults, and so I just really like those ages. They don’t have the high squeaky voices and need their shoes tied.” (What was your favorite subject when you were in school?) “English. Language arts. I've been a voracious reader my entire life.” “My first impression of West, it is a very big school (laughs) compared to where I have taught in the past. I really like being part of a large school, having so many different resources available and the diversity of the students. The hardest part though would be the chaos with the construction and not knowing where anything is.” (Do you like us?) “Of course I like you! What's not to like? I think it’s so cool that there are just so many different activities that kids can get involved in, and because we are such a big school there's just so many people with different personalities and interests that as the year progresses I hope to get to know more about.” (Why did you decide to teach at West?) “I was sort of recruited by the librarian, whom I used to work with. And she told me that the English department was fabulous, and I would love working here. I’d be impressed with the rigor of the students and the fact that we are an anti-racsict school to continue some of that social justice work and so I was like “Okay! I’ll put my hat in the ring!” And here I am! I’m just really excited to be here. I’ve coached forensics for many years, I've worked with seniors on their college essays, and if people want to come talk to me about books I’d love that. (Who is your favorite human person?) “I mean, my favorite humans are my own children. You know I can’t go wrong with that answer, right? So yes, I’m gonna go with that.” (What would you do if you weren’t a teacher?) “Oh I know. I have this already figured out. So when I retire and I’m not teaching anymore, I want to be a docent. A docent at some historical location. Dress up in costume and take people on tours and tell them the stories of the people who once lived there.” (If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?) “I would be able to sing on key all the time and my bones wouldn’t ache all the time, so I’d be able to, like, run really fast. That’s what I would love to be able to do again.” Change can be scary sometimes, but hopefully in reading these interviews you’ll see that change can be a good thing, and everyone is super excited to try something new and learn from each other. Thank you so much to Ms. Laurent and to Mr. Flowers for giving their time to this interview. |