Regent Review-- December 2016

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Page 6 Feature West Rocket Club campaigns for new launch site by Hadar Ohana West Rocket Club is currently working towards easing public controversy over a new launch site. Currently, the club must “drive to the Richard Bong recreational area, which is a 100 minute drive away from Madison” according to club member Valerie Hellmer. There are currently no local areas available for the team to launch their rockets. Parents and students view this as a major inconvenience that hinders club participation. The Department of Natural Resources has recently compiled plans for a new recreational area that includes a launch site for model rockets which will be available 10 days per year. However, public controversy over the use of this land abounds. Local residents worry of noise and pollution that may result from the rockets. Hellmer is one of the Rocket Club members who spoke at the Natural Resource Board meeting about park usage on Wednesday, <strong>December</strong> 14. She stresses that the sound emitted from rockets 50 feet away is like that of a loud conversation--not louder than the humans using the park. Lacking the potential to cause environmental damage, the rockets only make a very small plume of smoke. West Rocketry has expressed interest in partnering with a conservation group to protect the park, offering to volunteer time working there to maintain the environment. West Rocket Club would benefit greatly from the new launch site. A model rocket launch. Photo courtesy of Valerie Hellmer above and below: West Rocket Club activities. Campaigning against model rockets Photo courtesy of Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance
Page 7 Continued Stories Pathways cont. from page 1 sional or liberal arts focus. Some students have expressed concern that this program will not provide as much support to students who plan on attending a four-year college in a more humanitiesoriented field, especially as the pathways program has lumped all humanities and social sciences into one pathway titled “liberal arts and sciences.” Laura Nicholas, the co-president of Current Events Club and a leader in the student Pathways opposition task force, has expressed concern over the treatment of the humanities in the Pathways proposal. She describes herself as a “humanities kid” with a broad range of interests in all the subjects, and feels like she wouldn’t “fit into any pathways or the system in general” and wanted to advocate against the program because she “knew that other kids would have similar struggles.” Junior Angie Jiang, who is not a member of Nicholas’ task force but is concerned about Pathways, agrees that Pathways may not be for every student, saying that “Pathways should be kept as an option… a widely publicized and accessible option but not wall to wall because it’s kind of suffocating” Nicholas plans on “getting more diverse groups involved” with her movement to reduce the perception that those opposing Pathways are composed of privileged students, saying that “unfortunately the group we have right now is mostly white and affluent students. Pathways is trying to address the achievement gap and we want to get more students of color involved. We want to reach out to all sorts of different groups who have different stakes in the program.” Jiang agrees that there may be a slightly incorrect perception of the Pathway opponents, saying “there is a stifling by the school board who’s saying that the people complaining about pathways are privileged. I somewhat agree and I somewhat don’t.” Jiang adds: “Obviously pathways is meant to deal with the achievement gap, which is one of the most pressing issues in Madison, but the complete lack of understanding of what Pathways are trying to support, which is incentivizing historically disenfranchised minorities and showing them a future that they can see and that they can achieve, by the people opposing pathways is also troubling...It’s not a black and white issue and I think some people are treating it as such.” However, Nicholas and Jiang both have similar problems with the current Pathways proposal. Nicholas and her Pathways opposition task force have outlined five major problems that they see in the Pathways proposal: lack of choice, lack of flexibility, an ideological challenge, the lack of transparency, and the speed of the plan. Nicholas characterizes the Pathways system as having a “lack of choice” for students. Unlike in high schools like Memorial, where most students take a standardized sequence of classes like English 1 through English 4 to fulfill graduation requirements, West has always been known for the variety of English, science, and history electives taken by upperclassmen instead of a more standardized curriculum. According to Nicholas, Pathways would change this, as the plan currently outlines “consolidation and cutbacks in the humanities department, as well as in some science classes.” Additionally, Nicholas is concerned by the lack of flexibility created under a Pathways system. According to the district, students may exit the Pathway to take electives and will only take 3-4 core classes within their pathway. However, Nicholas suggests that this core type system may have ramifications for students. Because there will be limited space in core classes, if a student not in a Pathway wanted to take a Pathway class as an elective, it would be hard to get in as there would be prioritization for students within the Pathway. Nicholas and her group take an ideological opposition to the Pathways proposal: “Do we want 14 year olds to even be considering narrowing their possibilities or narrowing their focus? Most 14 year olds… are certainly not thinking about college. It seems premature to me.” Nicholas also commented that, if she were a freshman deciding a Pathway, she might be tempted to follow a friend into their Pathway, even if she had no interest in it. Additionally, 80% of college students change their major at least once during their four years of college, so it stands to reason that high schoolers may regret their Pathway choice. Furthermore, the district says that students will have the ability to switch Pathways, but they have not outlined a plan for how this action will work. However, Nicholas believes that the “most pressing issue right now” is the lack of transparency with the Pathway development. She believes that there has been “No effort to communicate the progress throughout last year and and this year with parents or students” and that “the only way students are hearing about this are from teachers educating us about what’s happening in the school.” Noticing incongruity between answers given to her, Nicholas believes that she’s “been hearing different answers from different people, and [the administration] seem to be changing their answers by the audience.” According to Nicholas, sometimes, the MMSD or West administration says that Pathways will “contextualize the learning by focusing the curriculum of history, math science on a Pathway like health sciences,” while other times the administration claims that the curriculum will “stay the same besides quarterly focused projects.” Nicholas cites lack of response to feedback from teachers and students as part of the transparency issue. Over the summer, the district hosted a summer institute for teacher feedback, and that she’s “heard from teachers that their feedback was ignored and those issues persist right now. Nicholas also says that opportunity for changing the current proposal is limited, cont. on page 8
Page 1 and 2: The Regent Review Volume XLVI Issue
Page 3 and 4: Page 3 Feature The West Play: The 3
Page 5: Dear Reggie... Page 5 Entertainment

Regent Review-- December 2016

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