We are proud to announce that with the leadership of our Social Studies teachers, East will offer Advanced Placement (AP) African American Studies in the fall of 2023 as part of a nationwide pilot program.

Our staff were recently featured in an article in the Daily Cardinal, discussing their excitement about the new offering:

Kevin Attaway, the social studies department chair at Madison East, said the district will pay for training for interested teachers over the summer and send out curriculum guides in the near future. “Sophomores through seniors will have the opportunity to sign up,” said Attaway. “In MMSD, it's a requirement that you're taking a U.S. history course in junior year — this fills that requirement.”

Alyssa Paolocci, a social studies teacher at Madison East who volunteered to teach AP African American Studies, expressed excitement about this opportunity. “In the past few years we’ve had to cut a lot of classes, we just really want to be able to offer more than one class for a requirement,” Paolocci said. “It’s an opportunity to talk about Black joy. That was a big idea behind introducing the class. A big piece of this is intersectionality and the idea of knowing how different identities that you hold impact you in various ways.”

Terriun Green, another Madison East social studies teacher who volunteered to teach the course, said he hopes to see more representation in the classroom. “We want to see our classrooms look more like our hallways. I'm hoping to attract a lot of students,” Green said. “It's very depressing to teach AP and honors and see kids who stick to regular classes just because people who look like them are there. I’ve seen kids of color who are very excited about it. I hope that continues, it’s been a big issue for a long time.”

Attaway added how he hopes this is just the beginning, envisioning additional classes that explore other facets of American identity. “We would love to see an AP LGBTQ or Indigenous Studies, or an Asian American Experience AP class,” Attaway said. “We’re laying the groundwork.”

Attaway also echoed the optimism of Paolocci and Green when asked how teachers have responded to this change. “There’s nothing but excitement,” he said. “Our department is very comfortable with this. We’ve added a lot of new classes, especially when there is student interest.”

Two teams of students participated in the November 2022 High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling, with results released on January 27th. One of the East papers earned a Meritorious Ranking, placing it in the top 22% of 854 papers submitted internationally. Both teams modeled the population of a honeybee colony over the period of a year, modifying equations or computer code to reflect the various impacts of disease, pesticides, and weather. Predictive models were then used to determine the optimal number and placement of hives to pollinate a 20-acre crop. Congratulation to our Meritorious team members: Megan Carpenter (gr 9), Tessara Clark (gr 11), Adyleenah Shatz-Muzaffarr (gr 12), and other participants who succeeded in submitting a complete paper within a 13-day competition window: Dean Thao, Gabriel Vloch, Logan Moua, Restia Lin.

LeView the Fall 2022 Results Report and learn more about this creative mathematics and technical writing contest.

The following junior and senior students will compete on Friday, March 3rd in the annual 14-hour M3Challenge.

Benjamin Askling

Tessara Clark

Anika Derby

Emily Johnson

Logan Moua

Adyleenah Shatz-Muzaffarr

Dean Thao

Gabriel Vloch

East Math Modeling Teams meet weekly September through November and every other week for the rest of the year. Students from any grade level and with any amount of mathematical experience are welcome to join. Contact Cynthia Chin for more information.

Despite some very cold weather (-47° windchill!), students had a blast! They were able to reenact the 7 Years' War at the Plains of Abraham, learn about and make medicine wheels at the First Nations Huron Village, go curling, visit a traditional sugar shack, ride a toboggan down an ice slide, go snow rafting down a mountain, visit the Ice Hotel, go dog sledding, and of course, experience Carnaval! Students had a blast using their French, learning about Quebecois culture, and for some, it was their first time traveling internationally! We can't wait to do it again!

Senior Kadjata Bah was recently named the Wisconsin Journalist of the Year, winning the statewide competition for aspiring news writers, moving her into consideration at the national level.

After being nominated for the recognition by East business & media teacher, April van Buren, Bah set about compiling a portfolio of relevant experience to showcase her work, drawing strongly from her time with Simpson Street Free Press, a Madison-based student-run publication for which she has written since the fifth grade, and that currently sees her primarily covering local education.

“Being a student myself, but also having to take a more objective approach for Simpson Street, gives me a pretty unique point of view when it comes to writing about our schools,” said Bah. “Looking at data and stats and reading about the things that are happening, but also experiencing them firsthand, has provided me an interesting perspective on the faults of education in our city, especially the achievement gaps among different demographics, and the ways that we can go about fixing them.”

Bah was one of eight Wisconsin high-schoolers who were considered for the state’s “Journalist of the Year” title, which is granted by the Wisconsin Journalism Education Association (WisJEA) and provides her a $1,000 scholarship for her continued studies. The win also moves her into “Journalist of the Year” contention at the national level.

In writing to inform Kadjata of her selection, WisJEA president Matthew Smith, wrote: “[Your entry ]stood out for the sheer depth and quality of your work in all areas. Your news reporting and writing is direct, informative and clean; your broadcast and photography work is solid; and, above all else, your leadership and ability to use journalism to improve your community is excellent. It is clear that you have dedicated yourself to this craft and helping spread your passion and skills to others. You, your adviser and your entire school journalism program should be proud.”

The latter part of that final sentence speaks to the importance of career and technical education, which is celebrated in February and sees scholars learning skills that go beyond core-curriculum requirements, preparing them for occupations and courses of advanced study in specific areas of their choosing. This week (February 20th through 24th) is also Scholastic Journalism Week, with each day focusing on a different topic (i.e., truth in reporting, inclusive reporting, etc.) pertaining to news-sharing. For Bah, the draw to journalism was, indeed, multifaceted.

“I see it as a different form of storytelling, but also a means of empowering people, giving them the information that they need to know, when they need to know it,” she said. “It’s the responsibility of any good journalist to play a necessary part in social change, and to honestly, urgently, and efficiently make available critical information. I also just love talking to people—I’m a big talker, and I love asking people questions and hearing their stories and what they have to say. I think that those two aspects of journalism go together really well.”

Though she is unsure of her plans for next year, she knows that they will include the continued study and practice of journalism. And if her experiences to date can serve as any indication, she’ll enjoy continued success in both, too.

“She's smart, conscientious, and in addition to being brilliant, she's really caring and thoughtful,” said van Buren. “And I think that makes her such a perceptive journalist. She thinks of good questions and she brings them with her to class, along with really excellent story ideas and points that we need to consider, whether it's a piece she's working on or something by one of her peers. What I love most about her, though, is Kadjata’s somebody who always asks, ‘Why not?’—that's really been her approach to everything, and she's learned so much and developed so many amazing skills because of it.”

The Journalism Education Association’s determination of its national “Journalist of the Year” will be announced in San Francisco, during the Spring National High School Journalism Convention, from April 20th through 23rd. In the meantime, you can see examples of Kadjata’s work on the Simpson Street Free Press website, in editions of the Eastside News, and in episodes of East High’s Tower TV programming.