About Us
Welcome to East High School!
Located in the south central portion of the state, Madison, Wisconsin, has an estimated population of 252,551 and is the home of the University of Wisconsin and the State Capitol. Although Madison has long been considered a leading medical, cultural and educational center of the Midwest. East High School is a microcosm of the city of Madison, reflecting its rich ethnic cultural and economic diversity. The University of Wisconsin provides numerous enrichment opportunities and brings many national and international experts into our school community to live and work.
At Madison East High School, we have a strong tradition of success and pride as a school community, based on our ongoing mission to open doors of opportunity for our students by providing high expectations for all with a focus on college, career and community readiness. While we have experienced significant successes over the years, we also recognize we have room to grown to ensure that every single student thrives in our learning community.
Our School Improvement Planning process is collaborative, and begins each spring by gathering feedback from students, families and staff, to identify what is working and what needs to be improved. These ideas then become our Theory of Action, clarifying exactly what we feel we need to do, how we plan to make it happen, how we will monitor our progress, and our goals for the year. Our Theory of Action is further supported by a more detailed School Improvement Plan that details the strategies we will use, and our plans for monitoring our implementation. These documents are then shared on our school website, and we will be holding ourselves accountable along the way by sharing our progress with the entire school community. Through this cycle we can continue to make our mission come to life for students at Madison East.
Strengths
The key strength of Madison East High School is the awareness and the celebration of diversity in our building. We believe all students can be successful if they are well-understood and well-supported by the entire school community, and challenged through use of a rigorous and relevant curriculum, delivered with dynamic and flexible instruction. As a school community, we are committed to working together to making this vision a reality for all students.
Progress
We are committed to ensuring a smooth transition and to providing all students with any supports necessary to ensure their success. This past year we continued fine tuning our system to keep our incoming 9th Grade students on track to graduate, and saw a 3% increase in students on-track- to graduate. We also saw our Graduation Rate increase by 2%, our participation rates for the ACT and Advanced Placement (AP) Testing has also increased tremendously this past academic year. We worked with a new partner, Equal Opportunity Schools, which resulted in a 14% increase in enrollment in Advanced Placement Courses and an addition of 100 low income students and 136 historically underrepresented students in AP courses for 2018-2019.
Area for Growth
Moving forward, we are hoping to be even more collaborative and systematic as a school community as we work to meet the needs of each and every student. We are continuing to build more effective supports and systems for all students but with an intensive focus on 9th grade. We are also working to personalize learning for all students by further initiating Personalized Pathways and establishing Academic and Career Plans for all students, to provide more authentic experiences to prepare our students for the future.
Vision Connection
Our school supports MMSD's vision that all students acquire the skills and abilities needed to be successful, including a mastery of content areas, growth mindset, self-knowledge, creativity, wellness, interpersonal skills, confidence, cultural competence, and community connection. Through these skills and abilities, our students will graduate college, career, and community ready.
Equity Vision – East High School is intentional in creating an inclusive and supportive environment where students and families feel safe and connected to staff and the community, diverse identities are celebrated and promoted, and high expectations and equitable access to rigor are the norm in every classroom so that every student graduates college, career and community ready.
School Structure and Neighborhood Information
East High School is structured with “Small Learning Community Neighborhoods.” These Neighborhoods (Olbrich, Tenney, Warner, and Yahara) do not correlate with where families physically reside, but are assigned randomly. Within each neighborhood, students are supported by an Assistant Principal, Administrative Assistant, Counselor, Social Worker, Psychologist, Dean of Students, and Nurse and ideally these connections will stay the same during a students’ four years at East. East’s Neighborhood structure offers opportunities for student-to-student and student-to-staff relationships leading to students’ becoming personally involved in and taking responsibility for their own education. The result of students’ feeling a part of the school’s academics and activities is increased chances for success both in and out of the classroom.
Students also participate in a series of grade-level specific developmental guidance activities and a variety of connected classroom lessons and activities which helps students develop what are called Academic and Career Plans (ACP). Development of an ACP is a cyclic process that guides students to explore who they are and what they want to do with their lives, to identify strengths and growth areas, and to chart progress towards both short and long term goals.
