Herb Kohl at 13. Bud Selig at 13. The solid base of the next generation of Milwaukeeans, not only future senators and baseball commissioners, but future tool-and-die makers and teachers, accountants and business owners, professionals and laborers of all kinds.
That was then at Steuben Middle School.
This is now:
“I have five assignments, I have 33 students. Why do I only have five assignments?” eighth-grade science teacher Yolanda Williams asks her class.
A few more comments from Steuben Middle School.

Sarah Carr writes that a drill-oriented approach to teaching reading is gaining followers in Milwaukee public school classrooms. In 1998, 15 MPS schools used direct instruction. Today, about 47 schools do.
But some critics say drill-based reading method hurts students.
“There’s such tremendous pressure on teachers and administrators to advance reading scores that they are literally desperate to try new things they think will bring them success,” said Randall Ryder, a professor in the department of curriculum and instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Last month, Ryder completed a study concluding that students in direct instruction classrooms fared worse than students taught using other reading methods.
But Dolores Mishelow, a former principal and one of the leading backers of direct instruction within MPS, said: “I get really upset when people bash it, because I know that it works.”

Anne Davis writes: “Wisconsin Connections Academy, Wisconsin Virtual Academy and, in particular, the just-approved iQ Academies at Wisconsin are using paid advertisements, billboards and direct mail to woo students during the state’s three-week annual open enrollment period that begins Monday and runs through Feb. 20.”
No matter what they spend, Northern Ozaukee school Superintendent Bill Harbron is asking K12 representatives to make some adjustments to their marketing approach this time around to avoid overselling the school.
After a short but intense campaign last year, the virtual academy received more than 1,000 applications. About 455 students actually enrolled, and the enrollment has continued to drop ever since as parents have discovered the program doesn’t fit their needs, Harbron said.
“There’s no sense recruiting a large number of students (and) then having them enter the program and drop out,” Harbron said. “We want parents to make a very realistic choice for their child.”