Best Schools

Best Schools

March 9, 2012Feature Story

Best Schools

  For Mequon-Thiensville’s Julie King, teaching reading is a royal passion. Story by Matt Hrodey Photos by Adam Ryan Morris   Julie King had a student who was afraid of her own ideas. The girl was “very shy, someone who had struggled in school up to that point,” says the reading specialist at Steffen Middle School in the Mequon-Thiensville School District. Like other students, the sixth-grader had been sent to King for extra help. Something about writing her ideas down and leaving them vulnerable to judgment unsettled the student, and she was now reluctantly creating an outline for what would later…

November 25, 2009Feature Story

Best Schools

additional research by Bruce Murphy and Caroline Goyette Back in the 1930s, federal New Deal workers built Greendale as a model village for the working class. Planners surrounded the settlement with thousands of acres of farmland and parks to shield the village from Milwaukee. Seven decades later, the greenbelt is gone and Greendale feels similar to the average Milwaukee suburb. Yet something of the old planners’ ideals might remain, for Greendale scored as the top K-12 school system in our rating of metro area schools. About 92 percent of students in this middle-class suburb achieved proficiency or better in math…

October 24, 2008Feature Story

Top High Schools 2002

At Whitefish Bay High School on Milwaukee’s North Shore, students aren’t modest about their academic fortune. “A 3.0 here is worth a 4.0 at other schools,” asserts Whitefish Bay senior David Brown. A few miles away at Nicolet High School, students offer a similar appraisal of their institution. “Parents want a high-powered environment,” a Nicolet senior concludes. The adjective is no accident. High school may be where power starts in modern life today. The quality of our schools drives politics. Education helped George W. Bush reach the White House. It’s also a linchpin in many a family’s decision on where…