or the past few years, at least, part of our mission at Isthmus has been to cover education in Madison. Sometimes it’s a cover story, other times it’s an ongoing monitoring of the process. This week, for instance, we print excerpts from “Take-Home Test,” a feature that appears on The Daily Page, consisting of questions posed to school board candidates prior to next month’s election.
But most of our coverage has focused on the institutional operation of the school system, including the political games adults sometimes play. If you really want to know the state of public education, you have to go beyond the system and inside the school’s four walls to experience how students and staff bring Madison education to life. I had the opportunity to do just that this week under the aegis of Principal for a Day, a program of the private Foundation for Madison’s Public Schools.