4888 Arugala Rd
Madison, WI 53711

Teacher's perspective.PROS- Excellent course offerings. There's something for everyone.- Outstanding level of clubs and extracurriculars available.- Many sports programs are very strong and a high % of students participate.- I'm biased, but I think most of the staff is very good. There's a couple teachers that are world-class (everyone knows who they are). There's always a few outliers, of course, but most of the teachers are knowledgeable, talented, student-oriented, dedicated, and care about their job and relationships with kids.- Customer-service oriented. School will do anything to appease parents and students.- We have great students. They're generally very well-behaved and respectful, especially compared to other schools in Dane County.- Parents and community are extremely supportive. They voted to pass a referendum (and raise their taxes) to increase staff salaries because of district budget failures. I don't think that would happen in many areas.CONS- Sports tends to be valued more than academics (principal comes from a sports background). Students regularly miss class for sports competitions. When students have failing grades, teachers are pressured to raise them to keep them eligible for sports participation.- School is extremely liberal and intolerant of any political opinions outside that realm.- Consistent issues with bullying/harassment.- Advisory program has been very ineffective. They usually either purchase canned curriculum that feels inauthentic, or have lesson plans created by people who don't even teach. The kids hate it.- Grading policies (unlimited test retakes, unlimited late work submission, no scores below 50%) have been very detrimental to students' organization and responsibility and has led to massive grade inflation.- Although the school has tried to emphasize equity, no improvement has been made and our minority students perform consistently worse than our white students. They often voice feeling uncomfortable and unsafe at school.- School response to the pandemic has left a not-insignificant portion of the community upset.- District budget is a disaster and bodes poorly for the future. We spend disproportionately more on administration and instructional coaches than other districts. Many teachers feel contempt towards these positions for having lower impact yet higher pay than the teachers in the classrooms doing the hard work.- Cell phone use is out of control due to weak district policy.

We came to Oregon in 2017, the district was highly rated(7-9)across all schools. Our son graduated from Oregon High School in 2019 and we were happy with the education he received. Fast forward to 2022, one kid at the middle school and one at RCI, completely different experience. The district now only cares about pronouns and equity, forget the basics, they no longer matter. 8th grade history has been replaced with anti racism curriculum and bullying is slap on the hand if anything at all. There is very little discipline for bad behavior, curse words are discouraged, but no recourse for using such language or constant outbursts. All students must pass so the district can have a near 100% graduation rate. We are currently looking at other open enrollment schools or even the new charter school in Beloit.