Milwaukee High School of the Arts

At the Milwaukee High School of the Arts (MHSA), students have the opportunity to major in an art field—creative writing, dance, theater, music, or visual—via a daily block of instruction focused on that single area. Also available are advanced coursework, including Advanced Placement offerings. This high school is academically rigorous and has Common Core classes. Project Lead the Way engineering courses and design are also available. Many students at MHSA are English language learners (ESL), and the school values diversity. All students are enrolled in Pre-AP classes during the first two years. Students who wish to take their art major to the AP level should take the Pre-AP classes offered during the freshman and sophomore years, usually in English, mathematics, and social studies.

Many students and parents are impressed by ommunity engagement, the primary focus of progressive pedagogy. Ninety-two percent of the students and parents in this survey rated MHSA overall as “good” or “excellent.” A lot of comments provided depth to ratings, especially on themes like instructional rigor and community engagement, with numerous reviewers praising the school as “the best of public and private.” The majority of those who agreed to be contacted almost unanimously cited the teacher-student and teacher-parent interaction. Student outcomes were not that much favorable, though, with 66 percent of students scoring “low” or “very low” on the quality of student outcomes. It was so 1/3 below average, and 2/3 were below proficiency. MHSA also performed poorly in the inclusivity metric, with 85 percent of students and parents rating the school as “low” or “very low” in inclusivity. Some other aspects where the high school did not meet expectations were teacher and academic enrichment resources, with 97 percent of students reporting academic enrichment resources as either “few” or “none” at all.