Bennie Gonzalez
Yoanna Hoskins
Hoskins: ‘I saw how the district’s leadership revolves around the superintendent. I do think the district is kind of in trouble right now.’
La Follette senior Yoanna Hoskins may only cast an advisory vote as the student representative on the Madison school board. However, she proved to be an exceptionally influential board member this school year, particularly during a contentious debate over a district proposal to sunset standalone honors classes in Madison high schools.
At the board’s Dec. 5 meeting, Superintendent Carlton Jenkins — and others in favor of eliminating honors classes — scolded board members for supporting a “segregated mentality” and protecting “white spaces” in response to pushback on the lack of details in the district’s proposal to replace traditional honors classes with “earned honors.” District administrators insisted earned honors — which allows students to earn honors credit by doing extra work in a non-honors class — provides the same level of academic rigor as standalone honors courses. But Hoskins was the only person at the meeting who had actually taken a class with the earned honors option.
“All we did was just one project and then got honors credit. It wasn’t hard,” Hoskins said at the meeting. “How many projects will [students] have to do to get an honors credit? Will it be more than one?”
District administrators referred her to a slideshow of its proposal.
With the board set to make a final decision on honors classes on Dec. 19, Hoskins went to work to ensure student voices were heard. She organized a student survey that collected feedback from nearly 600 high schoolers. She also consulted the Black Student Union, the Student Senate, and teachers who taught standalone honors and earned honors classes. Her peers noted the lack of diversity in standalone honors at some Madison high schools, and some told her they felt discouraged from taking these classes. But students also pointed out that inequalities in honors classes developed long before high school, and that the district’s efforts would be better spent on encouraging every student to pursue more rigorous coursework from kindergarten on.
“[Students] did oppose removing standalone honors as of right now,” Hoskins told the board at its Dec. 19 meeting. “How will teachers be supported with having to teach students of all levels in one class if standalone honors are removed?”
Jenkins seemed unmoved by the feedback, responding, “With anything new, there will be some change pains that we are all going to experience.”
But others were convinced, following Hoskins’ symbolic vote on behalf of students to reject the district’s proposal. The board voted 4-3 to keep standalone honors.
Former school board member Christina Gomez Schmidt, who left the board in April, says she was impressed by how Hoskins elevated the conversation.
“With this issue that had become a flashpoint for discussions about race and equity, she shared thoughtful insights from her own experience and from the student survey she created to inform both the discussion and her vote,” says Gomez Schmidt. “She provided a strong example for all of us on how to approach difficult conversations and decisions.”
Hoskins tells Isthmus there was a disconnect between district administrators and what was actually happening in the classroom.
“[The district] talked very broadly about this issue when every high school is different. I’ve never really been the only Black person in any of my honors classes, nor have some of the kids that I surveyed at La Follette because it’s a very diverse school. Students at West had a totally different experience,” says Hoskins. “The [district’s] proposal may have sounded good in theory. But given the staff shortages and lack of resources generally, it wasn’t realistic and wouldn’t solve the whole equity or racism issue.”
Hoskins has a long list of accomplishments from her 13 years in the Madison school district. She was in the Dual Language Immersion program starting at Nuestro Mundo elementary and, as a result, is fluent in Spanish. She’s also fluent in Bulgarian, which she learned from her Bulgarian mom. In addition to being the student rep on the school board, she’s vice president of the Student Senate, president of the Black Student Union, a member of the Latinx Union, a mathlete, a voting member on the district’s Safety and Student Wellness Ad Hoc Committee, a law intern at Haskins Short & Brindley, and an editor and translator at Simpson Street Free Press.
During her junior and senior years, she took Spanish and “Theory and Practice of Argumentation and Debate” classes at UW-Madison. She also quite literally kicks ass. In eighth grade, she won a bronze medal at a world championship kickboxing competition in Jesolo, Italy.
School board member Ali Muldrow says Hoskins represents the best of Madison. “Yoanna’s leadership on the Board of Education has been thoughtful, researched, considerate, and representative of the complex and diverse young people who go to our schools,” says Muldrow. “I have been proud to vote with Yoanna and our community is better for her service.”
Hoskins credits her success to support from her parents. She’ll be attending Stanford University in the fall and plans to go to law school.
Hoskins says she got a good education from the Madison school district. “I had some great teachers. I’m grateful for the [Dual Language Immersion] program,” says Hoskins. “That definitely was the best part of my education and I was lucky to have that opportunity.”
But she has seen a decline in recent years, due to the pandemic and staffing shortages.
“I, personally, didn’t mind virtual learning but the coursework was super slow and easy,” says Hoskins, who spent her entire sophomore year doing schoolwork at home. “There were no expectations and it was really up to the student to decide whether they wanted to do the work or not,” says Hoskins. “When we returned to school my junior year, it was pretty chaotic and disorganized.”
She says the staffing shortage at Madison schools the last few years “has been obvious to students.” At La Follette, her classes were often canceled when substitute teachers could not be found. When that happened, students were sent to the auditorium for a study hall.
“That was a major interruption to learning. It was really messing with the student’s education and taking a toll on teachers,” says Hoskins. She says academic standards also dropped. “We never really got out of the pandemic mindset. Students could turn in assignments as late as they wanted, and sometimes not complete them at all. What is expected of students has slipped since the pandemic.”
Hoskins says teacher resignations are “still a huge problem” in Madison and supporting educators should be a top priority for the next superintendent.
“As the student rep on the school board, I saw how the district’s leadership revolves around the superintendent. I do think the district is kind of in trouble right now,” says Hoskins. “There has been a lot of turnover in the central office and now [Jenkins] is leaving. Hopefully, the next superintendent will stay longer because you can’t really get much done in a short period of time.”
Hoskins also thinks Madison could do a better job of preparing students for what comes after high school.
“There are a lot of ways students can achieve success. But we need good teachers to encourage and motivate students,” says Hoskins. “We need more teachers who look like the students they are teaching. So supporting teachers so they stay in the district is essential.”
