A Wisconsin Public Radio report that examines the issue of low teacher retention in Wisconsin highlights the UW–Madison School of Education Wisconsin Teacher Pledge and the Early Career Teaching Institute — which most recently brought about 100 early-career educators to campus in July — as ways the School is supporting teacher education graduates and helping to keep them in the field.
According to the article, headlined “Wisconsin students still majoring in education, but teacher retention is down,” since the School of Education launched the Teacher Pledge in 2020, the number of students enrolled in its teacher education programs has grown by 10 percent.
“When we instituted the Teacher Pledge we were really interested in attracting more students into teaching, more diverse students and raising their standards of living,” School of Education Dean Diana Hess tells WPR. “We know we can’t do anything directly about teacher salaries, but we’re hoping we will be able to raise teacher standard of living and provide them with incentive to stay in teaching.”
The article notes the program is currently funded by $26 million in donations. Hess says she is hoping to raise another $12 million to fund the Teacher Pledge through the decade.
“My concern is obviously donors can’t pay for this in perpetuity, and this doesn’t affect all the other teacher prep programs in the state,” Hess says. “We’re hoping this will provide a model the state Legislature would adopt in the future.”
The article also quotes UW–Madison graduate Maddison Iwen, a teacher at Coloma Elementary School in Central Wisconsin, about challenges she’s faced as an early-career educator.
While Iwen tells WPR she was “born to teach,” she also explains it is not what she thought it would be.
“I had a very privileged view of education, coming from a very white, middle-class background,” Iwen says. “I didn’t see how much work has to go on behind the scenes to truly meet the needs of all my students. I think being a teacher means much more than curriculum and content. It’s absolutely wearing five or six hats at a time and being OK with that.”
To learn more about this issue, check out the full article at wpr.org.