Wisconsin continues to struggle with retaining teachers, according to DPI report

Wisconsin public schools are dealing with an ongoing teacher retention problem with almost 40% of teachers leaving within their first six years in the field, according to a new report by the Department of Public Instruction (DPI).

DPI Superintendent Jill Underly and public school advocates said at a press conference Thursday that inadequate compensation and growing workloads are two of the major reasons for the concerning trend. They also called on the state Legislature to help address the issue. 

“Our public schools, our teachers, our education workforce are in crisis.” Underly said. “We’ve heard from school district administrators, who lose quality educators to the private sector. We’ve heard from teachers themselves that a severe lack of pay and worsening work-life balance have driven them out of the profession that they are so passionate about, and it is our kids, our future leaders who suffer.” 

Jennifer Kammerud with DPI’s Licensing, Educator Advancement and Development Team noted that there were some bright spots in the report including that enrollments in educator preparation programs exceed those of neighboring states and that the retirement rate for educators remains stable. However, she said the overall picture of the report is that while Wisconsin is maintaining the ability to attract people to the teaching profession, the state is challenged as it tries to keep people in the profession. 

According to the report, which analyzed the 2021-22 school year, the state is losing educators at two points: after students complete training programs and within the early years of their career. 

During the 2021-22 school year, 5,061 students completed an educator preparation program. Only 4,002 — or about 79% — became licensed. Only 68% were ultimately employed in a Wisconsin public school.

Of early career educators, only 60% were still employed in Wisconsin after six years.

The subject area with the highest need is special education. Other shortage areas of greatest concern identified by school districts surveyed as part of the report include math, career and technical education, science and speech-language pathology. 

One reason teachers leave, according to the report, was compensation. Since 2010, it found, educator compensation decreased 19% when held constant in 2022 dollars. 

“These pay cuts happen at the same time that teachers are being asked to do even more,” Underly said. “They’re still being asked to take their work home with them. They are being asked to work over the weekends. They are often being asked to teach both in person and virtually sometimes simultaneously, and they are being asked to take on even greater burdens of addressing special education needs without the staff or resources to effectively do so.” 

Other reasons identified by districts include educators finding work in another school or district, personal reasons, work-life balance, finding work in another profession and workload. 

The report also found that the teacher workforce doesn’t reflect the state’s demographic makeup — 71% of the state’s education workforce is white and female. 

Underly said that the agency is taking as much action as it can to address the workforce issues. She noted the agency launched a special education induction program, which provides professional learning and coaching sessions to first and second year special educators, and partnered with the Department of Workforce Development to create a teacher apprenticeship program.

“But we need the Legislature to take action,” Underly said. “Our state Legislature needs to address this crisis head on. We cannot wait another entire year until the next budget.” 

Underly said the state has the means to deal with the issue and should uphold its responsibility to fund public schools. She pointed to the state’s over $3 billion budget surplus as the solution. Wisconsin also currently has about $1.8 billion in its rainy day fund. 

“For far too long, our public schools have been willfully underfunded which has led to cutting student programming and opportunities, increasing class sizes, and putting more and more on staff, who are being compensated far less and less,” Underly said. “Wisconsin has billions of dollars sitting in its coffers that could be used to relieve public schools of these constraints.” 

Wisconsin Education Association Counsel President Peggy Wirtz-Olsen said the solution to the staffing crisis is simple — Wisconsin needs to “raise teacher pay, address crushing workloads, restore our right to negotiate with our employers, explore new ways to support teachers.” 

Wisconsin educators’ ability to bargain with employers over wages was gutted in 2010 under Wisconsin Act 10 with employees limited to bargaining only over raises capped at the rate of inflation. They can’t bargain over other aspects including hours and conditions of employment, overtime, premium pay and other compensation. 

“Without these critical fixes, the exodus of teachers will continue,” Witz-Olson said. “Educators like me have been crystal clear for over a decade about what it will take to keep us in the profession, but lawmakers and sometimes our administrators refuse to listen.”