As Wisconsin continues to battle a shortage of teachers, a new report from the Department of Public Instruction details exactly how many educators are leaving the profession and why.
The report released Thursday found that nearly 40% of new teachers leave their career or the state after just six years in the profession. And only about two-thirds of aspiring educators who completed some form of preparation program and met licensure requirements were ultimately employed in a Wisconsin public school.
“This report shows what we’ve known for some time now: Our education workforce is in crisis,” State Superintendent Jill Underly said in a prepared statement. “Wisconsin’s kids are suffering from losing quality teachers. Solving this challenge starts with upholding the state’s responsibility of funding our public schools. We have the resources, and we owe it to our kids to do more.”
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The report uses data collected during the 2021-22 school year and responses from a voluntary survey conducted last fall. Roughly 37% of the school districts in the state responded to the survey.
Respondents listed personal reasons, including compensation, work-life balance, switching to another profession and workload as the top reasons for leaving the field.
Still, data indicates more students in Wisconsin are enrolling in preparation programs to become educators than in surrounding states. Illinois and Michigan have the fewest students enrolling in preparation programs in the Midwest, according to the report.
The DPI report includes a few strategies for increasing teacher retention in Wisconsin. They include peer mentoring, apprenticeship programs and “grow your own” programs designed to recruit and train future teachers from within communities.
Meanwhile, compensation for Wisconsin educators, adjusted for inflation, has decreased significantly during the past 12 years. Combining salaries and other benefits, the median compensation package has declined by almost 20%.
Teachers earning more than $100,000 in 2010 were effectively earning about $81,500 in total compensation in 2022, according to data from the report.
“Educating our future leaders is an incredible responsibility, and we are failing students and families,” Underly said. “It’s shocking we’ve allowed teacher compensation to decline in real terms. Not only do our teachers need to be paid appropriately, but they need to be respected and supported by our communities.”
The report also explores the demographic makeup of Wisconsin teachers. Educators continue to be “overwhelmingly” white and female, without significant change in this makeup over time. More than 94% of Wisconsin teachers were white during the 2021-22 school year, the report found.
These demographics are starkly different from the makeup of the student population in the state, the report reads. “This difference matters in terms of student outcomes. Research has shown that having a teacher of the same race impacts outcomes for students of color.”