DPI report highlights difficulties retaining teachers in Wisconsin

Nearly one-third of people who complete teacher training never enter the classroom in Wisconsin, and nearly half of the people who do become teachers leave the profession within eight years.

That’s according to a new report from the state Department of Public Instruction that uses data from the 2023-24 school year. It highlighted ongoing challenges with retention even as overall staffing levels at schools remain relatively stable.

The report showed the number of teachers in Wisconsin has remained steady at 64,354 in the 2022-23 school year and 63,956 in the 2023-24 school year. But it also highlighted challenges retaining mid-career teachers due to compensation declines over the last decade and a half.

State Superintendent Jill Underly attended a roundtable in Green Bay Monday with K-12 leaders and educators from northeast Wisconsin to talk about ways to boost teacher recruitment and retention in Wisconsin. 

When districts lose educators, Underly said it results in larger class sizes, fewer courses being offered, less individual support for students and a loss of experience in the teaching labor market. 

“We have to focus on keeping great educators in our classrooms,” she said. “They need to feel supported, they need to feel connected and they have to have opportunities to grow.”

Of the more than 5,256 people who completed a teaching training program in the state in 2023-24, around 30 percent, or 1,688, did not become teachers in Wisconsin. 

For those who entered the teaching profession, only 52.6 percent were still working in Wisconsin classrooms by their eighth year on the job, the report says. For special education teachers, the retention rate was only 43.2 percent. 

Underly and others who spoke during the roundtable said compensation is a major reason teachers are either leaving the profession or leaving the state.

According to the report, the total compensation for people entering their 15th year of teaching in 2024 was 22 percent less than it was in 2010 when adjusting for inflation. For teachers entering their 30th year, it was 13 percent less.

In inflation-adjusted dollars, the median teacher compensation in the state in 2010, including salary and benefits, was $110,722. By 2024, that number fell to $88,106.

Underly said low pay means some teachers have to work second jobs to stay in the profession.

“We’re asking a lot of these individuals to work multiple jobs when a job like teaching is so important and so highly valued in our communities,” Underly said. “We’re burning these individuals out, so they do make these choices five (to) eight years in. That’s when we’re losing them.”

Andrea Huggett, a middle school math teacher in the Green Bay Area Public School District, said compensation is a major factor. She said she’s “absolutely” been tempted to leave teaching because she could make more money in another profession.

“I’m not in it for the compensation. I’m in it to make a difference,” she said. “But that is a huge factor in my day-to-day life. I have a family, I have a home, I have a mortgage, I have insurance that’s costing more each year, and it’s a big factor in a lot of people’s decisions.”

Mai Vang, director of recruitment and talent development for the Green Bay Area Public School District, said compensation is one of the harder problems for districts to address and is not something that “one person or one school district” would be able to solve. 

Underly said Wisconsin’s “public schools are severely underfunded,” limiting the ability of districts to address the compensation issue. She said the most recent state budget did not include any new general aid to school districts, which requires schools to do more with less. 

“That really puts the burden on the school district, which then puts the burden on local taxpayers to have to pass a referendum,” she said.

Kewaunee School District Superintendent Scott Fritz said his district has not passed an operational referendum but has had to make budget cuts in recent years to try to ensure teachers receive fair compensation.

“We made that choice because we want to continue to have funding so that we can pay our teachers a competitive rate,” he said. “I can’t compete with where Green Bay is at, but I want to be able to compete with school districts our size.”