Wisconsin
Here’s how statewide reading reform is impacting Wisconsin Rapids Public Schools
Wisconsin Act 20 requires “science-based early reading instruction” in grades K-3. WRPS plans to implement changes through fifth grade for the 2024-25 school year.
WISCONSIN RAPIDS − Last summer, the Wisconsin State Legislature and Gov. Tony Evers reached a compromise on sweeping literacy reform for Wisconsin students.
The reform, known as The Right to Read Act or 2023 Wisconsin Act 20, requires “science-based early reading instruction in both universal and intervention settings” and specifically prohibits reading instruction using “three-cueing instruction,” according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction website.
Wisconsin has ranked at or below average among other states in student reading performance measures since the 2000s, a large shift from its top 10 status in the 1990s.
Wisconsin is one of over three dozen states to enact similar reading reform bills in recent years. Here’s what readers need to know about the changes and how the Wisconsin Rapids Public School District is working to implement a new reading curriculum.
What is ‘science-based’ reading instruction?
DPI defines science-based reading instruction as “systematic and explicit and consists of all the following: phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, phonics, building background knowledge, oral language development, vocabulary building, instruction in writing, instruction in comprehension, and reading fluency.”
“In a science of reading framework, teachers start by teaching beginning readers the foundations of language in a structured progression − like how individual letters represent sounds, and how those sounds combine to make words,” Sarah Schwartz of EdWeek wrote in 2022. “At the same time, teachers are helping students build their vocabulary and their knowledge about the world through read-alouds and conversations. Eventually, teachers help students weave these skills together like strands in a rope, allowing them to read more and more complex texts.”
What is ‘three-cueing instruction’ and why is it prohibited?
DPI defines three-cueing as “any model, including the model referred to as meaning, structure, and visual cues, or MSV, of teaching a pupil to read based on meaning, structure and syntax, and visual cues or memory.”
This model of instruction rose to popularity, despite scientific pushback, over the last several decades for a range of political, economic and social reasons. American Public Media reporter Emily Hanford explores this history in detail on the Edward R. Murrow award-winning podcast, Sold a Story.
The DPI website clarifies that the “prohibition applies when the instructional goal is for the learner to solve unknown words.”
Reform creates Office of Literacy and adds literacy coaches
Besides adopting new curriculum standards and prohibiting a misguided method for early reading instruction, the legislation also creates an Office of Literacy within DPI, mandates new teacher and administration training, provides grants to districts that need to choose a new curriculum, creates new reading assessments for students and establishes 64 full-time literacy coaches to help carry out the reforms across the state.
The Office of Literacy and the literacy coaches are set to expire on July 1, 2028.
How is Wisconsin Rapids Public Schools impacted?
Director of Curriculum and Instruction Roxanne Filtz said Wisconsin Rapids Public Schools has been trying early reading curriculum resources in the district since December in anticipation of the new state standards. WRPS is eight years into a regular 10-year cycle for evaluating its reading curriculum resources and piloting resources is a regular part of that process. The district’s current reading-related pilots are for both classroom materials and for teacher and staff training materials.
The new state law bumped the district’s process forward about a year but due diligence is still being performed by district staff in order to make an informed choice, Filtz said.
A team of district staff have been meeting monthly to discuss the pilot programs. They began late last year with a list of five science-based curriculum materials they put together based on materials nearby states use but have since eliminated three of those and shifted to solely evaluating materials approved by the Wisconsin legislature’s Joint Finance Committee in March. Materials on the legislature’s approved list are eligible for partial reimbursement from the state.
The curriculum department intends to have a recommendation ready to present to the School Board in June and to be ready to implement the new program with the 2024-25 school year.
Filtz said the district will rework its literacy program all the way to fifth grade even though Act 20 only requires changes for kindergarten to third grade. She said the district is being proactive and has had a positive process so far.
WRPS previously was using curriculum resources designed by Lucy Calkins, who is primarily featured and interviewed in the Sold a Story podcast and is known for promoting a “balanced reading” approach to literacy education. “Balanced reading” often includes “three-cueing” strategies.
How have WRPS students fared on reading assessments?
In 2022, the National Assessment of Education Progress test found about a third of Wisconsin’s fourth and eighth graders are proficient in reading. Wisconsin’s two other main measures of student literacy are the annual Forward exams, given in grades 3-8, and the ACT exam, typically taken by students in 11th grade. Forward exam data only goes back to 2018-19.
- In the 2022-23 school year, 39.2% of Wisconsin students and 33.2% of Wisconsin Rapids students in grades 3-8 scored proficient or advanced on the Wisconsin Forward Exam for English Language Arts. In the 2018-19 school year, these numbers were 40.9% and 39.2%, respectively.
- In 2018-19, 43.3% of fourth-graders statewide scored proficient or advanced compared to 44.8% in 2022-23. In Wisconsin Rapids these numbers were 36.1% and 38.3%, respectively.
- In 2018-19, 36.5% of eighth-graders statewide scored proficient or advanced compared to 36.2% in 2022-23. In Wisconsin Rapids these numbers were 34.2% and 23.1%, respectively.
- In 2022-23, 37.7% of Wisconsin students in grade 11 scored proficient or advanced, while 25.9% scored below basic on the ACT exam for English Language Arts. In Wisconsin Rapids those numbers are 35.8% and 29.5%, respectively.
- In 2018-19, 36.8% of Wisconsin students scored proficient or advanced in English Language Arts on the ACT while 35.8% of Wisconsin Rapids students scored at the same level.
More local education news: Wisconsin Rapids School Board narrows superintendent search to two finalists
Wisconsin Rapids Streetwise: Meet the new owner of Hotel Mead. Here’s what’s planned for the 73-year-old Wisconsin Rapids hotel.
Erik Pfantz covers local government and education in central Wisconsin for USA-TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin and values his background as a rural Wisconsinite. Reach him at epfantz@gannett.com or connect with him on X (formerly Twitter) @ErikPfantz.
We cover Wisconsin schools, help support the Journal Sentinel’s work
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters cover education, schools, and issues that matter to parents, students and taxpayers. Help us sustain our coverage.
Matthew Jacobson found his calling in middle school history class.
As a sixth grader at St. John Vianney Catholic School in Brookfield, he voluntarily completed additional research projects and jumped at the chance to present to his classmates. He never saw the extra assignments as work — he was having fun. When Jacobson’s teacher told him he’d make a great educator himself, he set his sights on the profession. In high school, he participated in Elmbrook School District’s future teachers program and planned to enroll in university for his teaching degree.
But life had other plans. Several weeks before his high school graduation, Jacobson was forced to move out on his own. He picked up a cooking job to “pay the bills and survive.” The gig didn’t leave extra money or time for college.
“I didn’t really know how to get back into college and go meet my dream,” Jacobson said.
Two years later, he heard about a novel apprenticeship program, where future teachers earn money working in schools as they obtain their education and certifications.
“I was like, ‘That’s my way back in,’” he said.
State officials launched the program in 2024 to ease the educator shortage by offering students an alternative route to the profession — one where they don’t have to put their careers on pause while racking up student debt. Jacobson is one of the first eight teacher apprentices.
Today, Jacobson has returned to Elmbrook to serve as a classroom aide. In two years, he’ll have the proper training for the district to hire him as an elementary or middle school teacher.
But as participants reach the program’s halfway point, its future beyond this initial “pilot” phase is unclear — raising questions about whether apprenticeships will become a viable solution to Wisconsin’s struggle to find and keep educators.
While the route has been life-changing for students like Jacobson, program leaders are having trouble enticing school districts to take on more apprentices. Enrollment has ground to a halt; the two technical colleges involved don’t have any new students signed up to begin in the fall.
Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development officials say whether the program continues or grows depends on if districts get on board and sponsor trainees to join up. But district leaders say a major hurdle is the cost — a key appeal of an apprenticeship is the employer paying them for the time they spend learning, but many public schools are already strapped for cash. Some want more funding tied to the program.
“(It’s) stalling a little bit,” said Trent Sorensen, a Fox Valley Technical College dean. “We don’t have any (students) coming in for the fall. … There’s plenty of time, but it’s not taking off like it did in other states, and it’s simply because of the funding.”
A new way to train teachers
Wisconsin schools struggle to find enough teachers needed to lead classrooms — a problem largely fueled by poor retention and new workers moving to other states after graduating.
In 2024, Congress came through with some assistance: $570,000 in federal funds earmarked for establishing a teacher apprenticeship program in Wisconsin.
Officials from DWD, the Department of Public Instruction, the Wisconsin Technical College System, and two universities teamed up to debut the pilot in January 2024. They praised the “earn-while-you-learn” approach to establishing a pipeline of workers: Districts could guarantee they’d have future teachers, while also filling lower-skilled jobs in the meantime.
Typically, aspiring teachers work a shorter classroom internship while studying for their bachelor’s degree and then complete a semester of student teaching after graduating. The apprenticeship is “taking that entire approach and flipping it on its head,” said Nick Abbott, senior program and policy analyst at the Bureau of Apprenticeship Standards — creating a potentially more accessible path to the profession.
“Traditional educator preparation programs can be expensive, as they often require unpaid student teaching, which might not be feasible for low-income students, nontraditional students or individuals looking to change careers,” Gov. Tony Evers said when the program launched. “The new teacher apprenticeship pilot program will help address issues in turnover and retention, reduce barriers and encourage young people to enter the field.”
Apprenticeships are becoming more common in Wisconsin in fields ranging from plumbing to nursing. Participation has hit record highs for the last four years. These gigs are far more common for hands-on jobs in the skilled trades than fields like education and health care, but that’s changing with initiatives like the teacher apprenticeship program.
Here’s how it works: A school district hires an apprentice, who enrolls at Fox Valley Technical College or Waukesha County Technical College for two years to complete a Foundations of Teacher Education associate’s degree. When finished, the student transfers to Lakeland University or the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater at Rock County to finish a bachelor’s degree.
Throughout those roughly four years of schooling, the apprentice works inside the classroom as an assistant for 32 hours each week and spends eight hours a week learning at college. The school district the person works for pays an hourly wage for those 40 total hours. When apprentices finish the training, they’re qualified to work as a classroom teacher.
“Nothing prepares you for doing this job, other than doing the job,” Jacobson said. “Being at a school working with kids is easily 10 times more important than any of the classes I’ve taken, and I get way better experience and much more value out of just doing it and learning through failure.”
As a way of incentivizing the program during its infancy, the eight students get half of their tuition costs reimbursed with federal grant funds.
Four districts participate in the pilot: Wauwatosa, Greendale, Elmbrook and Appleton. The districts are not required to pay for the remainder of the apprentice’s tuition — Elmbrook, a relativelywealthy district, was the only one that did.
State leaders also hope the apprenticeships might help with teacher retention. Teachers will start with four years of classroom management experience already under their belt, far more than usual.Plus, other teachers mentor them on the job. That essentially eliminates the difficult experience of being a first-year teacher, said Appleton Area School District Chief Human Resources Officer Julie King.
“Managing a classroom and the curriculum and all the demands of the job is very overwhelming after having maybe 18 weeks of student teaching experience,” King said. “To learn alongside a professional that has been in the career, knows all the ins and outs, has skill sets and strategies to work with students – to have that benefit of working alongside somebody like that for four years, you’re much, much better prepared.”
Given these promises, teacher apprenticeships have recently exploded nationwide — 45 states have brought programs online in the last few years. They vary widely in their funding approaches and in the costs to districts and students. States have often looked to Tennessee, the country’s first program, as a standout model. The state’s program, launched in 2020, now helps fund 600 new teacher trainees annually at no cost to the apprentices.
Enticing schools a challenge
In his Foundations of Reading class last fall, Jacobson learned about phonological and phonemic awareness, or the ability to recognize distinct parts of a word — a key skill for learning how to read. Using what he learned, he started running his own reading support group for students needing extra help.
“The second you learn something, I don’t have to wait two years before I actually apply that knowledge to my job,” Jacobson said. “No, I’m applying it that same day or the next day, which then makes it stick a lot more.”
The program gets high marks from trainees and schools. So why aren’t more signing up?
Money. Both school districts and apprentices are struggling to afford it.
The four districts that already have apprentices are waiting until their current students graduate to decide whether to add more, Abbott said.
“I want to stress that the apprenticeship model itself remains available to all school employers in the state who wish to adopt it,” Abbott said. “It comes down to finding partners.”
But getting more of Wisconsin’s 400-plus districts to bite has been difficult.
Sorensen, the Fox Valley Tech dean, said the college isn’t seeing interest from districts because many are contending with too-tight budgets. School leaders have long argued the state’s funding system hasn’t kept up with rising costs, which, as Wisconsin Watch recently reported, has resulted in a recent wave of school closures, layoffs and budget cuts.
That’s made it hard for districts to pay for the hours when trainees are in college, and not working in the classroom.
“It’s challenging for school districts to be able to build in that release time. We did hear that, and that’s really understandable,” said Dena Constantineau, Waukesha County Tech’s associate dean of education and human services. “I mean, they really rely on their people, and so they need them in the classroom.”
Even with the discount from the federal grant, tuition can be costly. For example, the average annual tuition costs at least $5,900 for the technical college portion and about $6,000 for UW-Whitewater at Rock County. That means the leftover cost to apprentices could still be upwards of $12,000.
Plus, the federal funds that helped launch the pilot run out next March, so there could be even less tuition assistance for future apprentices.
The Appleton Area School District would love to put more students into the program, “if there was funding” to entice participants, King said. The district couldn’t afford to give students more tuition assistance, which hampered participation.
“The unknown for us moving forward is there is no state funding. If there’s other opportunities for that tuition relief for the individual, that’s really what entices people to engage in that program,” King said.
“The question on the future really is, ‘Where is the funding and the structures going to be in the future to make sure that it’s a viable option moving forward?’” King said. “‘That it reduces the financial barrier? That it’s accessible?’”
Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus. Find her on Instagram and Twitter, or send her an email at mdunlap@wisconsinwatch.org.
MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – The Wisconsin Department of Transportation Division of Motor Vehicles announced on Thursday it revoked the licenses for eight wholesale dealers throughout Wisconsin.
The DMV Dealer and Agent Section determined that the dealers violated state law when they failed to maintain a dealer bond.
The following dealers had their licenses revoked:
Located at 101 Skyline Drive #1 Arlington:
- Alpha Motorworks Inc.
- Slick One Auto Sales LLC.
Located at 1645 North Spring Street #210 in Beaver Dam:
- Point B Auto LLC
- Aurum Lane Auto Group LLC
- Turbo Motor Vehicles LLC
Located at N5876 US Highway #12 in Elkhorn:
- Empire General Motors Inc.
- Culture Motorsports LLC
Located at 6830 West Villard Avenue #170 in Milwaukee
The decision to revoke these licenses was confirmed by hearing examiner on April 17.
Following a 30-day appeal period, the revocations became final on May 17.
Click here to download the WMTV15 News app or our WMTV15 First Alert weather app.
Copyright 2026 WMTV. All rights reserved.
The Wisconsin Badgers were extremely well represented at the most recent UA Next Camp.
In total, seven future Badgers competed at the May 24 UA Next Camp in Chicago, IL.
Shockingly, two of the seven recruits in attendance aren’t Wisconsin natives. Knowing how well represented Luke Fickell’s class of 2027 is with in-state talent, it was great to see the likes of quarterback Jack Sorgi (Indiana) and defensive lineman David Hill (Illinois) make the trip to Chicago.
The complete list of Wisconsin players who were at the camp can be found below:
- QB Jack Sorgi
- EDGE Isaac Miller
- IOL Hunter and Reece Mallinger
- DL David Hill
- OT Cole Reiter
- OT Ethan McIntosh
Of those seven, Reiter is the team’s highest-ranked recruit.
Notable absences included:
- Four-star running back Kingston Allen
- Four-star tight end Korz Loken
Nonetheless, Wisconsin received a ton of praise from Billy Tucker, the director of the UA All-America game.
Currently, they still have the No. 17-ranked class of 2027, according to 247Sports.
Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion.
-
Entertainment44 seconds agoThis Puerto Rican filmmaker honored his family with an unconventional movie called ‘TheyDream’
-
Lifestyle7 minutes agoL.A. Affairs: I went on 53 first dates in one summer. Here’s a look at my spreadsheet
-
Politics13 minutes agoTrump holds Situation Room meeting to decide on Iran deal
-
Science19 minutes agoOxnard man smuggled baby crocodiles, among 1,700 reptiles, gets 5 years
-
Sports25 minutes agoA new board game mocks Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for ‘foul baiting.’ He wants it destroyed
-
World37 minutes agoIsrael, Russia among new additions on UN sexual violence ‘blacklist’
-
News1 hour agoWhich first lady feared her husband might be having a stroke? The quiz knows
-
Los Angeles, Ca3 hours agoRescued sea lion pups released in Manhattan Beach
