Reed Trueblood gestures with a dry erase marker in front of a whiteboard in his math classroom.

One Wisconsin. On Wisconsin.

UW–Madison’s Teacher Pledge keeps PK–12 educators in the profession — and in Wisconsin

Story by Preston Schmitt. Photos by Bryce Richter.

Reed Trueblood’s path to teaching high school math was anything but linear. After he graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a degree in economics and history, he worked in retail and insurance. It wasn’t until he started substitute teaching on the side that he considered the big career shift.

“I liked that it was a job that has a meaning. You show up every day and you know you’re here for a purpose,” Trueblood says.

And still, with an economics background, he was skeptical. “Teacher pay isn’t always great,” he says. And compounding that, he thought that going back to school to get a teaching degree would mean taking on more debt.

But then he learned about the UW–Madison School of Education’s Wisconsin Teacher Pledge. Its premise is simple but transformational: If you pledge to stay, we pledge to pay. If a student commits to teaching at a PK–12 school in Wisconsin for at least three to four years after graduation, the university will cover the full cost of in-state tuition and licensing fees.

Now, after earning his master’s degree in curriculum and instruction, Trueblood is finishing his second year as a math teacher at Dodgeville High School. He teaches algebra and geometry, and he’s already seeing his returning students “grow as individuals and get interested and excited about math.” Trueblood’s Teacher Pledge will be fulfilled after next year, but he intends to stay in the job even longer.

“I don’t think I would be a teacher today if I didn’t have the Teacher Pledge. I’d probably be in a different profession,” Trueblood says. “And if I had pursued education without the Teacher Pledge, I might have left the state, so it’s kept me in Wisconsin.”

Reed Trueblood (left) and Thomas Owenby (right) talk as they sit in red metal Wisconsin Union chairs in the Dodgeville High School library. — Reed Trueblood (left) and Tom Owenby (right) sit together in the Dodgeville High School library. The Teacher Pledge, the first program of its kind in the country, could serve as a statewide model to address the teacher shortage.

Helping teachers succeed in Wisconsin

Training quality educators like Trueblood and keeping them in Wisconsin are critical to addressing the state’s teacher shortage. A recent Department of Public Instruction report concluded that “Wisconsin’s education workforce is in crisis,” with nearly 40 percent of new teachers leaving the state or profession after just six years. Three out of four school districts report being unable to fill positions, which has led the state to triple the number of emergency teaching licenses it’s issued (to allow schools to hire unlicensed educators) over the last decade.

Currently supported by donor funds, UW–Madison’s Teacher Pledge has been specifically designed to recruit new people to the profession, to encourage them to teach in Wisconsin, and to set them up to succeed and stay long term.

“It’s our belief, backed up by research, that if teachers do make it past those first few years in the profession, then they’re much more likely to persist,” says Tom Owenby, associate dean for teacher education at UW–Madison. “The Teacher Pledge makes it so someone doesn’t have to be a superhuman to teach. It’s allowing them to start their teaching career with minimal to no debt so they can think about saving for retirement or a down payment for a home. And once you start to develop a life somewhere, you’re less likely to uproot.”

Support beyond the classroom

To boost the retention effort, the School of Education also offers the Early Career Teaching Institute. The intensive, weeklong summer program provides professional development and creates a community of support among new educators, including Teacher Pledge recipients.

“We’re already seeing teachers who’ve been to the Early Career Teaching Institute come back and lead sessions and start to take a leadership and mentorship role,” Owenby says.

The Teacher Pledge, the first program of its kind in the country, could serve as a statewide model to address the teacher shortage. Campus researchers are studying the program, which is currently funded by private donors, to see how it can be financially sustained at UW–Madison and then scaled to other universities across the state.

Nearly 1,000 UW–Madison students have joined Reed Trueblood in taking the Teacher Pledge since its launch in fall 2020, and its effects are already being felt in more than 120 schools around the state, including Dodgeville High School.

“If you think of the ripple effect of teaching 120 students per day, the legacy becomes massive fairly quickly,” Owenby says. “And then it’s not just Reed — in all these different parts of the state, the Teacher Pledge is having a profound impact on individual students that can help shift the trajectory of their lives.”

Learn more about UW-Madison’s impact on Wisconsin and your community

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UW–Madison’s Teacher Pledge keeps PK–12 educators in the profession — and in Wisconsin

Helping teachers succeed in Wisconsin

Support beyond the classroom

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Learn more about UW-Madison’s impact on Wisconsin and your community

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