Championing teachers: Community, state support are vital in recruiting, retention of educators

It is no secret that enrollment in teacher preparation programs all over the country is suffering. The shortages that school districts are feeling in Wisconsin specifically are very real, and districts large and small are being impacted, said University of Wisconsin-Stout School of Education Director Shannon Donnelly.

According to a June 2025 analysis by the Learning Policy Institute, more than 410,000 teaching positions nationwide were either unfilled or filled by teachers not fully certified for their assignments, representing about 1 in 8 of all teaching positions.

"This puts a massive strain on school districts when trying to ensure that they are meeting the needs of all students," Donnelly said. "Often, these types of positions are filled by professionals without teaching credentials or will simply remain unfilled. As you can imagine, this greatly impacts the educational experience for students and significantly strains the system."

Attracting people to join the education field is admittedly becoming more and more difficult, especially in high-demand areas such as special education, technology education, and family and consumer science, and subject areas such as math and science, Donnelly added.

School districts nationwide are looking for solutions to recruit and retain teachers by implementing innovative, research-backed strategies.

"One of the first things we as current educators can do is to be the biggest champions of the profession," she said. "If we aren't shouting from the rooftops all of the amazing and wonderful reasons to teach, who will? We desperately need to reframe the profession of teaching back to its core, which is the gift of impacting students and families."

Donnelly also thinks that barriers need to be removed for those seeking teaching degrees, through offering online programs and flexible access, of which she said, "Stout is a leader."

She thinks the most crucial method to attract people to the profession is through vital community and state support. "This comes in the form of strong partnerships and advocacy from communities and a significant financial investment and commitment by the state," Donnelly said.

Donnelly believes one of the best ways to retain teachers is to create conditions in schools where teachers feel supported, respected and treated as professionals.

"While the improvement of compensation and benefits will be an ongoing topic of discussion, the research shows that those components are not the driving force behind why teachers leave the field. People leave due to feeling overworked, under-supported and under-prepared," she said.

"We need to ensure teachers are wrapped in a culture where they are viewed as the professional experts of their field because they are," Donnelly added.

Preparing future teachers

At UW-Stout, Wisconsin's Polytechnic University, School of Education students are engaged right from day one in their teaching area of interest: art education; early childhood education; family and consumer sciences education; marketing and business education; math education; social studies education; special education; and technology education.

Their progressive development in applied learning moves students through interactive and relevant activities in their labs and courses to teaching experiences on campus and in school districts before graduation.

"I am proud of our ongoing work at Stout to ensure that we are utilizing innovative ways to best prepare our future teachers to excel and succeed in an environment that is ever-changing," Donnelly said. "We place a high priority on getting students out into K-12 classrooms immediately. This unique, personalized approach allows our students to explore a variety of teaching areas and age levels so they can pursue the education career path most exciting to them."

Graduates are 100% employed or are continuing their education within six months of graduation and have an average starting salary of $52,000, according to Career Services' First Destination Report.

"I continue to be so impressed with the passion and pride that our faculty have for our educator preparation pathways at Stout. We have a longstanding reputation for providing high-quality programming and ensuring that our graduates are equipped with the knowledge, skills and dispositions to successfully enter the education profession," Donnelly added.

Teach Day shows students a variety of pathways

The School of Education will host its fifth annual Teach Dayon Wednesday, Oct. 15, with hands-on activities for prospective students who are interested in becoming teachers. Students explore any of the eight pathways in UW-Stout's undergraduate teacher preparation programs.

In past years, high school students from Minnesota and Wisconsin have attended Teach Day, with regional students from Menomonie, St. Croix Central, Somerset, Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln, Elk Mound and more.

"We want Teach Day to be an event where students leave with excitement about the variety of pathways they can pursue to be a teacher while also seeing Stout as a place that they could call home," Donnelly said.

Donnelly was previously the superintendent of the Somerset School District, whose students often participate in Teach Day. The high school offers multiple exploratory courses for students interested in becoming teachers.

"The Teach Day event was a natural fit," Donnelly said. "Students and staff came back from Teach Day excited, having learned about the wide variety of educational licensure options Stout offers. They added how impressed they were with Stout as a whole, as for many students, Teach Day is their first interaction with a college campus."

Donnelly began as the School of Education director in July. She has her bachelor's in vocational rehabilitation, now known as B.S. in rehabilitation services, and her master's in educationfrom UW-Stout, as well as her educational specialist degree from University of St. Thomas and a Doctorate of Education from Bethel University.

In addition to its undergraduate degrees, the School of Education offers postgraduate degrees in career and technical education, education, school counseling, and school psychology, as well as nine education certificates and certifications.

These programs are among the many workforce-ready programs administered in Heritage Hall. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on Sept. 9 to celebrate the start of the three-year, $144.3 million Heritage Hall renovation projectthat will transform the half-century-old building into a cutting-edge educational hub to help meet Wisconsin's workforce needs.

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