The Urban League of Greater Madison has been awarded a grant of $481,540 to support its Urban Educator Cohort Pathway program.
ULGM’s grant was part of the $1 million in grants announced on Monday by Gov. Tony Evers, together with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce (DWD), through the Teacher Training and Recruitment Grant Program, which will support efforts to train and recruit teachers where shortages are most prevalent in Wisconsin.
ULGM will work with the Madison Metropolitan School District, the University of Wisconsin (UW)-Madison, and Edgewood College to recruit, train, mentor, and place 42 licensed teachers in the high-need areas of special education and English as a second language bilingual education. Recruits will earn credits toward their licenses at the UW-Madison School of Education or Edgewood College.
“As a former educator, I know our teachers and educators work every day to go above and beyond for our kids, but the fact of the matter is that we need more of them and we have work to do to recruit, train, and retain the strong education workforce our kids deserve,” said Gov. Evers said in a statement. “This grant program will help bolster our education workforce, provide training for over 230 teachers, and ensure our schools, , our kids, and our communities have the support they need to do what’s best for our kids and keep class sizes small.”
Two other nonprofit organizations were awarded WFF grants including Center for Urban Teaching in Milwaukee who received $297,173 that they will use to identify, prepare, and support high-performing urban teachers and leaders to serve in public or private schools in Wisconsin’s low-income, urban school districts. Additionally, Teach for America in Milwaukee received $221,287 which they will use to partner with Carthage College to recruit, place, train, and support 90 teachers to attain their licenses through DPI. They’ll be placed at low-income schools in high-need subject areas in Milwaukee.
These grants, which are part of DWD’s Expanded Wisconsin Fast Forward (WFF) program, cover two years of program costs to help recruit, train, and license teachers to meet the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s (DPI) guidelines for serving qualifying school districts.
“By training teachers and recruiting them to classrooms where they are most needed, this funding expands our educational workforce and offers students a better chance to thrive,” said DWD Secretary Amy Pechacek in a statement.. “We all know the difference a great teacher can make, and this program connects the dots between people who want to enter the profession and the students who need them most.”
