UW-System Schools Haven't Used Money to Improve Literacy Instruction Programs

Monday, October 2nd, 2023 -- 9:00 AM

(By Corrinne Hess, Wisconsin Public Radio) Two years ago, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction allocated $2 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds to the University of Wisconsin System to analyze and improve literacy instruction programs, but the money went unused. 

According to Corrinne Hess with Wisconsin Public Radio, the Joint Finance Committee and DPI approved using $600,000 in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER funds, so the UW System’s 13 schools could get individualized "landscape analysis" of their teacher prep reading programs.

DPI would also give $100,000 to each campus, totaling $1.3 million, to implement recommendations from the analysis. As of this week, none of the UW System schools participated in the study, according to Ed Crowe, chief executive officer of TPI-US, the company selected by DPI to conduct the research.

Now, instead of using federal dollars to revamp reading curricula in teacher prep programs, the UW-System is tasked with making changes on its own. Most UW System schools will have to make a change.

The reading bill signed into law this summer, shifting schools from teaching "balanced literacy" to a phonics-based "science of reading," also includes a provision on certifying new teachers.

The law prohibits DPI from approving teacher education programs unless they include science-based early literacy instruction. Wisconsin teachers who do not receive this training will not be eligible for a license beginning July 1, 2026.

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