Two years ago, the Madison school district began fall classes with nearly 100 unfilled teaching positions. Now, the district reports having about 27 vacancies — marking a 72% decrease.
“We’ve made significant improvements in our ability to recruit and retain and build a strong staff in MMSD, and those numbers are going to continue to go down,” Superintendent Joe Gothard said at a recent roundtable with reporters. “Our human resources department continues to work really hard to make sure that our buildings are staffed.”
Across the country, recruiting and retaining teachers has been a consistent problem for schools, especially following the pandemic. The Wisconsin Policy Forum found in 2023 that teacher turnover in the state reached a two-decade high in the 2022-23 school year. Urban districts, as well as districts with higher proportions of low-income students and students of color, were among places struggling the most with retention…