Contact WiTEACH at:
(715) 425-3467
or by email
For general information on the Teacher Education
program or the College of Education and Professional Studies, please
contact the Dean's Office at
(715) 425-3230.
Do you know a great teacher?
Do you want to become one?
The WiTEACH program at UW-River Falls is seeking 20 students for the program’s first cohort year of great teachers.
WHAT IS WiTEACH?
The WiTEACH (Wisconsin Teacher Education) Leadership Program is a holistic student development program designed
as a response to national and local needs and challenges in both the recruitment and retention of talented and well-trained Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics,
(STEM)-focused K-12 teacher candidates, and candidates from diverse
populations, who will diligently serve the nation’s
schools with the most need.
WHY DOES
WiTEACH EXIST?
In Wisconsin, the highest need K-12 academic areas are across all areas of science (including agriculture and farm education), technology and mathematics education, as well as ESL/Bilingual education, reading specialists, cognitive, learning, and emotional/behavioral disabilities, to name a few key areas.
In virtually all areas of K-12 education in Wisconsin, the supply of teachers is far less than the demand, but this is substantially discernable in low income urban and rural areas where the number of schools in which students are not meeting basic proficiency in reading and mathematics is growing at a similarly alarming rate to the shortage of teachers and other educational professionals (WI DPI, 2006).
In Minnesota, the picture is not that different. The most critical and extreme areas of need reported in 2007, were physics and chemistry, emotional behavioral disorders (EBD), mathematics, earth and space science, English as a Second Language, learning disorders and developmental disabilities, technology and general science grades 5-8 (MN DOE, 2007)
All stated, there is a clear and substantial indication that there is a broken system, extending from elementary education through post-secondary education that is not preparing students to succeed in high needs areas to move forward in advanced academic or professional training.
It is our stakeholder duty to remedy this system, addressing the issues from a comprehensive approach.
