Teacher Pledge Next Steps

You took the Teacher Pledge. What’s next?

• Continue progress toward and completion of your teacher education program
• Complete your FAFSA for each academic year that you are enrolled in a teacher education program (Note: summer term is included in the previous year’s FAFSA)
• Participate in Teacher Pledge activities as requested (e.g. SSTAR Lab surveys, etc.)

If you have questions, reach out to Teacher Pledge Program Manager Carly Marco at cmarco@wisc.edu.

You just completed your teacher education program and graduated. Now what?

• Complete your online Teacher Pledge loan exit interview with the Bursar’s Office.
• Obtain your Wisconsin teaching license through the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI).
• Work an at-least 75% full-time (0.75 FTE) teaching position at a PK-12 Wisconsin school for three to four school years over the five-year post-graduation period.
• Complete Teacher Pledge student surveys and other research-related requests from SSTAR Lab.

How do I report my employment?

• You can expect to receive a employment verification request (via email) in the second week of June, annually, for five school years after you graduate. This request will ask you to confirm the details of your previous year’s employment.
• For example, if you graduated in Fall 2023, Spring 2024, or Summer 2024, you will receive your first employment verification request in June 2025 to verify your School Year 2024-2025 employment.
• This request will not be sent to your @wisc.edu email — please update your contact information here.
• The subject line of the request is “UW Madison Teacher Education Alumni Verification.” It will be emailed to you by Will Huth, MKTEC Data Reporting Specialist.
• For each year you report an at-least 75% full-time qualifying teaching position at a PK-12 Wisconsin school, a percentage of your Teacher Pledge loans will be forgiven — no further action required.
• We require all Teacher Pledge alumni to complete the employment verification request annually for five years after graduation, regardless of employment status. If you do not complete the employment verification request annually, you may not be eligible for Teacher Pledge loan forgiveness.

Upon completing your teaching commitment, you will receive notification stating that your Teacher Pledge loan has been fully forgiven!