In this regard, five of our institutions, positioned to provide statewide access, will offer eight new degree completion programs in areas of high need, enabling another 350 WTCS graduates to transfer to UW institutions and complete their baccalaureate degrees. Both campuses will work closely with Milwaukee Area Technical College. UW-Madison will also provide additional new teachers each year through alternative certification. Finally, our UW institutions will collaborate to provide new mentoring opportunities for more than one thousand new teachers across the state. We need to retain good teachers in the profession and mentoring is a critical support element for them.
Teaching can be very isolating professionally.
New teachers need mentoring support. UW-Extension will address the problems of dealing with troubled youths and families by helping communities strategically address their programs and needs in this arena. The pilot work that they have done has shown that with the right safety nets, Wisconsin communities can help their youngsters succeed in school and become productive citizens of the state. This program that provide science and technology pre-college experiences for seventh grade girls has been so successful it is being replicated in Minnesota. We are proposing that it be expanded to four other UW campuses which would boost the students reached from 160 to 800 per year.