It started with a desire to help.
Katie wasn’t looking for a career change when she first walked through the doors of her children’s school. She was a parent, a volunteer, showing up the way so many dedicated school families do, giving her time, her energy, and her heart to a community she believed in.
She stayed. She learned. She became a classroom aide. And then one day, her principal asked her to do something she hadn’t anticipated: step into a teaching role.
“It was magical,” Katie says. “Emotional. I can’t fully describe what it felt like.”
What Katie experienced in that moment is something private school leaders across Wisconsin understand intuitively. The right person for a classroom isn’t always the one who followed the traditional path. Sometimes they’re already in your building. Sometimes they’re the parent who never left.
The only question is: how do you get them certified?
The Gap Between Called and Certified
If you lead a private school, you already know that hiring season is one of the most challenging times of year. Finding candidates who are academically qualified is hard enough. Finding candidates who are also a values fit for your school community, who understand the mission, who love the students, who are genuinely called to this work, can feel nearly impossible.
And yet, in many cases, those people already exist in your world. They’re volunteers. They’re aides. They’re career changers who spent 20 years in another field and now feel a pull toward the classroom they can’t ignore.
The gap isn’t passion. The gap is certification.
That’s exactly the gap Educate Pathways was built to close.
A Pathway Built for People Like Katie
Educate Pathways offers 100% online, cohort-based, instructor-led certification programs approved by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Our programs are designed specifically for working adults, people who can’t walk away from their jobs or their families to attend a traditional preparation program, but who are absolutely ready to become excellent teachers.
Katie earned her Elementary and Middle School (K-9) license through our Project Teaching program. Today, she is a certified, thriving teacher at the same private school where she once volunteered.
Here is a look at what we offer:
Project Teaching: A Wisconsin DPI-approved, non-traditional pathway to earning a teaching license across 19 subject areas. Designed for career changers, classroom aides, and others who are called to the classroom but don’t hold a traditional education degree. This is the program that changed Katie’s life and the lives of the students she now teaches every day.
10 Sped Program: A DPI-approved program providing both initial and additional teacher licenses in Early Childhood Special Education (Birth to Grade 3) and Cross-Categorical Special Education (Grades K-12) for candidates with a bachelor’s degree. If Special Education openings are among the hardest positions for your school to fill, this program was designed with you in mind.
WiscAd Program: A DPI-approved administrator certification program for teachers who are ready to step into school or district leadership. If you have strong teachers with leadership potential, this is their pathway forward.
What School Leaders Are Telling Us
As we’ve connected with private school principals across Wisconsin this hiring season, we keep hearing the same thing: “I didn’t know you existed.”
That’s exactly why we’re reaching out.
Educate Pathways has been preparing Wisconsin teachers and administrators for years, but we know that awareness is still a challenge, especially among private and faith-based schools. Our programs aren’t just for public school candidates. They are built for anyone who wants to serve Wisconsin students, in any school or community.
If you have a Katie in your building, someone who is already there, already trusted, already committed to your mission, we want to help you turn that person into a certified teacher.
The Preparation That Makes the Difference
One thing Katie speaks to in her story is how prepared she felt walking into her own classroom. That preparation matters. Our cohort model means candidates don’t go through the program alone. They learn alongside peers, guided by instructors who are practicing Wisconsin educators themselves. The curriculum is relevant, practical, and designed for real classrooms.
When your new hire comes through Educate Pathways, they arrive ready.
Ready to Learn More?
If you’re navigating teacher openings this fall and want to explore whether Educate Pathways could support your school, we’d love to connect.
Watch Katie tell her story in her own words:
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Or reach out directly:
Educate Pathways
715.246.6555
educatepathways.com
Educate Pathways provides Wisconsin DPI-approved programs for prospective and practicing teachers and education administrators. We are committed to helping the right people find their pathway to the classroom, wherever they’re starting from.