Ryan Wise was appointed by Gov. Terry Branstad as director of the Iowa Department of Education on July 1. Wise, who earlier in his career taught in teacher shortage areas in Mississippi and Texas as well as his home state of South Dakota, came to Iowa three years ago to lead the development of a statewide teacher leadership program. He was named deputy director in September 2013. Wise succeeds Brad Buck, who left the department to become the Cedar Rapids school superintendent. 

How did the opportunity arise to come to Iowa? 
Before coming to the department, I was in a doctoral program at Harvard. The final year of the program was a 10-month residency. So instead of a traditional dissertation, the purpose of this new doctoral program that Harvard created was to put participants into organizations and to write a capstone. While I was in that program I met Jason Glass, who was the director at the time. We hit it off, and I was really compelled by the vision that he and the governor had for education in Iowa. So the department partnered with the (Harvard) Graduate School of Education, and my residency was here. 

Tell me about the Teacher Leadership and Compensation program. 
It is really designed to give teachers the opportunity to lead. We hope that it attracts and retains great teachers in Iowa, that it provides those teachers more and better opportunities for collaboration and leadership, and that ultimately it will strengthen student achievement and student learning. There are a few key pillars of TLC. On the compensation end, it raises the minimum salary of teachers in Iowa to $33,500. So for any district that comes into the TLC program, there has to be at least that baseline salary. Second, there’s a real focus on improving entry into the teaching profession. So lots of districts are changing how they do mentoring and induction for new teachers through TLC. … A third big piece, and really the heart and soul of this, is that TLC creates leadership roles for at least 25 percent of all teachers in a participating district.

Other issues that are top of mind for you? 
Iowa has so many positive things in our favor. If you look at the graduation rate, it’s over 90 percent, the highest in the nation. At the same time, there are some huge challenges. One in four Iowa students are not proficient readers at the end of third grade. And when you’re behind in reading, that puts you in a difficult position going forward and makes it more difficult to catch up. We have a statewide literacy initiative that I think is critical. One of the pieces is a statewide early warning system leading up to and into third grade, because we know the best way to address reading problems is to prevent them before they start. Additionally, we are taking a very close look at our academic standards. The governor has been very clear we need high, quality, rigorous academic standards for our students. 

Biggest concerns you hear from superintendents? 
As good stewards of state resources, districts are always going to pay close attention to and always have concerns about funding and whether it’s adequate to meet the needs of their students. That’s certainly a key topic of conversation that I hear in districts. And at the same time, they know the department has a limited role in that conversation. We really focus on our role as partners with the districts in implementing state and federal policy and a lot of these key initiatives. While there are certainly concerns, and districts have been very clear about expressing those, I think at the same time we have a lot of opportunities. I’ve been very excited about the positive reception I’ve received since I’ve moved into this role, and have seen a lot of enthusiasm about moving forward in a collaborative way. 

What initially led you to become a teacher? 
I thought I was going to be a lawyer like my dad. Then I went to college and had the opportunity to be in a teaching assistant role in a history course. I loved that collaboration of working with students. And when you think about it, the legal profession can far more often than education be adversarial, and I am more collaborative by nature. I think having that experience of working with kids made me think this is a better role for me. 

What are some of your interests outside the job? 
One of the many fun parts of my role is I serve on the board of the Iowa High School Athletic Association, so I get to participate in a lot of trophy ceremonies at a lot of the state tournaments. So outside of here (my family and I) go to a lot of sporting events. And we travel around the state a lot; we really like to get out and see a lot of Iowa. On a personal level, I’m a runner. I ran the Des Moines Half Marathon last year; it was my first half marathon. … I mostly do it to stay in shape.