Find Your Teacher Career Path (Guide)

Act as the liaison to the administration on behalf of the group; set up and facilitate regular meetings to collaborate on curriculum, assessment and policies; provide support to the other teachers and help to create a positive atmosphere.

Help create a professional community of support and growth; share and model best practices, provide coaching to new teachers, open your classroom for observations and advise school or district leaders.

Become a literacy or math specialist and support other teachers at your school by modeling great instruction, providing coaching, helping with instructional planning and facilitating skill-building sessions.

Go back to school to earn another degree or join an elite network of expert teachers by earning National Board Certification.

Advocate for students in all areas, including academic achievement, social development, preparation for college and future careers.

Mentor a student teacher who is still in training or an early-career teacher, and help them with anything and everything by co-teaching, coordinating joint or reciprocal observations, providing feedback, co-planning and more.

Through observation of classroom practices, provide evidence-based guidance to help fellow teachers achieve improvement in certain areas.

Set an academic vision and supervise staff to reach it; build culture and establish relationships with students and parents; provide professional development plans for teacher growth.

Some schools have assistant principals too who report to the principal and assist in realizing a shared vision for success.

Work with others, including counselors, nurses, parents and the principal on behalf of student interest while helping to create a positive school climate. Especially in today’s higher education world, the Dean of Students role may be “more central than ever” (1).

Create an organization that produces solutions and products to address an unmet need, like Patty Palmer, co-founder and CEO of Deep Space Sparkle, who sought to bring “beauty and ease into a teacher’s daily practice” (2).

See a societal issue that needs attention and lead an organization to help create movement and social change. 

Use the relationship management skills you hone in teaching to build relationships and manage portfolios of work in a variety of sectors.

Use your analytical skills and problem-solving capabilities to tackle and make sense of hard problems.

Take the persuasive skills necessary in teaching and apply them to any sales job.

There are a number of policy positions that you might consider at a mayor’s office, a County Office of Education, a State Education Agency, U.S. Department of Education or the legislative branches at the state or federal level. In these roles, you may help research and inform educational policy decisions.

Many organizations exist to ensure educator's voices are heard and considered as decisions are made about education—one example is Educators for Excellence (E4E).

Sometimes full-time or sometimes alongside your teaching responsibilities, serve with your union in leadership roles (typically elected) to address teacher complaints, negotiate contracts and serve as a liaison between your school and the union.

Develop research in support of education research, evaluation and statistics. As a research, you’ll provide technical assistance and evaluation services to support student success.

Fellowship positions allow you to deepen your knowledge in a particular area, such as educational policy or practice, and serve for a fixed period. Some fellowships you may be qualified for as a teacher include TeachPlus and US Department of Education fellowships

As an experienced educator, you can transition into a teaching role at a college or university. You might train new teachers or administrators in classroom best practices or teach in your content area with a focus on how to plan engaging lessons. 

Most professor positions require a PhD, so you may choose to work towards your advanced degree while you're teaching, or apply to your school district for a sabbatical to begin your doctorate.

With an advanced degree, you may begin a career in education research. What does a researcher do? Study the big questions that help improve education for all. 

What is the best class size for learning? How do young children respond to digital learning tools? Which programs support English language learning? What is the best learning environment for students with disabilities? 

Develop research plans, conduct a study and publish your results to help educators and students. 

To become a teacher, you'll need to attend a teacher training program. Of course, these programs need dedicated staff and leaders. If you enjoy teaching other teachers, you may want to explore the different models of teacher training and work towards a career in teacher leadership at the college level.

Some training and support programs work with teachers in a specific field, subject area or location to improve education in high needs areas.