Secondary Education Career

Secondary education career opportunities have been changing from good to excellent, with secondary school teachers holding about 1.7 million jobs in 2002 and is growing moderately with 1.8% expected growth rate per year through 2010. Secondary education career had an average starting salary of $31,500 annually in 2003 and an increasing excellent and average income ranging from $39,810 to $44,340 annually.

Secondary education career deals more with helping students probe more deeply into subjects introduced in elementary school and exposing students to more information about the world. Secondary school teachers focus on subjects such as Mathematics, English, History, Biology, or Spanish and also teach career oriented subjects. They also occasionally assist students in selecting courses, careers, and colleges.

The working conditions of secondary education careers depend on where you work, either in a private school settings or public. Public school working conditions may be stressful at times and secondary school teachers may encounter dealing with large classes, heavy workloads, or old schools run down by lack of facilities. Responsibility standards may also increase stress as teachers are expected to produce satisfactory performing students on standardized tests scores. Although teaching may be frustrating at times, seeing students develop new skills and gain knowledge and learning can be very gratifying. Private school secondary teachers normally enjoy smaller class size and more control over instituting the curriculum and setting standards for discipline and performance. Students of private schools also tend to be more motivated since selective admission processes are practiced by the school.

Subjects that one may specialize in for secondary education career include Mathematics, Music, Technology education, Physics, Health education, Physical Education, Chemistry, Earth and Space Science, Life Science, German, Spanish, and Communication Arts and Literature.

Job opportunities for secondary teachers also continue to differ by school location and by subject specialized in. Currently, secondary education career in many school areas have trouble hiring qualified teachers for certain subject areas such as Mathematics, Science, Foreign Languages, and Bilingual Education. Specialties that have sufficient number of qualified teachers include general elementary education, social studies, and physical education.

Teachers can improve their wages in a number of ways. In a number of schools, teachers receive extra income for training sports and working with students in extracurricular activities. A national certification or a master’s degree can often result to a raise in pay, same with acting as a mentor. Summer school or performing other jobs during the summer also allows teachers to earn extra pay.
Secondary education career can be a very challenging but rewarding career, not to mention the growing demand for teachers that makes opportunities in this field excellent. To top that, this career nurtures the potential of individual’s through knowledge which molds them into successful and responsible citizens of society.