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Education

Middle school teachers, except special and career/technical education

Typically requires Bachelor's degree

What is this page & how do I use it?

This is a research report for one career — the kind an analyst would write for a stock. The rating at the top is the neutral baseline (same for everyone); below it come the cases for and against, how the last official forecast for this career actually aged, and what the education path costs and pays.

How to use it: read the bulls-vs-bears case, then hit Score this career to weigh it against your other options with your own interests factored in.

CareerStar rating
RiskyMedium uncertainty

Analyst take: Softer prospects — -2% projected growth, low AI exposure (35/100).

35
/ 100
low riskhigh
top row = high reward

Moat (borrowed from investing — the water that defends a castle): how shielded this career is from AI. Wide = well-defended — few automatable tasks, built on skills few other jobs have.

The small grid is a style box (borrowed from Morningstar’s fund reports): the blue square places this career on reward (top row = high) versus risk (left column = low), against all 730 careers. Medium uncertainty means the score leans partly on forward-looking bets like AI exposure, so treat the exact number loosely.

🐂 Bulls say
  • +Low AI exposure — resilient (35% of tasks exposed).
  • +High pay — above 58% of careers ($62,970).
🐻 Bears say
  • Projected to shrink (-2%).
📜 Reality check — how the last forecast for this career fared

In 2014, the U.S. government projected +5.8% growth for this career by 2024. What actually happened: +1%. The forecast held up well — a reminder that every number on this page is an estimate, and this is how the last one aged. Full back-test →

Was this rating fair?
Projected growth
-2%
Median pay
$62,970
AI exposure
35/100
share of tasks exposed to AI — not job loss

Education & ROI — how to get here

Real outcomes for the college majors that feed this occupation, across 2,813 bachelor’s programs.

Median earnings
$35,790
1 year after graduating
Typical debt
$26,053
median federal debt
Pay-to-debt
1.4×
first-year pay ÷ debt
Feeder majors
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and MethodsPhysical Education Teaching and CoachingSocial SciencesIndian/Native American EducationTeaching English or French as a Second or Foreign Language
Selective schools offering these majors
Harvard University
MA · 4% admit rate
$85,540/yr
$101,817 grad pay
Brown University
RI · 5% admit rate
$87,648/yr
$93,487 grad pay
University of Pennsylvania
PA · 5% admit rate
$89,028/yr
$111,371 grad pay
Vanderbilt University
TN · 6% admit rate
$89,590/yr
$91,565 grad pay
Johns Hopkins University
MD · 6% admit rate
$85,947/yr
$87,555 grad pay
Bowdoin College
ME · 7% admit rate
$85,100/yr
$82,735 grad pay

Earnings & debt from the U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard; majors mapped to this occupation via the NCES CIP→SOC crosswalk. A grounded ROI snapshot, not a guarantee — pay varies widely by school and specialty.

What this work involves

teachingpeoplecommunicationcareertechnical