How much does an education teachers, postsecondary make?

The median education teachers, postsecondary salary in the United States is $75,350 per year (). Salaries range from $39,530 (10th percentile) to $126,860 (90th percentile). There are 60,830 education teachers, postsecondary jobs in the U.S. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS.

Which state pays education teachers, postsecondarys the most?

The highest paying state for education teachers, postsecondarys is California at $111,850 median salary.

Is education teachers, postsecondary a good career?

Education Teachers, Postsecondary employment is projected to grow 2.1% from 2024 to 2034 (as fast as average). There are approximately 5,600 job openings per year. Typical education required: Doctoral or professional degree.

What interview questions are asked for education teachers, postsecondary roles?

Common education teachers, postsecondary interview questions include: "Walk me through your dissertation research and how it positions your first 5-year research agenda.", "Describe your grant-writing pipeline. What is your target external-funding record by tenure?", "How would you approach teaching a doctoral-level research methods sequence?". Interview format at top employers ranges from behavioral panels (STAR method) to technical case rounds — for example R1 Public Flagship Colleges of Education (Michigan, Wisconsin-Madison, Berkeley GSE, UCLA GSE&IS, Michigan State, University of Washington, University of Texas at Austin, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Penn State, Ohio State, Indiana, University of Minnesota) typically uses 5-8 rounds over 4-6 months.

What certifications should education teachers, postsecondarys get?

Top-ROI certifications for education teachers, postsecondarys: PhD in Education (subfield-specific) (5-7 years to degree; typically fully funded at elite R1 programs with $28-42k/yr stipend); EdD in Educational Leadership or Higher Education (3-5 years part-time; $60-140k program cost depending on institution; often subsidized by employer for practitioners); NAEd / Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship ($70-85k stipend for 1 year; competitive; ~10-15% success rate).

How do you negotiate a education teachers, postsecondary salary?

Anchor on documented market data (BLS median $75,350, p75 $97,590), specific outcomes you've delivered, and the specific band for your years of experience. Given my PhD in Mathematics Education from Michigan School of Education (2022), 2 years of postdoctoral experience at Wisconsin Center for Education Research as a NAEd / Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow, 6 peer-reviewed publ...

Education Teachers, Postsecondary Salary

Q: What is the career ladder for education teachers, postsecondarys?

The typical education teachers, postsecondary career ladder: Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track) (0-6 yrs, $75-105k 9-mo at R1 · $65-88k 9-mo at R2 · $55-78k 9-mo at teaching-focused · +2 mo summer support common at R1 · $25-75k startup funds · full benefits + retirement match) → Associate Professor (Tenured) (6-14 yrs, $95-135k 9-mo at R1 · $80-115k 9-mo at R2 · $70-95k 9-mo at teaching-focused · +2-3 mo summer support with active grants · full benefits) → Full Professor (12-25 yrs, $125-215k 9-mo at R1 · $105-165k 9-mo at R2 · $90-135k 9-mo at teaching-focused · endowed chair adds $15-45k + $50-150k research fund) → Endowed Chair / Distinguished Professor / Associate Dean (18-30 yrs, $185-315k+ 9-mo at endowed R1 chair · $215-345k 12-mo at Associate Dean · $50-150k administrative supplement stacks on faculty base).

The median education teachers, postsecondary salary in the United States is $75,350 per year. Salaries range from $39,530 at the entry level to $126,860+ for the top 10% of earners. There are 60,830 education teachers, postsecondary jobs nationwide. Employment is projected to grow 2.1% through 2034.

Last updated: June 2026 · Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Median Salary

$75,350

per year

Employment

60,830

jobs in the U.S.

Salary Distribution

10th percentile

$39,530

25th percentile

$53,770

Median

$75,350

75th percentile

$97,590

90th percentile

$126,860

Job Growth (2024-2034)

+2.1%

As fast as average

Annual Openings

5,600

jobs/year (growth + replacements)

Education Required

Doctoral or professional degree

+ Less than 5 years experience

Education Teachers, Postsecondary Career Guide

Interview questions, resume templates, and a career ladder written specifically for education teachers, postsecondarys.

Education teachers, postsecondary (BLS SOC 25-1081) are the tenure-track and full-time non-tenure-track faculty who teach and produce scholarship inside university schools and colleges of education — Curriculum & Instruction, Educational Leadership & Policy, Educational Psychology & Learning Sciences, Higher Education Administration, Special Education, Early Childhood, Literacy, Mathematics Education, Science Education, and Teacher Preparation (elementary, secondary, subject-area methods). Typical seats: Assistant / Associate / Full Professor at an R1 doctoral university with very high research activity (Michigan School of Education, Wisconsin-Madison, Berkeley Graduate School of Education, UCLA GSE&IS, Stanford Graduate School of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Columbia Teachers College, Penn Graduate School of Education, Vanderbilt Peabody, Northwestern School of Education & Social Policy, NYU Steinhardt, Michigan State College of Education), R2 doctoral university with high research activity (University of Denver Morgridge, University of Kansas, University of Missouri, University of Louisville, University of North Texas), or a teaching-focused Master's / Baccalaureate institution (regional publics, private liberal-arts, and CSU / SUNY campuses that anchor teacher-preparation pipelines to K-12). Adjunct / clinical faculty and Educational Preparation Program (EPP) leadership at CAEP-accredited (Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation) programs also fall in this SOC. BLS reports 60,830 employed with a median of $75,350; p10 ~$42,240, p90 $175,000+ at the Full Professor / endowed-chair tier at R1s. Assistant Professor (tenure-track, R1) $75-105k 9-mo + summer support; Associate (tenure) $95-135k 9-mo; Full Professor $125-215k 9-mo; endowed chair / distinguished professor $185-315k+ 9-mo; Dean / Associate Dean $215-465k+ 12-mo with administrative supplement; teaching-focused institutions run 25-40% below R1 at each rank. The single biggest earnings lever is placing at an R1 with a productive IES / NSF / Spencer / Gates external-grant record — external grants drive summer-salary buyout (2-3 months at 1/9 of academic-year base each), course-release buyouts, and endowed-chair candidacy — combined with strategic movement across institutions at the Associate promotion window.

Core Skills Hiring Managers Screen For

Doctoral-level content expertise in one of the recognized subfields

Curriculum & Instruction (subject-area pedagogy — math ed, science ed, literacy, social studies ed, ELL / bilingual, TESOL); Educational Leadership & Policy (K-12 superintendent / principal preparation, education policy analysis, education finance); Educational Psychology & Learning Sciences (cognition, motivation, self-regulation, sociocultural theory, design-based research); Higher Education Administration (student affairs, institutional research, community colleges, IPEDS); Special Education (IDEA, IEP, RTI/MTSS, behavioral intervention); Early Childhood (birth-8, NAEYC standards); Teacher Preparation methods (elementary and secondary licensure programs, edTPA, clinical experience design). Real programmatic depth in a subfield is the price of admission to any tenure-track search committee.

External grant-writing (IES, NSF DRL, Spencer, Gates, W.T. Grant, Wallace, Lyle Spencer)

Institute of Education Sciences (IES) at ED — Education Research Grants Program (CFDA 84.305A), Statistical & Research Methodology (84.305D), Special Education Research (84.324A); typical R305A award $1-4M over 4 years. NSF Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) — DRK-12 (Discovery Research PreK-12), ECR (EHR Core Research), AISL (Advancing Informal STEM Learning); typical $500k-3M over 3-5 years. Spencer Foundation — Small Research Grants ($50k), Large Research Grants ($100-500k), Research-Practice Partnership grants. William T. Grant Foundation ($100-600k). Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation education-improvement grants. Wallace Foundation on principal preparation. AERA / NAEd postdoctoral fellowships. Grant PI-track is what separates the R1 tenure case from the R2 case.

Peer-reviewed publication in tier-one ed journals + monograph publication for advancement

Top journals by subfield: American Educational Research Journal (AERJ), Educational Researcher (ER), Review of Educational Research (RER), Journal of Educational Psychology (JEP), Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (EEPA), Teachers College Record, Harvard Educational Review, Journal of Teacher Education (JTE), Journal of Research in Science Teaching (JRST), Journal for Research in Mathematics Education (JRME), Educational Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, Cognition and Instruction, Journal of the Learning Sciences, Exceptional Children (special ed). Monograph publication at Harvard Education Press, Teachers College Press, Routledge, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Sage advances the case for Full Professor at R1s and is a near-requirement in humanities-adjacent subfields like Educational Foundations and History of Education.

Doctoral advising (PhD / EdD dissertation chairing) and research-training pipeline

Chair 3-8 PhD / EdD dissertations to completion across a tenure decade; serve on 8-20 additional committees. Placement matters — advisees who place at R1 or R2 institutions strengthen the advisor's reputation. Manage the AACTE (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education) placement pipeline. Own advisee-cohort recruitment (GRE / letter-of-intent review, funding-package construction, first-year TA / RA placement) alongside the doctoral program director. Track alumni careers via NCES IPEDS data and AACTE membership lists.

Course preps and instructional load (2-2 or 3-3 teaching-focused; 1-1 or 2-1 R1)

R1 tenure-track load is typically 2-1 or 1-1 per academic year with graduate course preps (research methods sequence, subject-area pedagogy, doctoral seminar, dissertation-writing). R2 load is 2-2 or 3-2. Teaching-focused (Master's Colleges & Universities under Carnegie M1/M2/M3, or Baccalaureate Colleges) run 3-3 or 4-4 with mostly undergraduate teacher-preparation methods courses (elementary math methods, secondary science methods, foundations of education, educational psychology 101, human development). Course-release buyouts from external grants are the mechanism to protect research time — a $500k IES award typically buys out 2 courses per year across the 4-year award.

CAEP / state-EPP accreditation + edTPA / licensure-exam pass-rate management

CAEP accreditation (Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation) is the standard-setting body for teacher-preparation programs. CAEP Standards 1-5 cover Content & Pedagogical Knowledge, Clinical Partnerships & Practice, Candidate Quality Recruitment & Selectivity, Program Impact, and Provider Quality Assurance. Site-visit review cycle every 7 years; annual reporting on CAEP Annual Report metrics. edTPA (Educative Teacher Performance Assessment, administered by Pearson) is the licensure performance-assessment in many states; managing candidate pass rates is a program-viability KPI. State licensure-exam pass rates (Praxis Core, Praxis II subject-area, state-specific tests) feed the CAEP Program Impact metric and are reported publicly on state Educator Preparation Program Report Cards.

Higher-education service (tenure & promotion committees, department chair, program director)

Service load scales with rank. Assistant Professor: 1-2 department committees, some field service. Associate Professor: department search committees, tenure & promotion (T&P) committees, university-wide committees like Faculty Senate, disciplinary editorial-board service. Full Professor: department chair (3-6 year term with 15-25% administrative supplement), doctoral program director, journal editor-in-chief (top-tier journal EIC adds $15-30k stipend). Deanship track: Associate Dean → Dean of the School / College of Education requires 12-month appointment with $50-150k administrative supplement over the 9-month faculty base.

Research design & methods (quant, qual, mixed) + statistical software fluency

Quantitative — HLM / multilevel modeling (nested student-in-classroom-in-school data), structural equation modeling, quasi-experimental (regression discontinuity, difference-in-differences, propensity-score matching), randomized controlled trials (efficacy and effectiveness). What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) design standards apply to any IES-funded RCT. Software: Stata, R, Mplus, HLM, SAS. Qualitative — grounded theory, ethnography, case study, discourse analysis, phenomenology; NVivo, Dedoose, Atlas.ti for coding. Mixed methods (Creswell & Plano Clark framework) is common in education research. Design-based research (DBR) and improvement science / networked improvement communities (NIC via Carnegie) are dominant in Learning Sciences.

K-12 / community partner relationships (research-practice partnerships)

Sustained partnerships with local school districts, state departments of education, and community-based organizations are how education research gets access to student and teacher data and how impact claims survive peer review. Research-Practice Partnership (RPP) infrastructure — MOUs, IRB-approved data-sharing agreements, joint problem definition, iterative research cycles — is now a standard IES / NSF grant expectation. Notable RPPs: University of Chicago Consortium on School Research (UChicago Consortium with CPS); Houston Education Research Consortium (Rice University); Baltimore Education Research Consortium (Johns Hopkins). Board-of-Education testimony, superintendent-advisory-board service, and state-level policy briefing round out the community-service dimension.

How to Become a Education Teachers, Postsecondary

1
Earn a Bachelor's degree in education, a subject-matter discipline (math, science, English), or educational policy
Most tenure-track education faculty come from either a subject-matter undergrad (mathematics, biology, history, English literature) with a subsequent teaching credential, or from an education-major undergrad with strong quantitative or research training. Undergraduate GPA 3.5+ is the soft floor for competitive doctoral admissions.
2
Complete 3-5 years of K-12 classroom teaching experience (for teacher-preparation faculty)
Classroom teaching experience is expected for tenure-track roles in teacher-preparation subfields (curriculum & instruction, subject-area methods, educational leadership). It is optional but common in Educational Psychology, Learning Sciences, and Higher Education Administration. Typical path: elementary or secondary teacher for 3-6 years, often followed by a Master's-level teacher-leader or district-office role, before doctoral study. State teaching license portability matters if you'll place across states.
3
Earn a Master's degree (M.Ed., M.A., or M.S.) — 30-45 credits
The Master's is often the entry to the doctoral pipeline. Options: M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction; M.A. in Teaching (MAT); M.S. in Educational Psychology; M.Ed. in Educational Leadership; M.A. in Higher Education Administration. Programs at Teachers College Columbia, Harvard GSE, Vanderbilt Peabody, Michigan, Wisconsin, Stanford GSE, Berkeley GSE, UCLA GSE&IS, Penn GSE are the elite feeders into R1 doctoral programs. Cost $50-120k; some programs offer partial tuition support for full-time students.
4
Complete a doctoral degree (PhD or EdD) — the credential floor for tenure-track
PhD is the standard for R1 research-university tenure-track; EdD is common for Educational Leadership / K-12 practitioner-scholar tracks and increasingly at R2 and teaching-focused institutions. Elite R1 doctoral programs: Michigan School of Education, Wisconsin-Madison, Berkeley GSE, UCLA GSE&IS, Stanford GSE, Harvard GSE, Columbia Teachers College, Penn GSE, Vanderbilt Peabody, Northwestern SESP, NYU Steinhardt, Michigan State College of Education, University of Washington, University of Texas at Austin, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Full-funding packages (tuition + stipend + health insurance) at R1s typically run 4-5 years at $28-42k/yr stipend. Time-to-degree averages 5-7 years.
5
Publish 2-4 peer-reviewed articles from your dissertation before graduating
Job-market candidates with 2-4 published or in-press articles in tier-one journals (AERJ, ER, JEP, EEPA, JTE, JRST, JRME) place at R1 institutions. Candidates with 1-2 articles and dissertation-in-progress typically place at R2 or teaching-focused institutions. First-authored publications are weighted more heavily than co-authored. Conference presentations at AERA (American Educational Research Association), NCTM, NCTE, NARST, AECT, AERA-SIG dissertation-of-the-year competitions are secondary signals.
6
Complete a 1-3 year postdoctoral fellowship (increasingly common at R1s)
Postdoctoral fellowship options: NAEd / Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship ($70-85k for 1 year, competitive); IES Postdoctoral Research Training Program ($75-95k for 2 years at IES-training-network institutions); AERA / NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Ed Research; institution-specific postdocs at Michigan, Wisconsin, Stanford GSE, Harvard GSE, Penn GSE, Vanderbilt Peabody. A postdoc year adds 3-6 additional publications to your record and materially improves R1 placement odds — increasingly the norm rather than the exception.
7
Land a tenure-track Assistant Professor seat — $75-105k 9-month at R1
Search process: application (November-February hiring cycle), 8-15 initial CV-and-cover-letter review, 3-5 semifinalist Zoom / phone interviews, 2-3 on-campus visits with job talk + teaching demo + private meetings with department + Dean. Offer terms: 9-month academic-year base salary $75-105k at R1s, $65-88k at R2s, $55-78k at teaching-focused institutions; 2 months summer support in years 1-3 typical at R1s; $25-75k startup funds for research; $5-15k moving allowance; up-to-1-year lag on teaching load; graduate-student RA support in years 1-3; conference-travel budget $2-4k/yr. Some elite R1s add signing bonuses of $10-40k.
8
Build the tenure case in years 1-6 and go up for Associate Professor with tenure
R1 tenure case: 8-15 peer-reviewed journal articles (majority first-authored, majority in tier-one journals), 1-3 external grants awarded (PI or Co-PI), positive student-evaluation trend, active doctoral advising, national visibility (invited talks, editorial-board service). R2 tenure case: 6-10 articles, some external grants, strong teaching, active service. Teaching-focused institution tenure case: 3-6 articles, strong teaching, robust service, active grant-writing. Tenure clock: 6 years typical, with a Year-3 pre-tenure review. Tenure denial rate at R1s runs 10-25% depending on department. Associate promotion typically comes with tenure and a $15-40k base-salary bump.
9
Advance to Full Professor / endowed chair / dean track
Full Professor promotion typically 5-10 years after Associate. Requires sustained scholarly productivity, national reputation (top-of-field-in-subarea visibility), major grant PI record, book publication in humanities-adjacent subfields, and mentorship of junior faculty. Base bump $20-60k at R1s. Endowed chair (Foundation Professor, Distinguished Professor, Named-Chair Professorship) requires additional national recognition + endowment income tied to the position — adds $15-45k annually plus a $50-150k research fund. Dean / Associate Dean track requires administrative appetite, 12-month contract, $50-150k administrative supplement over the 9-month faculty base, and 3-6 year renewable term.

Career Progression

Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track)

0-6 yrs$75-105k 9-mo at R1 · $65-88k 9-mo at R2 · $55-78k 9-mo at teaching-focused · +2 mo summer support common at R1 · $25-75k startup funds · full benefits + retirement match

•Publish 8-15 peer-reviewed articles across the 6-year tenure clock (R1 target); majority first-authored in tier-one journals
•Submit and win 1-3 external grants as PI or Co-PI (IES R305A, NSF DRL, Spencer, W.T. Grant, Wallace) with $500k-3M budget
•Teach 1-1 or 2-1 course load at R1; develop 2-3 doctoral seminars in subarea + 1-2 Master's methods courses
•Advise 2-5 doctoral students to candidacy; chair 1-3 dissertations to completion
•Present at AERA annually; serve on 1-2 department committees; peer-review 8-15 manuscripts / year

Next: Associate Professor with Tenure at 6 years (typical clock).

Associate Professor (Tenured)

6-14 yrs$95-135k 9-mo at R1 · $80-115k 9-mo at R2 · $70-95k 9-mo at teaching-focused · +2-3 mo summer support with active grants · full benefits

•Sustain 3-6 publications per year; publish first monograph (in humanities-adjacent subfields)
•Serve as PI on 1-2 major external grants; move to Co-PI mentorship for junior faculty grant-development
•Chair 4-8 dissertations to completion; serve on 8-15 additional committees; own doctoral cohort recruitment
•Teach 1-1 or 2-1 (R1) with 1 signature graduate seminar; serve as doctoral program director on 3-year rotation
•Serve on tenure & promotion committee at department + college level; university-wide committee service (Faculty Senate)
•Editorial board of 1-2 tier-one journals; associate editor role on 1 journal

Next: Full Professor at 12-20 years (typical); some accelerate at 10 years with major grant / book record.

Full Professor

12-25 yrs$125-215k 9-mo at R1 · $105-165k 9-mo at R2 · $90-135k 9-mo at teaching-focused · endowed chair adds $15-45k + $50-150k research fund

•Sustain national-visibility publication record; sit for prestigious lectureship / plenary invitations
•Serve as PI on major multi-institutional external grants ($2-8M budget over 4-5 years)
•Chair 6-12 dissertations to completion across career; deep advisor role for junior faculty tenure development
•Serve as department chair on 3-6 year rotation; some serve as journal Editor-in-Chief on tier-one journal
•Represent the college in AACTE, AERA Division leadership, learned-society officer positions
•Deliver invited talks at 3-8 institutions per year; consult on state / federal / foundation education policy

Next: Endowed Chair, Distinguished Professor, or Associate Dean / Dean at 18-30 years.

Endowed Chair / Distinguished Professor / Associate Dean

18-30 yrs$185-315k+ 9-mo at endowed R1 chair · $215-345k 12-mo at Associate Dean · $50-150k administrative supplement stacks on faculty base

•Endowed chair: reduced teaching load, $50-150k annual research fund, university-wide research leadership
•Distinguished Professor: honorific title with $10-40k annual stipend and permanent research support
•Associate Dean: 12-month appointment; own faculty affairs, doctoral programs, or research portfolio for the college
•Represent the college externally to trustees, donors, state legislators, and federal-agency program officers
•Chair college-level P&T review committee; own diversity, equity, & inclusion strategy for faculty pipeline

Next: Dean of the College of Education or Provost / VP-level administrative track.

Dean, College / School of Education

25+ yrs$285-465k+ 12-mo + retention bonus + deferred compensation + presidential-search visibility · $65-165k administrative supplement over academic base

•Own the college P&L — $30-250M annual budget spanning teacher preparation, doctoral programs, research centers, K-12 partnerships
•Report to the Provost; represent the college to the President, Board of Trustees, and state Board of Regents
•Own the CAEP accreditation portfolio and the state EPP Report Card metrics
•Own the fundraising portfolio — endowed-chair drives, program-fund gifts, capital-campaign leadership ($50-500M raise cycles)
•Hire, tenure, and promote across department chair, program director, and endowed-chair appointments
•Represent the college in AACTE at the national level; serve on federal / foundation advisory boards

Interview Questions & Answers

5 free questions below. Career Kit unlocks 13 total plus resume bullets for every level.

Q1. Walk me through your dissertation research and how it positions your first 5-year research agenda.technical

Structured. (1) Problem statement — the specific unresolved question in your subfield that motivated the dissertation and why it matters for the field and for practice. Example: 'How do middle-school mathematics teachers develop pedagogical content knowledge for teaching ratios and proportions, and how does that development shape student sensemaking?' (2) Theoretical framing — the specific frameworks you drew on (Shulman on PCK; Ball, Thames & Phelps on Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching; sociocultural theory; design-based research). (3) Methods — quantitative, qualitative, or mixed; specific instruments; sampling frame; analytic approach; IRB and RPP infrastructure. (4) Findings — the 2-3 substantive contributions with specific effect sizes or qualitative patterns. (5) Limitations — what the dissertation did not resolve. (6) Post-dissertation agenda — the 3-4 papers already drafted or in review that extend the dissertation; the next grant proposal (IES R305A, NSF DRK-12) that scales the work; the 2 additional lines of inquiry the dissertation opened but did not close. Search committees screen for candidates whose 5-year agenda is coherent, publishable, and fundable — not just a repackaging of the dissertation.

Q2. Describe your grant-writing pipeline. What is your target external-funding record by tenure?technical

Structured. R1 tenure case typically requires 1-3 external grants awarded as PI or Co-PI, with at least one federal award (IES R305A, NSF DRK-12, NSF ECR) at $500k-2M. Realistic pipeline: (1) Year 1-2 as junior faculty — submit to Spencer Small Research Grant ($50k), W.T. Grant Officer Discretionary ($25-100k), or an internal seed grant to build preliminary data. (2) Year 2-3 — submit IES R305A Exploration or NSF DRK-12 Exploratory at $500k-1M as PI, or Co-PI on a senior colleague's proposal. (3) Year 3-4 — submit IES R305A Development & Innovation at $1.5-2.5M as PI. (4) Year 4-5 — submit large-scale efficacy or scale-up as PI on multi-institutional proposal ($3-8M). Success rates at IES R305A run 12-18% overall (higher for Exploration goal, lower for Efficacy goal); expect 3-5 submissions per award. Search committees screen for candidates who understand the funding landscape and who have a realistic multi-year submission plan — not just 'I plan to apply to NSF.'

Q3. How would you approach teaching a doctoral-level research methods sequence?technical

Structured. (1) Sequence design — typical R1 sequence: Ed Research I (intro to educational research and quantitative methods), Ed Research II (advanced quantitative — HLM / regression / SEM / RD / DID), Ed Research III (qualitative methods and mixed methods), and specialized 4th-course elective (DBR, causal inference, network analysis, meta-analysis). (2) Textual foundation — Creswell & Plano Clark for mixed methods; Raudenbush & Bryk for HLM; Shadish, Cook & Campbell for experimental / quasi-experimental design; What Works Clearinghouse Standards Handbook for evidence-standards. (3) Applied component — every methods course requires a scaffolded doctoral-student project using publicly available datasets (NCES ECLS-K, NELS, HSLS, PISA, TIMSS, NAEP; ICPSR education studies) with reproducible R or Stata code. (4) Journal-club integration — students read and critique 1 published article per week using the methods being taught; they replicate a published analysis in weeks 6-10. (5) Assessment — 2 methodological memos, 1 replication study, 1 original analysis proposal ready for pilot data collection. Search committees screen for candidates who can carry the methods sequence — this is a critical program need at any doctoral-granting college of education.

Q4. Why our institution, why this department, and why now?culture

Specificity matters. Read the department's strategic plan (posted on the college website), the last 3 years of dissertations completed in the program, the faculty roster and current-grant listings, and the state / regional K-12 context the college partners with. Structure the answer around 3 concrete alignments: (1) research-agenda alignment — cite a specific faculty member and how your work extends or complements theirs; specific research center or lab you would join. (2) teaching alignment — the specific doctoral seminar, methods course, or Master's-level methods you would teach and how your training fits the current gap in the department's course offerings. (3) partnership / community alignment — the specific RPP, urban district, or state-education-agency partnership the college maintains, and how your prior K-12 experience or research partnerships extend it. Search committees screen for candidates who did their homework and who articulate a specific fit — 'I want to work at a top-tier R1' is a disqualifier signal.

Q5. Where do you see yourself in 5 to 10 years?closer

Show the tenure and promotion arc clearly. Years 1-3: publish 4-6 articles from the dissertation and postdoc pipeline; submit first Spencer Small Research Grant and first IES R305A or NSF DRK-12 as PI; teach 1 signature graduate seminar; advise first cohort of 2-3 doctoral students to candidacy. Years 4-6: publish 6-9 additional articles (majority first-authored); win at least 1 major federal grant; chair first dissertation to completion; publish first-authored book (in humanities-adjacent subfields); build editorial-board service. Year 6: go up for Associate Professor with tenure. Years 7-10: sustain 4-6 publications per year; take on doctoral program director role; move into Full Professor track with monograph and multi-institutional grants; national-visibility invited talks and Editor-in-Chief candidacy. Longer term: endowed-chair candidacy at year 12-15 or Associate Dean administrative track. Search committees screen for candidates who understand the tenure clock and who have a realistic multi-year plan.

Resume Template — Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track, 0-6 yrs)

Copy these bullets into your resume as a starting point. Career Kit includes bullets for every level of the ladder.

Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track, 0-6 yrs)

▸Assistant Professor in Curriculum & Instruction at [R1 University] College of Education; PhD in Mathematics Education from Michigan School of Education (2022).
▸PI on IES R305A Exploration grant ($1.4M, 2024-2028) studying middle-school teacher pedagogical content knowledge for ratio and proportion; Co-PI on NSF DRK-12 award ($2.1M, 2023-2027) with 3-institution research team.
▸Published 8 peer-reviewed articles in tier-one journals (AERJ, JTE, JRME, JEP) in the first 4 years on tenure clock; 6 first-authored; 2 in-press at time of Year-3 pre-tenure review.
▸Advise 4 doctoral students in the Math Ed strand (chair 1, committee member 3); teach 1-1 course load (Math Ed Doctoral Seminar + Elementary Math Methods); serve on department Doctoral Admissions committee.
▸Base $92k 9-mo + 2 mo summer support ($20.4k) + $8k conference travel + full benefits + retirement 10.5% match. Ph.D. Mathematics Education, Michigan; M.Ed. Curriculum & Instruction, Wisconsin-Madison; B.A. Mathematics, Berkeley.

What Gets You Rejected

✗No first-authored publications in tier-one journals by the end of doctoral study — screens out most R1 candidates before the on-campus round.
✗Grant record limited to internal seed grants after 3-4 years on the tenure clock — signals candidate has not built the external-funding pipeline required for R1 tenure.
✗Student evaluations trending negative across multiple courses — teaching quality is part of the tenure case at every institution and is the primary case at teaching-focused institutions.
✗Weak doctoral-advising record at the Associate promotion window — dissertations chaired to completion is a promotion-visible metric at R1s.
✗History of departmental service avoidance — search committees, T&P committees, doctoral admissions committees, and program-review committees are non-negotiable at the Associate and Full level.
✗No visible national reputation at the Full Professor promotion window — invited talks, editorial-board service, learned-society officer positions, and program-officer relationships at federal agencies signal the field-level visibility Full requires.
✗Job-market talk (JMT) that reads as a dissertation summary rather than a 5-year research agenda — search committees explicitly evaluate the JMT as a preview of the tenure case.
✗Weak or absent K-12 / community partnerships in teacher-preparation subfields — CAEP accreditation and IES / NSF grant reviewers both weight research-practice partnership infrastructure heavily.

Salary Negotiation Levers

✓R1 vs R2 vs teaching-focused positioning — the same rank pays 25-40% more at an R1 tenure-track than at a teaching-focused institution; move up-market at the Associate promotion window when your publication and grant record supports it.
✓External-grant PI record — a single active IES R305A or NSF DRK-12 award materially strengthens the retention counter-offer, an outside offer, or a lateral move; departments will match 10-20% base and $50-150k research-fund top-up to retain a productive PI.
✓Startup funds at initial hire — R1 startup packages typically $25-75k in Education; negotiate for RA support (2-3 years of doctoral-student funding), summer salary in Year 1-3, computing equipment, and travel budget separately from the base.
✓Summer-salary buyout from external grants — external grants at 1/9 of academic-year base per month, up to 3 months per summer; a productive grant record adds $30-75k to the take-home annually on top of the 9-month base.
✓Course-release buyout — external grants can buy out 1-2 courses per year at the R1 rate (typically $12-25k per course); the released time protects research productivity and strengthens the tenure case.
✓Endowed chair candidacy — endowed chairs, Distinguished Professorships, and Foundation Professorships add $10-45k in annual stipend plus $50-150k in research fund; visibility as an endowed-chair candidate is a lever at retention and outside-offer discussions.
✓Administrative supplement for department chair, doctoral program director, or Associate Dean roles — 15-25% administrative supplement over 9-month base; department chair typically $15-40k / year; Associate Dean $50-150k over the faculty base with 12-month appointment.
✓Journal Editor-in-Chief stipend — a tier-one journal EIC role adds $15-30k annual stipend plus editorial-office support and course-release; a visible national-editing role also strengthens the Full Professor case.
✓Metro / geographic premium — R1s in high-cost metros (Berkeley, Stanford, Columbia, Harvard, NYU) pay 15-30% above the R1 median; state flagships in medium-cost metros (Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Illinois, Penn State) pay competitively but with lower cost-of-living arbitrage.
✓Retention counter-offer at outside offer — a credible outside offer from a peer R1 typically triggers a retention package of 10-20% base plus a research-fund top-up plus (often) an accelerated promotion review or endowed-chair candidacy.

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Education Teachers, Postsecondary Salary by State

Best Cities (cost-adjusted) →

Salary Map — Click a state for details

$49K

$112K■ No data

Top Paying States

Vertical line = national median. Click a state for full details.

State	Median	vs. National	Employment
California	$111,850	+48.4%	3,100
Louisiana	$83,710	+11.1%	460
New York	$82,020	+8.9%	5,430
District of Columbia	$80,810	+7.2%	230
Connecticut	$80,620	+7.0%	900
Rhode Island	$80,030	+6.2%	190
Massachusetts	$79,980	+6.1%	2,050
Michigan	$79,910	+6.1%	1,140
Minnesota	$78,950	+4.8%	950
Nebraska	$78,950	+4.8%	600

Showing 1–10 of 49

Education Teachers, Postsecondary Salary by Metro Area

Metro Area	Median	vs. National
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	$129,100	+71.3%
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA	$123,910	+64.4%
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	$121,520	+61.3%
Wilmington, NC	$106,070	+40.8%
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	$105,730	+40.3%
Ann Arbor, MI	$105,640	+40.2%
Eugene-Springfield, OR	$103,930	+37.9%
Fargo, ND-MN	$103,850	+37.8%
Chattanooga, TN-GA	$103,790	+37.7%
College Station-Bryan, TX	$96,960	+28.7%

Showing 1–10 of 152

Data Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS). Data reflects the most recent annual survey.

How does this compare to pro athletes?

A education teachers, postsecondary earning $75,350/year would need 791 years to match Stephen Curry's NBA salary, or 849 yearsto match Patrick Mahomes' NFL contract.

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📈 See how education teachers, postsecondary salaries have changed over the past decade.

View Education Teachers, Postsecondary salary trend (2011–2024) →