Secondary Teaching

Types of Degrees Secondary Teaching Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many secondary education graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Master’s Degree	5,847
Bachelor’s Degree	3,706
Associate Degree	647
Graduate Certificate	427
Undergraduate Certificate	156
Basic Certificate	141
Doctor’s Degree	24

What Secondary Teaching Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, secondary teaching majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for Secondary Teaching Majors

Secondary Teaching majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
• Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
• Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.

Skills for Secondary Teaching Majors

The following list of skills has been highlighted as some of the most essential for careers related to secondary teaching:

• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Instructing - Teaching others how to do something.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Learning Strategies - Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.

Abilities for Secondary Teaching Majors

Secondary Teaching majors often go into careers where the following abilities are vital:

• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.

What Can You Do With a Secondary Teaching Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with secondary teaching:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education	7.5%	$60,320

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Secondary Teaching?

This major is dominated by women with about 61% of recent graduates being female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of secondary teaching majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	104
Black or African American	133
Hispanic or Latino	407
White	2,841
International Students	24
Other Races/Ethnicities	197

Geographic Diversity

Secondary Teaching appeals to people across the globe. About 0.6% of those with this major are international students.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Secondary Teaching

Some careers associated with secondary teaching require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

Find out what the typical degree level is for secondary teaching careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Bachelor’s Degree	52.9%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master.	14.8%
Master’s Degree	24.3%
Post-Master’s Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Master’s degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees at the doctoral level.	4.3%
Doctoral Degree	4.3%

Online Secondary Teaching Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	23	3
Certificate (2-4 Years)	4	1
Associate’s Degree	96	17
Bachelor’s Degree	72	22
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	342	74
Post-Master’s	18	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	6	1
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	1	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to Secondary Teaching

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to secondary teaching.

Major	Number of Grads
Elementary Education	41,711
Early Childhood Education	30,639
Teacher Education	9,411
Teacher Development & Methodology	6,323
Junior High/Intermediate/Middle School Education & Teaching	3,018
Kindergarten/Preschool Education & Teaching	2,718
Adult & Continuing Education	922
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Educational Methods	379
Montessori Teacher Education	304
Online Educator/Online Teaching	153
College/Postsecondary/University Teaching	101
International Teaching and Learning	24
Waldorf/Steiner Teacher Education	1

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By Vgrigas under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.