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Major · Education

Teaching the upper grades: what secondary education actually prepares you for

Secondary Education and Teaching prepares you to teach students in grades seven through twelve — or a defined subset of that range depending on your state. About 4,057 degrees are awarded annually across 432 colleges, making it a mid-size major with a direct, licensure-required path into a single well-defined career.

Schools offering
432
Annual completions
4,057
Typical degree level
Associate's + Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$46k

About this major

Secondary Education and Teaching is an explicitly vocational major — its purpose is to prepare you to enter a licensed secondary classroom. The CIP definition is direct: a program that prepares individuals to teach students in the secondary grades, which may include grades seven through twelve depending on state regulations, covering either a comprehensive curriculum or specific subject matter. In practice, most programs are built around both the pedagogical credential and a content-area endorsement, because secondary teaching licensure in most states requires demonstrated competency in the subject you'll teach, not just in teaching methods generally.

Coursework covers adolescent development, instructional design, assessment and evaluation, educational technology, classroom management, and the legal and ethical frameworks governing public secondary education. Field placements begin early in most programs and accumulate toward a full-semester student teaching placement — the capstone requirement that most states attach directly to the licensure recommendation. The degree exists at both the associate's and bachelor's level, but the associate's is a transfer vehicle rather than a terminal credential; the bachelor's is the functional entry point for licensure, and all the primary career destinations tracked for this major list a bachelor's degree as the typical required education.

About 4,057 degrees are awarded annually across 432 institutions, making it a mid-size major compared to its sibling programs in the education CIP family. Arizona State University Campus Immersion leads by completions with 172, followed by Grand Canyon University (121) and Missouri State University-Springfield (105). Two community colleges — South Texas College (76) and San Jacinto Community College (72) — appear in the top ten, confirming that the associate's pathway into the transfer pipeline is actively used, particularly in Texas. The major's relatively smaller scale compared to elementary education (about 31,672 completions per year) reflects the more specialized nature of secondary-level preparation and the fact that many students who want to teach in a specific subject take that subject's content major with an education minor or concurrent certification program rather than declaring secondary education as their primary major.

Section 3 · Careers

Where this major leads

Occupations most often associated with this major, from the federal BLS+O*NET crosswalk. Job-growth projections and median wages are national.

Occupation Median wage Job growth Typical education
Secondary school teachers, except special and career/technical education $65k -1.6% Bachelor's degree
Education teachers, postsecondary $72k +2.1% Doctoral or professional degree
Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

Median graduate earnings from the federal College Scorecard, 5 and 10 years out.

Median 5-year earnings

$46k

Associate's vs Bachelor's — early-career earnings

Associate's

$38k

Bachelor's

$48k

Who this major is for

You may be well matched to this major if you find the intellectual energy of secondary school — the more complex subject matter, the developmental dynamics of adolescence, the longer periods spent on individual topics — genuinely engaging rather than just tolerable. The major rewards people who can explain difficult concepts to students who don't yet have the background to find them easy, and who can manage a classroom of teenagers without losing either their patience or their authority. If you've done any coaching, tutoring, youth ministry, or structured mentorship with middle or high school students and found it motivating, that experience is a better predictor of fit than any coursework.

Think twice if you're committed to secondary education primarily because you love your subject and want to spend your professional life immersed in it — the day-to-day reality of secondary teaching is more about managing twenty-five students and meeting their varied readiness levels than about deep subject-matter engagement. Think twice, too, if geographic flexibility is limited: the -1.6% projected growth rate for secondary teachers reflects a national contraction, and restricting yourself to a single metro area reduces your options in a field where the available openings are unevenly distributed by subject, district, and region. The five-year median of $46,418 — with bachelor's completers closer to $48,274 — is lower than most bachelor's-required fields, and teacher compensation is governed by public budgets and collective bargaining rather than individual performance or market dynamics. If high earnings growth over a short time horizon is the priority, this field will not provide it.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Secondary Education and Teaching

Ranked by annual completions at the associate's or bachelor's level — a proxy for program scale.

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
Arizona State University Campus Immersion Tempe, AZ 0 172 172
Grand Canyon University Phoenix, AZ 0 121 121
Missouri State University-Springfield Springfield, MO 0 105 105
Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus University Park, PA 0 99 99
University of Central Florida Orlando, FL 0 86 86
University of Nevada-Las Vegas Las Vegas, NV 0 81 81
South Texas College McAllen, TX 76 0 76
San Jacinto Community College Pasadena, TX 72 0 72
Kansas State University Manhattan, KS 0 68 68
University of Missouri-Columbia Columbia, MO 0 66 66
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Elementary Education and Teaching

31,672 completions/yr

Early Childhood Education and Teaching

19,347 completions/yr

Special Education and Teaching, General

5,456 completions/yr

Physical Education Teaching and Coaching

4,787 completions/yr

Teacher Education, Multiple Levels

3,430 completions/yr

Music Teacher Education

3,229 completions/yr

Junior High/Intermediate/Middle School Education and Teaching

2,213 completions/yr

Kindergarten/Preschool Education and Teaching

1,867 completions/yr

Considering this direction?

We've taken a hard look at the debt, earnings trajectory, and degree-level tradeoffs for the Secondary Education and Teaching field. Read our verdict before you commit.

Is Secondary Education and Teaching worth it? Read verdict
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

What do secondary education majors actually study?
The curriculum blends teaching methodology with subject-matter preparation — though the degree itself is in secondary education broadly, most students simultaneously pursue coursework in a content area (English, history, biology, math) that will become their teaching endorsement. Courses cover adolescent development, curriculum design, classroom management, assessment techniques, and educational law and policy. Programs include supervised field placements throughout, culminating in a full-semester student teaching requirement in an actual secondary classroom. The degree is vocational in structure: it's built around meeting state licensure requirements for secondary teaching, and the student teaching semester functions more like a clinical rotation than a typical internship.
Do I need a bachelor's degree, or is an associate's enough for secondary education?
In practice, you need a bachelor's degree — every U.S. state requires it as the minimum credential for a secondary teaching license. The associate's degree in secondary education exists primarily as a transfer pathway. The earnings data supports this: bachelor's completers in this field show a five-year median of about $48,274, while associate's completers average around $38,454. That gap exists because associate's graduates largely haven't yet completed the credential required to work as licensed teachers. Two of the top ten institutions for this major by completions are community colleges — South Texas College and San Jacinto Community College — which confirms the associate's pathway is a real entry point to the pipeline, but not a stopping point for most students.
What jobs do secondary education graduates end up in?
The dominant destination is secondary school teacher, covering grades seven through twelve. The median wage for that role is $64,580 annually — somewhat above the $62,340 median for elementary school teachers, partly because subject-specific expertise at the secondary level tends to be compensated at a slightly higher rate. The second tracked career path, postsecondary education teachers, shows a $72,090 median wage and 2.1% projected growth, but those roles typically require a doctoral or professional degree — not an outcome a bachelor's produces directly. Secondary teaching is the realistic undergraduate destination, and the path to it runs through licensure, not just the degree.
How is the job market for secondary school teachers right now?
The data shows a projected decline of -1.6% for secondary school teachers — the occupation is expected to contract slightly at the national level, not grow. That sits alongside a constant stream of news coverage about teacher shortages, and both things can be accurate at the same time. National enrollment trends are flat or declining in many regions, which is the primary driver of the aggregate contraction. Shortages are concentrated in specific subjects (math, science, special education, bilingual), specific geographic areas (rural districts, high-need urban schools), and states with particularly challenging compensation or working conditions. A secondary education graduate who is geographically flexible and specializes in a high-demand subject area is entering a considerably different labor market than what the -1.6% headline implies.
What's the earnings picture for secondary education, honestly?
The five-year median across all degree levels is $46,418 — on the lower end for a bachelor's-required field. Bachelor's completers specifically average about $48,274 at five years, reflecting the range of early-career public school salaries across different states and districts. Teacher compensation is set by collective bargaining agreements and government budgets, not by market demand for skills, which means the earnings ceiling is real and structural rather than something you can negotiate your way around. The bachelor's-to-associate's earnings gap ($48,274 vs. $38,454) is smaller than in most technical fields, largely because most people at the associate's level haven't yet completed the credential required for a licensed teaching role.
Is secondary education the right major, or should I look at something related?
Secondary education is the right choice if your goal is to teach a specific subject to middle or high school students and you want a dedicated licensure-track program. Elementary Education (about 31,672 completions per year) covers the K–8 generalist classroom — a different population and a different skill set. Special Education and Teaching, General (about 5,456 completions) prepares you for working with students with disabilities across grade levels, and the shortage conditions in that field are currently stronger than in secondary general education. Physical Education Teaching and Coaching (about 4,787 completions) is a subject-specific secondary path if your interest is the gymnasium rather than the classroom. Each leads to a distinct licensed role, so the decision is less about job competition and more about which age group and instructional context is actually a fit.