undergradly.
Major · Education

An umbrella secondary-licensure track for history, civics, economics, and geography teachers

Social Science Teacher Education prepares you to teach the full spread of secondary social science subjects — history, civics, economics, geography, and sometimes psychology or sociology — leading to a state teaching license. About 418 degrees are awarded each year across 109 colleges, with bachelor's completers reporting $51,376 in median five-year earnings and an associate split of $34,368.

Schools offering
109
Annual completions
418
Typical degree level
Associate's + Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$50k

About this major

Social Science Teacher Education is the umbrella secondary-licensure label for teachers planning to teach the full spread of social science subjects — history, civics, economics, geography, and sometimes psychology or sociology — at the middle and high school level. About 418 degrees are awarded annually across 109 colleges. Coursework splits between content and pedagogy: history, political science, economics, and geography on the content side, plus educational psychology, classroom management, curriculum design, and methods courses specific to teaching adolescents on the pedagogy side. The capstone is one or two semesters of supervised student teaching in a real 6-12 classroom under a mentor teacher, which is also the gate to your initial state license.

The close cousin in the data is Social Studies Teacher Education (CIP 13.1318, 1,336 completions a year) — the two CIP codes overlap heavily and resolve to the same state license in most cases. The 13.1317 umbrella label tends to appear at programs that prepare teachers for multiple social-science endorsements rather than a single social-studies endorsement; in practice employers care about your endorsement areas, your Praxis II or state-exam scores, and your transcript, not which CIP code your program was tagged with at IPEDS. Bachelor's completers report $51,376 in median five-year earnings, while the small associate-degree population in this code reports $34,368 — a useful reminder that the bachelor's plus state license is the working credential here.

The destinations side is dominated by classroom teaching: secondary teachers at $64,580 BLS median (-1.6% projected growth) and middle school teachers at $62,970 (-2% growth). Both list a bachelor's as the typical entry credential. Postsecondary education teachers ($72,090, +2.1% growth) require a doctorate and are a long-arc option rather than an entry path.

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
Middle school teachers, except special and career/technical education $63k -2.0% 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

$50k

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

Associate's

$34k

Bachelor's

$51k

Who this major is for

You may thrive in this major if you've already logged time around classrooms — as a tutor, camp counselor, coach, or after-school program leader — and found you liked the rhythm, if you genuinely care about how civics, history, and economics land with teenagers (rather than just enjoying the subjects yourself), if you can hold a room of thirty fourteen-year-olds at 7:45 AM, if a $50-65K starting salary range feels workable for the part of the country where you plan to live, and if the structure of a school year — fixed schedule, real summers off, defined step-and-lane progression with master's-degree pay bumps — fits the life you want.

The credential travels in directions people don't always anticipate. Independent and international schools hire without state licensure — elite NAIS day and boarding schools and the international school circuit (Singapore American, Shanghai American, AISJ Johannesburg, ASD Dubai) pay competitively, often with housing and tax advantages. Curriculum and assessment design at College Board, ETS, Pearson, or McGraw-Hill is reachable with experience plus a master's. Edtech instructional-design at MagicSchool, Schoology, Canvas, Khan Academy, and a growing AI-tutoring layer is expanding. Museum education, NPS park interpretation, state-DOE policy work, and district central office leadership all draw from former teachers.

Think twice if your interest is the academic study of history, political science, or economics rather than teaching them — that path runs through a graduate program in the discipline, not through a teacher-prep major. Reconsider if you can't visualize spending a full semester running thirty teenagers through Reconstruction or the Federal Reserve, since student teaching makes that reality concrete fast. The -1.6% projected growth in secondary teaching combined with the smaller per-school footprint of social-science positions — most schools need only one or two — also means you should weigh whether a broader credential like Teacher Education, Multiple Levels (3,430 completions) or middle school education (2,213 completions) would give you more places to land your first job. Federal Teacher Loan Forgiveness offers $17,500 for math, science, and special-ed teachers in Title I schools but only the standard $5,000 for social studies, which tells you which subjects the labor market is actually short on.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Social Science Teacher Education

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

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
University of Northern Iowa Cedar Falls, IA 0 36 36
Auburn University Auburn, AL 0 24 24
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Oshkosh, WI 0 23 23
Florida State University Tallahassee, FL 0 23 23
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Stevens Point, WI 0 22 22
Brigham Young University Provo, UT 0 18 18
Winona State University Winona, MN 0 16 16
University of South Florida Tampa, FL 0 14 14
Wayne State College Wayne, NE 0 14 14
Saginaw Valley State University University Center, MI 0 13 13
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Physical Education Teaching and Coaching

4,787 completions/yr

Secondary Education and Teaching

4,057 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

English/Language Arts Teacher Education

1,846 completions/yr

Social Studies Teacher Education

1,336 completions/yr

Mathematics Teacher Education

1,090 completions/yr
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

How is Social Science Teacher Education different from Social Studies Teacher Education?
They're close cousins under the same parent CIP family and resolve to the same state license in most cases. Social Science Teacher Education (CIP 13.1317) is the broader umbrella label — programs under it sometimes prepare you to teach any of the social-science subjects (history, civics, economics, geography, plus occasionally psychology or sociology). Social Studies Teacher Education (CIP 13.1318) is the more common label and is built specifically around secondary social-studies licensure as a single subject endorsement. In practice, employers and state licensing boards care about your transcript, your endorsement areas, and your Praxis or state-content exam score — not which CIP code your program was tagged with. About 418 degrees are awarded annually under 13.1317 versus 1,336 under 13.1318.
What does the licensure path actually involve?
A state-approved bachelor's program, content-area exams (Praxis II Social Studies: Content Knowledge 5081, History 5941, or state-specific equivalents like TX TExES, CA CSET, FL FTCE, NY NYSTCE), one or two semesters of supervised student teaching, an FBI background check, and in some states a teaching-performance assessment like edTPA — though edTPA is being phased out in many states after pushback from teacher prep programs. Graduating from a state-approved program usually makes you license-eligible automatically in that state; moving states typically means a reciprocity application rather than redoing the credential.
What's the realistic salary picture and how much does state matter?
BLS median for secondary teachers is $64,580 — but that median hides enormous geographic and district-level variation. Urban districts in NY, NJ, MA, CA, and IL routinely start social-studies teachers at $60-90K with strong union pay schedules and master's-degree premiums of $5-10K. Rural and Mountain West or Southern districts more typically start at $40-50K. Bachelor's completers in this major report $51,376 in median five-year earnings, which lines up with that geographic spread. The structural ceiling is real: even at the top of a step-and-lane schedule with a master's plus 30 credits, most districts cap teacher pay around $90-110K after 25+ years.
Is the job market actually shrinking for social-science teachers?
BLS projects -1.6% growth for secondary teachers overall through the decade, and social studies is on the more crowded side of that softer outlook — most schools staff only one or two social-studies teachers compared with several slots in math, science, English, or special education. That's why federal Teacher Loan Forgiveness offers $17,500 for math, science, and special-ed teachers in Title I schools but only the standard $5,000 for social-studies teachers. The flip side: rural districts, urban Title I schools, and high-growth states (TX, FL, AZ, NC) hire reliably, and PSLF still applies to any qualifying public-school role. Willingness to teach in a hard-to-staff district is the single biggest lever on how fast you land a position.
What are the pivot options if classroom teaching doesn't stick?
The credential travels better than people expect. Independent and private schools (NAIS member schools) hire teachers without state licensure — pay is usually lower than urban public districts, but elite boarding and day schools (Phillips Exeter, Harvard-Westlake, National Cathedral, Sidwell Friends) pay $70-100K+ with housing or housing stipends. International schools through ISS or Search Associates job fairs (Singapore American, Shanghai American, ASD Dubai, AISJ Johannesburg) typically offer $50-80K plus housing and tax advantages. Curriculum and assessment work at College Board, ETS, Pearson, or McGraw-Hill is reachable with a master's and teaching experience. Edtech instructional-design roles at Schoology, Canvas, Khan Academy, or MagicSchool are growing. Museum education, NPS interpretation, state-DOE policy roles, and district central office leadership all draw from former teachers.
Will AI tools replace social-science teachers?
The teacher-productivity layer is already here — MagicSchool, Curipod, Diffit, and ChatGPT all generate lesson plans, exit tickets, rubrics, and differentiated reading passages much faster than a human can. That augments the prep side of teaching, not the delivery side. Direct classroom instruction, classroom management with adolescents, the relational work of getting a fourteen-year-old to engage with primary sources, and the in-person feedback loops that make teaching effective are all durable. Student-facing AI tutors like Khanmigo and Schoolhouse are emerging as supplements, mostly in math so far. The teaching role itself is one of the more AI-resistant occupations because the value isn't in information delivery — it's in the human work of running a classroom.
Where are the strongest programs for this major?
University of Northern Iowa graduates the largest cohort at 36 per year, followed by Auburn University (24), University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (23), Florida State University (23), and University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (22). Brigham Young, Winona State, University of South Florida, Wayne State College, and Saginaw Valley State round out the top ten. Because licensure is state-specific, the practical filter is matching a state-approved program to the state where you want to teach — Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and Florida are well-represented in the top ten, but Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan all have deep public-university benches if you want regional placement support there.
Should I get a master's, and when?
A bachelor's plus license is enough to start — both BLS occupational profiles list a bachelor's as the typical entry credential. The strategic question is timing. Most union pay schedules bump you a step (typically $5-10K) once you finish a master's, so teachers often start a part-time program after two or three years in the classroom, frequently in education leadership, curriculum and instruction, or their content area. Connecticut and New York require teachers to complete a master's within a set window of initial licensure — that's a hard constraint if you teach there. If your end goal is curriculum design, district administration, or a postsecondary education-teaching role ($72,090 BLS median), the master's is non-optional eventually.