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Major · Education

The classroom-support credential that is mostly an associate’s degree

Teacher Assistant/Aide prepares students to support classroom teachers — managing routines, helping with lessons, and working with bilingual, special-education, or adult learners. About 765 degrees are awarded annually across 123 colleges, and almost every one is an associate’s from a community or technical college. Bachelor’s completions in this CIP are rare.

Schools offering
123
Annual completions
765
Typical degree level
Associate's + Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$39k

About this major

Teacher Assistant/Aide (CIP 13.1501) prepares students to work alongside licensed teachers in classroom settings — managing routines, supporting individual students with lessons, supervising small groups, and assisting with special populations such as bilingual learners, special-education students, English-language learners, and adult learners. The coursework typically blends child development, classroom management, instructional support techniques, and supervised field experience in real classrooms. CIP examples in the program include Early Childhood Education Teacher Assistant/Aide, Elementary Education Teacher Assistant/Aide, Special Education Teacher Assistant/Aide, and Paraprofessional Educator — all roles that work under a credentialed teacher rather than independently.

The major fits students who want a defined, near-term path into school-based work without the four years and licensure exam required to become a classroom teacher. Patience, comfort with structure, and the ability to take direction from a lead teacher matter more than academic intensity. Students drawn to working directly with children — particularly in special-education or bilingual settings, where paraprofessional support is in high demand — tend to find the curriculum a good match.

The program is small and almost entirely vocational: 765 annual completions across 123 colleges, with the top ten producers all community or technical colleges. CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community College leads with 83 graduates, followed by CUNY Kingsborough (78) and Chaffey College in California (56). Bachelor’s completions in this CIP are essentially absent in the top-producer data — a clear signal that the field is structured around a two-year credential, not a four-year one. The five-year median earnings figure of $39,497 reflects associate’s graduates entering school-district paraprofessional roles, where pay scales are set by district contracts rather than by degree level.

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.

No federal crosswalk data available for this major yet.

Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

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

Median 5-year earnings

$39k

Who this major is for

You may thrive here if you want a clear, near-term path into school-based work, are drawn to supporting children in classrooms — including bilingual or special-education settings — and value the lower cost and shorter timeline of a community-college associate’s, are comfortable working under the direction of a licensed teacher rather than running your own classroom, and see this credential as a deliberate fit for paraprofessional jobs in your local school district rather than as a launching pad to a larger ambition.

Think twice if your real goal is to become a licensed K-12 teacher — the Teacher Assistant/Aide credential does not qualify you for a teaching license, and a teacher-preparation bachelor’s like Education, General or a subject-specific program is the more direct route. Reconsider also if you are weighing the bachelor’s version of this CIP: the top ten producing colleges award zero bachelor’s degrees in this field, and the paraprofessional pay scale does not reward the additional two years — the ROI math on a four-year program in this specific CIP rarely works out, and any of the related teacher-preparation majors would put the same time and tuition to better use.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Teacher Assistant/Aide

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

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community College New York, NY 83 0 83
CUNY Kingsborough Community College Brooklyn, NY 78 0 78
Chaffey College Rancho Cucamonga, CA 56 0 56
CUNY Hostos Community College Bronx, NY 53 0 53
Texas State Technical College Waco, TX 41 0 41
Leeward Community College Pearl City, HI 41 0 41
CUNY Medgar Evers College Brooklyn, NY 28 0 28
Big Sandy Community and Technical College Prestonsburg, KY 27 0 27
Jefferson Community and Technical College Louisville, KY 26 0 26
Santa Ana College Santa Ana, CA 26 0 26
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Education, General

8,583 completions/yr

Educational Leadership and Administration, General

262 completions/yr

Bilingual and Multilingual Education

89 completions/yr

Curriculum and Instruction

38 completions/yr

Multicultural Education

15 completions/yr

Educational, Instructional, and Curriculum Supervision

13 completions/yr

Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education, Other

6 completions/yr

Indian/Native American Education

3 completions/yr
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

Do I really need a bachelor’s in this, or is an associate’s enough?
An associate’s is the standard. Every one of the ten largest producers of this degree — CUNY Borough of Manhattan, CUNY Kingsborough, Chaffey, CUNY Hostos, Texas State Technical College, and the rest — awards 100% of completions at the associate’s level, with zero bachelor’s graduates. Federal Title I rules under ESSA only require paraprofessionals to hold an associate’s, complete two years of college (60 credit hours), or pass a state-approved assessment such as the ETS ParaPro. Spending four years on a bachelor’s in Teacher Assistant/Aide rarely pays back in wages — the role’s wage ceiling is set by school-district pay scales, not by your degree level.
What jobs do graduates actually do, and what do they pay?
Graduates work as instructional aides, paraprofessionals, special-education aides, bilingual classroom assistants, and early-childhood support staff. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a national median wage near $33,000 for teacher assistants (SOC 25-9045), and the five-year median earnings reported in this dataset is $39,497 — both consistent with district pay schedules for non-licensed classroom support. These are stable, school-calendar jobs, not high-wage destinations. The ceiling rises only when you move into a licensed teaching role, which requires a separate credential entirely.
Is this a stepping-stone to becoming a licensed teacher?
It can be, but not directly. A Teacher Assistant/Aide degree does not qualify you for a state teaching license; that requires a separate teacher-preparation program, supervised student teaching, and a state exam. The most common transfer route is to use the associate’s as a transfer platform into Education, General (about 8,583 annual completions), Bilingual and Multilingual Education (89), or a subject-specific bachelor’s, then complete a teacher-preparation program. Many community colleges in the top-producer list — CUNY Kingsborough, Chaffey, Santa Ana — have articulation agreements designed for exactly that bridge.
How does this compare to related education majors?
Teacher Assistant/Aide is the smallest and most vocational of the education CIP majors. Education, General (8,583 completions) and Bilingual and Multilingual Education (89) are bachelor’s-heavy programs aimed at students preparing for licensure. Educational Leadership and Administration (262) is graduate-oriented and points toward principal or district roles. The Teacher Assistant/Aide degree is more like a credential that aligns directly to the paraprofessional job market — focused, narrower, and almost always two years rather than four.
Why are CUNY community colleges so dominant in the top-producer list?
Five of the ten largest producers — CUNY Borough of Manhattan (83 completions), CUNY Kingsborough (78), CUNY Hostos (53), CUNY Medgar Evers (28), and several California and Kentucky community colleges — reflect a clear urban-school-district pipeline. New York City’s public school system is one of the largest paraprofessional employers in the country, and CUNY’s associate’s programs are structured as a feeder into NYC Department of Education paraprofessional positions. Outside New York, similar pipelines exist in Los Angeles, Hawaii (Leeward Community College), and Texas. The pattern signals that this credential is geographically clustered and tied to specific district hiring practices.
What’s a realistic ROI picture for this degree?
The honest answer: an associate’s in Teacher Assistant/Aide makes solid sense if your goal is a paraprofessional position with a school district, especially in a city like New York where the credential maps directly to a hiring track. The five-year median of $39,497 is modest but predictable, and tuition at a community college keeps the debt picture manageable. The picture changes if you choose the bachelor’s version of this CIP — it does not raise your wage ceiling much, since the paraprofessional pay scale does not reward it, and the same money invested in a teaching-license-eligible bachelor’s would open higher-paying classroom positions.