Educational Instruction and Library
Career/Technical Education Teachers, Secondary School
Teach occupational, vocational, career, or technical subjects to students at the secondary school level.
MAY 2025 · OCCUPATIONAL WAGES
A wage reference for United States.
Published wage percentiles describe a distribution within the source occupation group. They provide context for a career decision; employer packages and job offers have their own terms.
Source wage group: Career/Technical Education Teachers, Secondary School
This wage group may include multiple detailed occupations. The figures are for the source group, which may be broader than Career/Technical Education Teachers, Secondary School. They are not an exact-title, employer, experience or seniority match.
May 2025 · USD · United States. Annual and hourly figures are shown only when the source publishes them; neither is calculated from the other.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage data, distributed through the O*NET® OnLine service.
Median annual wage$66,270USD per year · Published 50th percentile
Annual wage thresholds
USD per year
| Percentile | Annual wage (USD/year) | Hourly wage (USD/hour) |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | $50,040 | Not published |
| 25th | $60,590 | Not published |
| 50th · Median | $66,270 | Not published |
| 75th | $80,060 | Not published |
| 90th | $101,340 | Not published |
“≥” means at least the published amount; “≤” means at most that amount. These are bounds, not exact values. “Not published” means the source did not provide that figure. Occupational wages follow the source definition and do not establish an employer’s base salary, equity or total compensation.
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THE WORK BEHIND THE TITLE
What this career involves.
Occupation definitions describe common work. Responsibilities and requirements vary by employer and specific job.
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Typical tasks
- Instruct students individually and in groups, using various teaching methods, such as lectures, discussions, and demonstrations.
- Establish and enforce rules for behavior and procedures for maintaining order among students.
- Prepare materials and classroom for class activities.
- Observe and evaluate students' performance, behavior, social development, and physical health.
- Instruct students in the knowledge and skills required in a specific occupation or occupational field, using a systematic plan of lectures, discussions, audio-visual presentations, and laboratory, shop, and field studies.
- Instruct and monitor students in the use and care of equipment and materials to prevent injury and damage.
Expand more tasks (27)
- Establish clear objectives for all lessons, units, and projects, and communicate those objectives to students.
- Use computers, audio-visual aids, and other equipment and materials to supplement presentations.
- Guide and counsel students with adjustments, academic problems, or special academic interests.
- Maintain accurate and complete student records as required by law, district policy, and administrative regulations.
- Plan and conduct activities for a balanced program of instruction, demonstration, and work time that provides students with opportunities to observe, question, and investigate.
- Prepare, administer, and grade tests and assignments to evaluate students' progress.
- Assign and grade class work and homework.
- Enforce all administration policies and rules governing students.
- Provide students with disabilities with assistive devices, supportive technology, and assistance accessing facilities, such as restrooms.
- Prepare students for later grades by encouraging them to explore learning opportunities and to persevere with challenging tasks.
- Plan and supervise class projects, field trips, visits by guest speakers or other experiential activities, and guide students in learning from those activities.
- Confer with parents or guardians, other teachers, counselors, and administrators to resolve students' behavioral and academic problems.
- Keep informed about trends in education and subject matter specialties.
- Plan and supervise work-experience programs in businesses, industrial shops, and school laboratories.
- Meet with other professionals to discuss individual students' needs and progress.
- Prepare and implement remedial programs for students requiring extra help.
- Prepare objectives and outlines for courses of study, following curriculum guidelines or requirements of states and schools.
- Meet with parents and guardians to discuss their children's progress and to determine priorities for their children and their resource needs.
- Place students in jobs, or make referrals to job placement services.
- Select, order, store, issue, and inventory classroom equipment, materials, and supplies.
- Sponsor extracurricular activities, such as clubs, student organizations, and academic contests.
- Collaborate with other teachers and administrators in the development, evaluation, and revision of secondary school programs.
- Attend professional meetings, educational conferences, and teacher training workshops to maintain and improve professional competence.
- Confer with other staff members to plan and schedule lessons promoting learning, following approved curricula.
- Prepare reports on students and activities as required by administration.
- Attend staff meetings and serve on committees, as required.
- Perform administrative duties, such as school library assistance, hall and cafeteria monitoring, and bus loading and unloading.
Skills used in this work
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- 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.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
Expand more skills (29)
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Mathematics
- Using mathematics to solve problems.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
- Quality Control Analysis
- Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance.
- Management of Material Resources
- Obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work.
- Troubleshooting
- Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it.
- Equipment Maintenance
- Performing routine maintenance on equipment and determining when and what kind of maintenance is needed.
- Operation and Control
- Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
- Equipment Selection
- Determining the kind of tools and equipment needed to do a job.
- Management of Financial Resources
- Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
- Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the needed tools.
- Technology Design
- Generating or adapting equipment and technology to serve user needs.
- Operations Analysis
- Analyzing needs and product requirements to create a design.
- Science
- Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems.
- Programming
- Writing computer programs for various purposes.
- Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or programs to meet specifications.
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