<p>Hello guys. This is my first post on here so I apologize if this is in the wrong place.</p>
<p>I am currently an undergraduate student majoring in Secondary Ed. Mathematics and have a question regarding future education and getting a job. I know I want to teach high school right now, but I also don't want to close off the option of teaching at the college level in the future. </p>
<p>I realize the program I am in is geared towards teaching high school. However, my goal is to continue going to school after getting a high school teaching job so that one day I may pursue the path of being a college professor. I realize to teach at most universities you will need a doctorate degree, and that continuing school while teaching will be very hard. </p>
<p>However, my question is if anyone else has become a high school teacher and then continued school in order to eventually have both options open so that if I did decide I would rather teach at the college level I could continue on that path instead of teaching high school. </p>
<p>Any advice or comments would be greatly appreciated! </p>
<p>Thank you very much!</p>
<p>Are you interested in teaching at the college level or doing mathematical research professionally (you would know whether you have such an interest through courses like modern algebra and analysis)? If it’s the former, you should earn a master’s degree–perhaps on a part-time basis. Depending on your area, you might find a lot of demand for part-time math instructors at community colleges, and it’s a good way to supplement your income (your high school may also pay you more for having a master’s degree). Even without a master’s degree, you can teach developmental math courses at a community college.</p>
<p>If you’re interested in the latter, plan to attend a PhD program in math full-time for many years. I cannot imagine that you will be able to teach full time and work towards a PhD in math.</p>
<p>Or, perhaps you wish to become a professor of math education (housed in schools of education) rather than of math. You’d likely find such programs to be far more friendly to those who’d like to attend part-time. Further, if you have a master’s degree in any field and 18 graduate hours of math, you’ll meet the accreditation requirements to teach college math classes. This is fairly easy to do while completing a master’s degree in math education.</p>
<p>Thank you for your reply. I am interested in in courses such as abstract but my main interest is more towards applied mathematics. If I went for a masters or doctorate I would probably be more focused towards applied math versus pure math. </p>
<p>But what you said makes sense. I guess the teaching versus professional research question is something Id have to figure out, which is why I want to teach high school first in order to help decide what I mainly want to do. </p>
<p>However, while teaching I would also work towards a masters part time.</p>
<p>But in order to get a phd you would pretty much have to do that full time versus going for a phd while teaching? I guess my biggest concern was that if I begin with teaching high school and continue graduate school part time, I could still one day pursue teaching at the college level if I chose to, if it be teaching at a community college or doing professional research.</p>
<p>I know many teachers who taught several years, while working on their master’s and then doctorate degrees. One started teaching part time at a local college. Another is working towards that goal.</p>
<p>The salary information for public elementary and high school teachers and administrators is readily available online for our Midwest suburban school district. Teachers in our district can easily earn $100,000 after 10 years of teaching. None of our teachers attended prestigous “Top 50” schools; most attended land-grant state universities or regional colleges with little name recognition or national repute. In the limited amount of research I did re: professor salaries at “Tier 1.5” Midwest LACs, it seems that our teachers often significantly outearn PhD tenure-track and tenured professors at these LACs. Administrators in our school district (dozens, literally) can easily earn anywhere from $125,000 to $250,000 plus benefits and pensions.</p>
<p>Yes, other school districts aren’t perhaps so generous, but after 10 years of teaching often the resulting compensation packages are quite good when compared to private industry salaries. Prestigious universities can afford to generously compensate their tenured professors, but “tenure track professorship” job market for PhDs seems miserable and those prestigious spots seem “as scarce as hen’s teeth”.</p>
<p>It has been my experience that teaching at the high school level can provide a more secure income and better benefits. Now think if that’s what you really want to do-- work with adolescents with all that goes along with that compared to going into research and getting your Ph.D. Student teaching will help make that decision!</p>
<p>Even though the job market is tough right now, good math teachers are usually in demand.</p>
<p>Yes that makes a lot of sense. I realize that teaching high school definitely comes along with working with adolescents. I feel that I am much more interested in research and college level teaching versus high school, as the more math classes I take, the more I enjoy the subject versus teaching lower level math. I have done a little research with some of my professors and have really enjoyed it.</p>
<p>However, even though I would love to pursue a doctorate and eventually a tenure position, I am very afraid of ending up not being able to get a job after graduating, as I do realize the job market for tenure professors is pretty bad. I guess don’t really know what to do because of that :/</p>