Ploymint

Teachers don’t make enough money. We hear about it all the time. More proof of this fact came via a late 2015 analysis published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in which they found that teachers are frequently underpaid compared to professions in the U.S. that require similar education levels. Specifically, elementary school teachers in the U.S. make just 67% of what other college-educated workers in other industries earn. By contrast, high-school teachers earn 71% as much.

It may not be the most lucrative career path, but teachers are obviously driven by more than money. And yet, there are ways of making more as an educator, and one of the best is to get your Master’s.

We talked to Pauline Boschen, a preschool teacher and Master’s in Education student, about the type of specialized career choices and education jobs you can pursue by getting your Master’s in the field, and also about why it’s such a popular degree among educators.

Can you talk about the difference between a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree in education?

With a Master’s degree you tend to get paid more. A Master’s degree also usually means that you’ve chosen some sort of specialty within the field of education. For example, special education, reading specialist, administration or school leadership, STEM coach, and the list goes on.

How common is it for a teacher to pursue a Master’s Degree in Education?

It’s extremely common. In most states teachers get paid on a tiered system and in order to be fully certified and move up in tier you need to get a Master’s. For example, in Pennsylvania, when you graduate with a Bachelor’s in Education and pass the teacher’s certification exam you hold an Instructional I certification. In order to maintain your certification as a teacher you must complete additional educational requirements in order to move up to an Instructional II certification. For public school teachers in Pennsylvania, continuing education requirements would leave you just short of completing a Master’s anyway, which is why so many teachers pursue a Master’s degree.

How important to employers is the specialized nature of the program you attend as a Master’s student?

The nature of the specific degree is extremely important depending on the job you’re looking for. Any school leadership or administration position, for example, would generally require a Master’s in that specific field. The same is often true for reading specialists and/or literacy coaches, school counselors, and math and science coaches.

A lot of teachers, after receiving a Bachelor’s, work as general classroom teachers for a few years. In the first few years of teaching many of these teachers realize that they’re more specifically interested in one field or another. So basically, you start off as a generalized teacher and then realize that you really are passionate about teaching kids how to read. Once you realize that you might pursue a Master’s in Reading, Writing, Literacy. Other teachers might realize that the classroom isn’t where they want to be but that they still want to work in education, which is where specialties like school leadership or administration might come in.

How much of a pay gap would you expect between a teacher who holds a Bachelor’s relative to a teacher who holds a Master’s?

I would say that largely depends on the specific Master’s degree. Administrators tend to get paid more than any teacher. Similarly, specialized literacy coaches would probably get paid more than a classroom teacher. As always and unfortunately, early childhood educators can expect the least amount of pay within the field.

Given your experience as a preschool classroom teacher and as a Master’s student, how do you think your career will be benefited by the degree?

I’m certainly hoping to earn more money. I’m currently getting my Master’s specifically in Reading, Writing, Literacy, so I’m not only hoping that this degree will give me some more job opportunities, but will increase my ability to help struggling readers.