Education Jobs Outside The Classroom: Real Options For Educators Looking For A Change
The vanilla latte in front of my sister Clara was still half full when she pushed her phone across the table, showing me a text from her former elementary school principal. “Wants me to come back to cover 4th grade next semester,” she said, stirring her drink so hard the foam splashed over the edge onto the checkered tablecloth. “I left three years ago. Do people really think all I know how to do is stand in front of a room of 9-year-olds?”
Clara taught 4th grade for seven years. She loved watching kids click with a new chapter book, loved the messy birthday celebrations and the silly jokes that only 9-year-olds think are funny. But by year six, she was burnt out: her school cut classroom aides, her class swelled from 22 to 28 students, and she was spending 10 hours a week on after-hours admin and parent emails that never seemed to end. When she first started thinking about leaving, she assumed she’d have to leave education entirely. She’d have to retrain for a corporate job, give up all the work she’d put into her teaching degree and credential.
It took a random email from her old college education advisor to change her mind. The advisor was working with a state non-profit that developed free curricula for low-income schools, and they needed someone who’d actually taught elementary school to help write and test new reading units. Clara applied on a whim, and got the job. Three years later, she works three days a week from home, two days a week in the non-profit’s downtown office, and sets her own deadlines as long as the work gets done. She still gets to build learning experiences for kids, she says, she just doesn’t have to grade 28 spelling tests every Friday.
Over the past few years, Clara’s connected with dozens of other educators who’ve left the daily classroom but stayed in education, and she’s started putting together a casual list of options for the former student teachers she mentors who are already burnt out after their first year on the job. Most people outside of education (and a lot of people inside) don’t realize how many roles exist that let you use your teaching experience without leading a daily class.
One of the most common, and most in-demand, roles is curriculum or instructional design, like Clara’s. These roles can be at non-profits, textbook companies, education technology startups, or even individual school districts. Unlike new grads who only know learning theory from textbooks, people with classroom experience know what activities actually hold kids’ attention, what adjustments need to be made for different skill levels, and what fits into a typical school day. When Clara interviewed for her job, she beat out three candidates with master’s degrees in design because she could explain exactly how to adjust a lesson for kids who don’t have internet access at home, something she’d done every day for three years after the pandemic. Most of these roles only require a teaching credential, no extra degree, and many offer flexible hours that line up well with parenting schedules. Half the team at Clara’s non-profit are former teachers who re-entered the workforce after raising kids, because the 9-to-4 schedule matches their own children’s school hours.
Other options that come up again and again are education outreach and program coordination for museums, zoos, environmental non-profits, and youth organizations. A friend of Clara’s who used to teach high school biology now runs after-school science programs for the city zoo. She trains teachers on how to bring hands-on science into their classrooms, leads weekend field trips for kids, and develops activity guides for families. She never has to write a progress report, she says, and she still gets to share her love of science with kids.
For people who like working with systems and have experience with special education, district-level compliance coordinator is another steady role. A former paraeducator Clara knows works for our local school district checking that schools are following state and federal rules for IEPs, student accessibility, and civil rights. His experience working one-on-one with special education students lets him spot gaps that outside auditors often miss, and his job is steady 8-to-4 with all school holidays off.
There are dozens more: student advocate roles for non-profits that support unhoused or foster students, test development specialists who write fair, grade-appropriate test questions, teacher mentor coaches that support new teachers through their first few years, education policy advisors that work with state legislators to write school funding rules. Most of these roles prioritize hiring people with actual classroom experience, because you can’t learn how schools work from a textbook.
As Clara grabbed her bag to leave for her 10-year-old’s soccer practice, she told me she still gets the question all the time: “So when are you going back to teaching?” People act like leaving the daily classroom means you’re leaving education for good, that you’re wasting all that experience you built. She laughed as she pulled her jacket on. “I’m still in education,” she said. “I just have a work-life balance now.”
I waved as she pulled out of the coffee shop parking lot, and thought about all the teachers I know who are one difficult semester away from wanting a change. Most of them have no idea these jobs exist. They don’t have to choose between working in education and having a job that fits their life. That’s the part no one talks about when we talk about education careers: the classroom isn’t the only place to do the work.
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