---
title: "Career/Technical Education Teacher, Middle School"
description: "Teach occupational, vocational, career, or technical subjects to students at the middle, intermediate, or junior high school level."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/career-technical-education-teacher-middle-school"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Career/Technical Education Teacher, Middle School

**Category:** Educational Instruction and Library · **SOC code:** 25-2023 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 25-2023.00

Teach occupational, vocational, career, or technical subjects to students at the middle, intermediate, or junior high school level.

Also advertised as: Agriscience Technology Instructor (Agriculture Science Technology Instructor); Business Education Teacher; Career and Technology Education Teacher (CTE Teacher); Career Discovery Teacher; Computer Technology Teacher; Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher (FACS Teacher); Industrial Arts Teacher; Industrial Technology Teacher.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $65,030 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** Not published by BLS
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $49,200 to $101,890, with the middle half between $58,690 and $79,990
- **Total US employment:** 16,870
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -0.5% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 1,000 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 43/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 16,870 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $49,200 |
| 25th | $58,690 |
| 50th (median) | $65,030 |
| 75th | $79,990 |
| 90th | $101,890 |
| Mean (average) | $71,590 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WA | $103,290 | $96,521 | 720 |
| RI | $97,240 | $95,072 | 50 |
| CT | $95,680 | $92,346 | 120 |
| MA | $93,260 | $88,183 | Not published by BLS |
| UT | $86,890 | $87,888 | Not published by BLS |
| OH | $86,560 | $93,302 | 590 |
| NY | $86,450 | $80,105 | 1,930 |
| MD | $84,160 | $80,184 | 210 |
| MN | $81,460 | $82,599 | 160 |
| IL | $80,700 | $80,734 | 240 |
| PA | $77,980 | $79,920 | 690 |
| WI | $76,860 | $81,683 | 570 |
| GA | $73,020 | $75,831 | 560 |
| NJ | $68,280 | $62,754 | Not published by BLS |
| VA | $67,460 | $66,723 | 640 |

19 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 34 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/career-technical-education-teacher-middle-school/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/career-technical-education-teacher-middle-school.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 16,600 in the 2025–2035 base year to 16,600 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 100 jobs, or -0.5%. Declining: -0.5% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 1,000 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** Less than 5 years.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

## What the work involves

- Prepare materials and classrooms for class activities.
- Establish clear objectives for all lessons, units, and projects, and communicate those objectives to students.
- Attend staff meetings and serve on committees, as required.
- Confer with parents or guardians, other teachers, counselors, and administrators to resolve students' behavioral and academic problems.
- Prepare, administer, and grade tests and assignments to evaluate students' progress.
- Establish and enforce rules for behavior and procedures for maintaining order among students.
- Prepare students for later educational experiences by encouraging them to explore learning opportunities and to persevere with challenging tasks.
- Meet with other professionals to discuss individual students' needs and progress.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Speaking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Instructing — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Education and Training — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Social (S), Conventional (C), Artistic (A).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 7.00 |
| C — Conventional | 3.82 |
| A — Artistic | 3.38 |
| I — Investigative | 3.31 |
| R — Realistic | 3.28 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.27 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESFJ | 69.0 |
| ESFP | 68.7 |
| ENFJ | 66.6 |
| ISFJ | 66.0 |
| ISFP | 63.8 |

Best-fitting types: ESFJ, ESFP, ENFJ, ISFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Career/Technical Education Teacher, Secondary School](https://nuecareer.com/careers/career-technical-education-teacher-secondary-school) — median $66,270
- [Career/Technical Education Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/career-technical-education-teacher-postsecondary) — median $63,820
- [High School Teacher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/high-school-teacher) — median $72,040
- [Special Education Teacher, Secondary School](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-secondary-school) — median $74,260
- [Middle School Teacher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/middle-school-teacher) — median $64,370
- [Elementary School Teacher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/elementary-school-teacher) — median $63,970
- [Instructional Coordinator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/instructional-coordinator) — median $77,440
- [Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Language Instructor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/adult-basic-education-adult-secondary-education-and-english-as-a-second-language-instructor) — median $61,540
- [Special Education Teacher, Elementary School](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-education-teacher-elementary-school) — median $67,170
- [Teaching Assistant, Preschool, Elementary, Middle, and Secondary School, Except Special Education](https://nuecareer.com/careers/teaching-assistant-preschool-elementary-middle-and-secondary-school) — median $37,010

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/career-technical-education-teacher-middle-school