Teacher in Postsecondary School

What a Postsecondary Teacher Does

Teaching college math is a popular career path for mathematics majors, especially those interested in pursuing research along with their teaching job. As a postsecondary math teacher, you may teach in community colleges, vocational schools, four-year universities, or even graduate institutions. You may be responsible for introductory classes of 300 or more, work with smaller seminars, or both. You will have to create lesson plans, give lectures, use educational technology to reach students online and through assignment portals like Blackboard, grade exams and homework, and depending on your contract with the school, publish papers and work on research projects, too. Many college faculty have side jobs, consulting, giving guest lectures and working with government agencies or companies to boost their salary. Depending on your experience, you may have to work your way up to achieving tenure or giving administrative work over to a graduate assistant, but most full-time faculty are awarded some research time.

How to Become a Postsecondary Teacher

You will need at least a master's degree to become a postsecondary teacher, but if you want to work at a well-known university, a public research university or expect to get tenure, you should have a doctoral degree or terminal degree. If you want to become a math professor, getting your degree in mathematics is obviously the best track. Your undergraduate degree could be in a related field, like statistics, business, finance, economics or the physical sciences, but your graduate work and research should be in the field in which you expect to teach. It may take you up to six years to earn a doctoral degree, but that does include time spent earning your master's degree. You will have to write a master's dissertation as well as complete lots of coursework and research at the doctorate level. For teachers wanting to work at community colleges and vocational schools, you should have at least a master's degree and some teaching experience. You may also want to take a class or become certified in teaching online education, as many two-year schools are offering more and more of these types of programs.

Career Outlook for Postsecondary Teachers

Postsecondary teachers of all types -- including graduate teaching assistants, vocational instructors and full professors at universities -- held almost 1.7 million jobs in the United States in 2008. Mathematical science teachers 54,800 jobs. Although there is much competition for professors, the industry is expected to grow through 2018. They should experience a 15% increase in job growth through that year -- or about 256,900 new jobs -- due mostly to the increase in population of college-aged individuals. In May 2008, the median annual salary for postsecondary teachers was $58,830, with the middle 50% earning between $41,600 and $83,960. Your salary will vary greatly depending on the type of institution you teach for, your own research and publication record, your education, your tenure status, and how many years you've been teaching. For the 2008-9 academic year, the average salary for full-time faculty was $79,439; $92,257 in private institutions and $77,009 at public universities.