Secondary School Teachers
(Except Special and Career/Technical Education)

Minimal Risk
Low High

Explore safer careers (1)

Lower estimated automation risk

Special Education Teachers, Secondary School
5% automation risk | Minimal Risk
6 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Uses secondary curriculum, accommodations, IEP teamwork, classroom behavior, progress records, and parent communication with retraining.

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Why it fits

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Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education
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Why it fits

Uses classroom routines, curriculum planning, assessment, family communication, and differentiated instruction with age-group retraining.

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Why it fits

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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
6.5/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

11% (Minimal Risk)

Minimal Risk (0-20%): This occupation appears difficult to replace end-to-end with current or near-future automation, including AI software and robotics. Roles in this range usually depend on human judgement, creativity, care, leadership, specialist expertise, or adapting to messy real-world situations. AI and machines may still change parts of the work, but the occupation is likely to remain a distinct human role.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Assisting and caring for others

Very important
Why this matters
Provide hands-on help, emotional support, or personal care to people—work that depends on empathy, trust, and responding to individual needs in the moment.
Jobs that also use this strength

Thinking creatively

Very important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
Jobs that also use this strength

Decision-making and problem solving

Very important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
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Developing objectives and strategies

Very important
Why this matters
Sets long-term goals and chooses strategies and actions to reach them, weighing tradeoffs and adapting plans as conditions change.
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Education and training expertise

Very important
Why this matters
Designing and delivering instruction—adapting lessons to different learners and measuring whether training actually works.
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Show 5 more strengths

Social perceptiveness

Quite important
Why this matters
Noticing others’ emotions and reactions in the moment and adjusting what you say or do based on why they’re responding that way.
Jobs that also use this strength

Working directly with the public

Quite important
Why this matters
The job involves face-to-face interaction with customers, clients, or guests—answering questions, handling requests, and managing service situations in real time. Roles with frequent public interaction are harder to replace end-to-end because they rely on trust, communication, and adapting to unpredictable human needs.
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Persuasion

Quite important
Why this matters
Influencing people to change their minds or behavior through conversation, trust, and negotiation.
Jobs that also use this strength

Coordinating others’ work

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together, assigning tasks, and keeping a group aligned so work gets done.
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Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
Jobs that also use this strength

What users think

Based on 588 votes

29% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 11% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

Moderately paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education was $64,580 ($31 per hour).

The median annual wage for Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education was 30.5% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education' job openings is expected to decline 1.6% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Significantly greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 1,072,540 people employed as 'Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education' within the United States.

This represents around 0.7% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 143 people are employed as 'Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education'.

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What people are saying (22)

Leave a comment
Eric (Highly likely)
30 Jan 2026 13:50
The Secretary of Education is already encouraging schools to use AI chatbots in place of teachers. Check out her visit to Alpha School in Texas and her moves after to push for more AI teachers.
C (No chance)
30 Sep 2024 16:47
Teaching requires adaptability in a way that no AI in the next 100 years would be able to master
Holly (Moderate)
06 Sep 2024 22:50
Too easy to move to LMS systems and remote teaching.
c (No chance)
04 Sep 2024 15:09
Too many interpersonal problems can occur between students where automatic would not allow to happen
Yuvraj (Low)
02 Jul 2024 16:52
A human teacher also ensures proper learning and discipline
Pace (Low)
08 May 2024 18:44
I think for teaching it needs to be a lot more hands on since all students learn differently and having simple automated robots following the exact same learning curriculum wouldn't be as beneficial
Kate (Low)
19 Jun 2023 23:45
Online learning was really difficult for almost all students
IAmTired (Low)
10 May 2023 04:32
I have worked as a teacher for 20 years and understand how much of my job requires interpersonal skills and creative problem solving that would be difficult to replace with AI/robotics.
Aaron (Moderate)
08 May 2023 15:34
Large parts of the job are already being automated. When the pushback from parent and teacher groups is outweighed by the cost savings, schools will be staffed at a 200:1 ratio and lessons will be delivered by AI.
Korey Bradley (Low)
04 May 2023 17:31
I think Covid has proven that pupils left to their own devices will not progress without a steady hand at the wheel. Computers and Chatbots can't provide that stability without true human interactions.
Lesley (Low)
20 Apr 2023 15:57
After the Covid-19 pandemic, I think we saw how important human relations are for developing young minds. The human touch is needed to help students reach their full potential. Furthermore, schools are a fairly safe place to leave children throughout the school day.
Greg H. (Low)
23 Sep 2021 23:22
There are already automated plagiarism checkers in operation (Turnitin on our campus), and I've heard some school districts have piloted automated writing scoring software.
Angela Roe (Uncertain)
12 Sep 2021 18:17
Due to COVID, many students now opt for online education rather than in person. Especially those students who want or need to work full-time. However, there has been quantitative data on how online school hasn't done much for students learning. At least 75% of my current enrolled students have complained that they don't learn anything online. But this could be more of a discipline issue rather than a curriculum issue. Either way, if students begin online at an early age, it will become the "norm" of learning.
배서영
16 Nov 2020 23:55
I think my dream job is very safe because teacher contributes to students' emotional development and interacts with students by having complex relationships.
Catalin M A (No chance)
03 Aug 2020 13:01
AI will not get this smart in the next 150 years, unless we are all going to have bionic implants from birth and then we would talk about augmented reality but that's something else.
Former Teacher
13 Jul 2020 16:54
Has COVID-19 changed any projections about the future of teaching? There are already software applications more efficient and responsive than classroom teachers, who are restricted in one-on-one instruction by space, time, and opportunity. If COVID-19 stretches into 2020-21, many of the instructional technology tools being used by teachers will need to be automated further to prevent teachers from having to recreate content over and over again. Why not replace the teacher altogether and have learning software that responds to a student's input (both answers and facial expressions, pressure on keys, distracted browsing, etc.) and builds a customized plan for them? If we know a student has characteristics X, Y, and Z, plus deficiencies, a, b, and c, why not have an automated course of study that accounts for those and delivers the best instruction possible? We do need teachers to be the adults in the room, for sure, but if there's no room, that function dissipates.
TV
25 Nov 2020 21:21
Obviously you are not a teacher. Due to remote learning and using similar designs that you mentioned, we have seen a 210% spike in high school drop outs, a 600% up shot of kids having at least 2-3 failing grades, and a gap between students who do not have access to tutors, internet or computers (or all three). A robot cannot tell an elementary student to reengage their students, let alone the sheer horror of classroom discipline being thrown out. Also, lets be real honest with secondary students, if they are given a generic problem trust me they will plagiarize and copy that down (just look at quizlet, or "write my paper" for proof). A human being needs to see if a student "gets" what is going on. A Teacher needs to have group interactions (and trust me you cannot do any sort of interactions with remote even with current programs- students just shut their cameras and mute themselves). Unless you are suggesting that a "few" will benefit from this dystopia, if so thank you Nancy Devos for your insight, but we educate everyone, and not the 1%.
Former Teacher
17 Sep 2021 00:41
Oh, I'm sorry you took offence to my comment and said I'm not a teacher. Do you think the software being used led to those changes or the pandemic and economic downturn itself? Easy to pass judgment when you have already drawn your conclusions. I've taught off and on since 2008 (mostly on, mostly secondary). Quizlet is the worst example you could provide of instructional technology we could employ to help all students. When you discuss the one percent, you highlight a certain security the wealthy have that leads to less interruptions of education and that's a fair point. But I am not trying to describe a dystopia, but rather a better way to differentiate and tailor student learning to their particular needs, desires, strengths, and weaknesses. Much of what effective teachers do is driven by inputs, points of data, about their students and their teaching. A properly designed system could analyze those inputs and apply strategies to intervene. It doesn't really matter the input, either. Now that we are rolling out SEL technologies to help our kids, language translation applications that can help English learners, standards-based, interactively branching assessments and activities, the amount of information received is nothing trivial. The digital divide does truly make this a difficult prospect for some students, but that's not the question we are discussing here. Can teachers be replaced by "robots" in the future? Yes. Nothing would be more student-centred. If the argument is about the socialization of students, that's not facilitated by teachers. It's actually stunted. Imagine learning plans that don't waste time with sages on stages. Imagine a truly adaptive system to check for understanding and intervene. Imagine that happening simultaneously for all students without the interruptions all teachers face daily just trying to teach. I realize virtual, and hybrid, learning did not go well for all students, but it was year one...something never attempted, and there was a society gone wild coupled with the inexperience of systems, personnel, and students. I love teaching. I take it personally. But, if students were able to learn better from a robot than from me, I wouldn't take it personally. I'd celebrate it.
high school student
29 Dec 2020 19:44
Under the assumption that society will return to normal, students will undoubtedly prefer to learn with a quality teacher over self-learning. Learning with a teacher can mean a number of scenarios, including utilizing the learning software you mentioned. The assurance of having someone who knows more than you, or at least knows where to find answers and explain them, will result in teachers have a very secure job. I haven't even mentioned the emotional support and connection that makes a learning environment better, something I don't foresee AI replacing because seeing assuring words pop up on my screen is not the same as hearing it from a teacher, who is making eye contact with me and using body language.
Cheryl Ng (Low)
13 May 2020 12:57
High school seniors still need the human element of guidance and encouragement- or we will be seeing more dropouts.
Seaslug999 (Highly likely)
28 May 2019 16:26
AI is self learning and therefore self teaching.
JustADuDe
17 Mar 2020 17:54
Dude we talking about teaching other dumb humans like the two of us.
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Job description

Teach one or more subjects to students at the secondary school level.

O*NET-SOC code: 25-2031.00