Teaching Assistants, Preschool, Elementary, Middle, and Secondary School
(Except Special Education)

Low pay & lowrisk
Minimal Risk
Low High

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Why it fits

Reuses instructional support, materials preparation, student help, and education administration in a different setting.

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Preschool Teachers, Except Special Education
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Reuses early learning routines and classroom support, with additional credentials depending on setting.

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Uses child supervision, routines, communication, safety awareness, and support for social development.

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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
3.8/10
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

14% (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.
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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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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.
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Show 4 more strengths

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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Developing objectives and strategies

Quite 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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Psychology knowledge

Quite important
Why this matters
Understanding human behavior, motivation, and individual differences to assess needs, respond appropriately, and support behavior change or mental health.
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Education and training expertise

Quite important
Why this matters
Designing and delivering instruction—adapting lessons to different learners and measuring whether training actually works.
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What users think

Based on 174 votes

43% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted they are unsure if this occupation will be automated. However, employees may be able to find reassurance in the automated risk level we have generated, which shows 14% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Teaching Assistants, Preschool, Elementary, Middle, and Secondary School, Except Special 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

Very low paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Teaching Assistants, Except Postsecondary was $35,240 ($17 per hour).

The median annual wage for Teaching Assistants, Except Postsecondary was 28.8% lower than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Teaching Assistants, Except Postsecondary' job openings is expected to decline 1.5% by 2034

* 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 1,375,300 people employed as 'Teaching Assistants, Except Postsecondary' within the United States.

This represents around 0.9% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 112 people are employed as 'Teaching Assistants, Except Postsecondary'.

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What people are saying (6)

Leave a comment
K. Joseph (Low)
09 Aug 2025 16:26
I voted low because the position is almost like caretaking. While AI can help in duties like this, it can not make choices based on the needs of individual students and teachers.
cheeeeeeeeeee (Low)
17 Dec 2024 22:04
children are unpredictable. over my school career i have heard thirteen separate children shout "parkour!" and jump off things. a robot would DIE
Me
04 Aug 2024 22:15
I see a dark dystopian look for this in the future maybe like 100 years
Riley (Low)
28 Nov 2023 23:56
Well they have to deal with children. And sometimes it can be hard.
Aldrin Jon Madamba (Uncertain)
17 Aug 2022 14:53
Besides time, another key element of effective professional development for 21st-century teaching is the provision of appropriate materials and activities.

Teachers learn most effectively when the training activities involve actual teaching materials. Additionally, activities that are school-based and integrated into the daily teaching work of teachers prove to be more impactful.

Furthermore, the pedagogy of professional development should be active and require teachers to learn in ways that reflect how they should teach their pupils. Like students, teachers are less likely to change their practice as a result of lower-order learning activities that occur via presentation and the memorization of new knowledge.

Professional development is also more effective if teachers from the same school, department, or grade-level participate collectively.
Naba (No chance)
15 Jul 2022 12:46
Teaching is not just a job. It's work to build a generation with empathy.

However, robots have no empathy...for now.
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Job description

Assist a preschool, elementary, middle, or secondary school teacher with instructional duties. Serve in a position for which a teacher has primary responsibility for the design and implementation of educational programs and services.

O*NET-SOC code: 25-9042.00