Jobs in Education (Non-teaching)

How far out of the classroom do you want to get? For example, my wife is a special ed teacher who was running a classroom and got tired of that, then moved into a teacher consultant position, which she likes a lot more. Not a big change, but it's really improved her job satisfaction. Or are you looking for a more radical break?

edit: also, the TC route obviously won't get you out of the classroom as soon as next year, either.

 

My wife's certification is for LD and EI. She works for the public school system (the term "consultant" implies otherwise, but that's not the case) in classrooms where there are students on her caseload with these designations and either acts as a consultant to the teacher or provides direct instruction to her students (and also with regular ed students in the same classroom). The latter can happen either in the classroom or in a resource room.

Unfortunately, the TC position won't get you out of the classroom, it just frees you up from having to prepare lessons. After talking with her I think
a) a TC is essentially a special ed position
b) it's use/definition may vary from state to state.

She suggested you might look at private companies that are doing things like providing educational support and materials for charter schools and home schooling, since there seems to be a lot of money flowing in that direction lately. Publishing might be another, related direction. (Incidentally, a friend of a colleague was pulling down 6 figures editing self-published vanity autobiographies for the idle rich in Bloomfield Hills.)

So I'm sorry, but I don't appear to have anything terribly helpful. She said she'd ask her dept chair about it on Monday.

 

Sorry, another idea that doesn't conform to your primary criterion occurred to me while I was playing Whirly Ball* last night at a friends birthday party.

I know you want to get out of the classroom, but have you considered teaching in international schools? Some of these can set you up pretty well: contracts that include housing and a living allowance that's sufficient to live very comfortably while you just bank your entire salary is the best case scenario. I knew some folks that worked in Jakarta who had a chauffeured Toyota Land Cruiser as part of their package. These schools typically hire via conventions/job fairs where you can interview en masse, but you can find postings by googling "international schools job posting" and "international schools job fairs".

*(this is played in bumper cars, using plastic track ball scoops and a whiffle ball, which is thrown at basketball height targets)

 

Not to downplay your experience, but just from a personal note, it's worth not writing off a complete career change as an option. Nobody likes to restart from scratch, but 3 years' experience in a job isn't the biggest thing in the world to lose if it means getting into a career you want (rather for settling for something maybe less ideal that uses your experience).

I switched career after 3 years out of uni, and although I was tempted at the time to take something more closely linked to what I was doing I don't regret it. Not saying do it, just don't think you have to be confined in what you choose. I imagine Education experience, qualifications and skillsets would be prized in many different industries.