Kindergarten Teachers, Except Special Education
Teach academic and social skills to kindergarten students.
- Median annual earnings
- $62,618
- Projected change
- +2%
- Typical education
- Bachelor's degree
- Employment
- 109.45K jobs
50th percentile, United States
2025 to 2035
86.2% of the workforce
Growing to 111.62K by 2035
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Build the skills
ASU learning related to this career
These courses and certificates are connected through catalog career relationships and Lightcast skill tags.
The work
What kindergarten teachers, except special education do
Tasks reported for this occupation, ordered by how often they come up in the role.
- Establish and enforce rules for behavior and policies and procedures to maintain order among students.
- Prepare children for later grades by encouraging them to explore learning opportunities and to persevere with challenging tasks.
- Instruct students individually and in groups, adapting teaching methods to meet students' varying needs and interests.
- Teach basic skills, such as color, shape, number and letter recognition, personal hygiene, and social skills.
- Demonstrate activities to children.
- Observe and evaluate children's performance, behavior, social development, and physical health.
- Read books to entire classes or to small groups.
- Guide and counsel students with adjustment or academic problems or special academic interests.
- Provide a variety of materials and resources for children to explore, manipulate, and use, both in learning activities and in imaginative play.
- Prepare and implement remedial programs for students requiring extra help.
- Identify children showing signs of emotional, developmental, or health-related problems and discuss them with supervisors, parents or guardians, and child development specialists.
- Maintain accurate and complete student records and prepare reports on children and activities as required by laws, district policies, and administrative regulations.
- Plan and conduct activities for a balanced program of instruction, demonstration, and work time that provides students with opportunities to observe, question, and investigate.
- Establish clear objectives for all lessons, units, and projects and communicate those objectives to children.
- Confer with parents or guardians, other teachers, counselors, and administrators to resolve students' behavioral and academic problems.
- Meet with parents and guardians to discuss their children's progress and to determine their priorities for their children and their resource needs.
- Organize and lead activities designed to promote physical, mental, and social development, such as games, arts and crafts, music, and storytelling.
- Meet with other professionals to discuss individual students' needs and progress.
- Use computers, audio-visual aids, and other equipment and materials to supplement presentations.
- Instruct and monitor students in the use and care of equipment and materials to prevent injuries and damage.
- Prepare objectives and outlines for courses of study, following curriculum guidelines or requirements of states and schools.
- Assimilate arriving children to the school environment by greeting them, helping them remove outerwear, and selecting activities of interest to them.
- Collaborate with other teachers and administrators in the development, evaluation, and revision of kindergarten programs.
- Prepare materials, classrooms, and other indoor and outdoor spaces to facilitate creative play, learning and motor-skill activities, and safety.
- Prepare, administer, and grade tests and assignments to evaluate children's progress.
- Confer with other staff members to plan and schedule lessons promoting learning, following approved curricula.
- Organize and label materials and display children's work in a manner appropriate for their sizes and perceptual skills.
- Prepare for assigned classes and show written evidence of preparation upon request of immediate supervisors.
- Plan and supervise class projects, field trips, visits by guests, or other experiential activities and guide students in learning from those activities.
- Supervise, evaluate, and plan assignments for teacher assistants and volunteers.
- Involve parent volunteers and older students in children's activities to facilitate involvement in focused, complex play.
- Administer standardized ability and achievement tests and interpret results to determine children's developmental levels and needs.
- Attend professional meetings, educational conferences, and teacher training workshops to maintain and improve professional competence.
- Attend staff meetings and serve on committees as required.
- Select, store, order, issue, and inventory classroom equipment, materials, and supplies.
- Perform administrative duties, such as assisting in school libraries, hall and cafeteria monitoring, and bus loading and unloading.
Pay and outlook
What the job pays and where it is heading
Annual earnings range
Reported earnings by percentile, United States
- 10th percentile
- $46,878
- 25th percentile
- $52,094
- 50th percentile
- $62,618
- 75th percentile
- $79,883
- 90th percentile
- $101,897
The gold marker shows the median. Half earn more than $62,618 and half earn less.
Employment outlook
2025 to 2035 projection
2,172 more positions over the decade, before replacement hiring.
Preparation
Education levels
What people currently working in the career hold. These are not entry requirements.
- Bachelor's degree
- 86.2%
- Master's or Professional degree
- 13.8%
Skills
Skills employers ask for
Technical skills appearing most often in job postings for this occupation.
How the work gets done
Core competencies
Broad capabilities associated with strong performance in this occupation.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
In the market
Job titles and employers
Recent job postings in United StatesCommon job titles
- 01Kindergarten Teachers3,945 postings
- 02Pre-Kindergarten Teachers1,478 postings
- 03Kindergarten/Elementary Teachers1,017 postings
- 04Long Term Substitute Kindergarten Teachers347 postings
- 05Transitional Kindergarten Teachers323 postings
- 06Preschool/Kindergarten Teachers252 postings
- 07Prekindergarten Teachers191 postings
- 08Bilingual Kindergarten Teachers114 postings
- 09Classroom Teachers96 postings
- 10Pre-Kindergarten Lead Teachers89 postings
- 11Dual Language Kindergarten Teachers88 postings
- 12Kindergarten Prep Teachers81 postings
- 13Kindergarten/1st Grade Teachers79 postings
- 14Kindergarten Lead Teachers39 postings
- 15Elementary School Teachers37 postings
- 16Elementary Classroom Teachers34 postings
- 17Leave Replacement Teachers18 postings
- 18Kindergarten English Teachers17 postings
- 19Kindergarten Special Education Teachers13 postings
- 20Enrichment Teachers12 postings
Top employers
- 01Edjoin.Org365 postings
- 02Charter Schools USA86 postings
- 03Bright Horizons70 postings
- 04Clark County School District64 postings
- 05Wake County Public Schools56 postings
- 06State Of West Virginia45 postings
- 07Montgomery County Public Schools42 postings
- 08Jefferson County Public Schools41 postings
- 09Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools41 postings
- 10Denver Public Schools38 postings
- 11Healthy Kids Programs38 postings
- 12IDEA Public Schools37 postings
- 13Mesquite Isd35 postings
- 14Alabama Department Of Education30 postings
- 15National Heritage Academies30 postings
- 16Accel Schools26 postings
- 17Basis Educational Group20 postings
- 18Broward County Public Schools20 postings
- 19Academies Of Math And Science19 postings
- 20Amergis18 postings
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