Here are the salary estimates that SMCM physics students have made.
Now, here are actual 2019 teachers' salaries for several districts in Maryland.
Graduates from SMCM's MAT would start in the "MA yr 1" column. Keep in mind that these are 10-month salaries. To compare rate of pay with other jobs, one can annualize the salaries by adding 2 months (20%). For example, $50,000 annualizes to $60,000, and $100,000 annualizes to $120,000. Teachers get to decide what to do with those extra two months. Some choose to work another job or teach summer school for the added income, and others choose to enjoy the time with family.
There are other opportunities for additional income, too. Some teachers coach or serve as a faculty sponsor for other activities, earning $2,000 - $8,000 more per year.
The table above also shows how there are significant raises for time spent in teaching.
The chart above shows that salaries for teaching middle school and high school compare well to salaries for teaching at two-year colleges (TYC) and at four-year colleges.
Loan forgiveness and grants
Teaching has additional financial advantages. There are Federal loan forgiveness programs and grants for math and science teachers.
TEACH grants are federally grants of up to $4,000 per year for anyone eligible for federal loans. It's free money if you teach for four years within eight years of completing your teaching preparation program. (You must teach in a low-income school.) If the obligation is not met, the grant becomes a Direct loan. If you are getting loans for school and have any interest in teaching, there is no downside.
For Direct or FFEL loans, an individual may receive $17,500 in loan repayment after working as a highly qualified math/science teacher for five consecutive years in a low-income school.
Want to know more about Federal Student Aid? https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa
Other benefits
Other benefits of teaching compare well to the those of jobs in the private sector. The table below juxtaposes typical benefits of a MD teaching position to an engineer position with Lockheed Martin. While the engineer makes slightly more than the teacher's 10-month salary, the teacher has much more time off, can retire earlier, and has guaranteed income upon retirement. (Note that the table does not include teachers' other sources of income that were described above.)
Many teachers say that the number one benefit to teaching is spending their summer and winter breaks with their families. Industry professionals shared that the uncertainty in their schedule makes planning family vacations challenging.
Satisfaction
We've seen that many physics students start out with some interest in teaching and also that teaching careers offer good pay and excellent benefits. Let's look at another group of factors that can affect career choices: quality of life and job satisfaction.
Imagine a ladder with 10 rungs, representing different qualities of life. The ground (level 0) is the worst possible life, and the the top rung (level 10) is the best possible life. (This tool is called the Cantril Self-Anchoring Scale.)
Consider the following questions:
Q1: On which step of the ladder would you say you personally feel you stand at this time?
Q2: On which step do you think you will stand about five years from now?
The polling firm, Gallup, conducted interviews with over 170,000 people in the US. These interviews included the two questions above. Gallup then divided the scale into three parts as shown: thriving, struggling, and suffering.
They group the study participants into 14 occupation groups, one of which was K-12 teachers. For each occupational group, Gallup calculated an overall quality of life rating by taking the percentage of people ranking their lives at the top of the ladder (thriving) minus the percentage of people ranking their lives at the bottom of the ladder (suffering).
