Early childhood teachers create a conducive and warm environment for children as they prepare for their formal schooling stage. They usually work with students who are between the ages of three and five. They enforce daily routines and engage the young learners in some activities to keep them occupied and productive. Early childhood teachers earn an average annual salary of $31,700 which breaks down to roughly $15 per hour.

Early childhood teachers provide activities and opportunities that encourage curiosity, exploration, and problem-solving appropriate to the developmental levels of children. They lead daily social, learning, and physical activities for all children in their assigned classes. Their role also include keeping the classroom clean, organized for the children.

Early childhood teachers mostly hold an associate's degree in child development, early childhood education, elementary education, or other related fields. They are often required to have at least one year of teaching experience, either as a primary or assistant teacher. A great early childhood teacher is patient, sensitive, and possesses sound leadership, and communication skills.

What Does an Early Childhood Teacher Do

There are certain skills that many early childhood teachers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed creativity, organizational skills and interpersonal skills.

Learn more about what an Early Childhood Teacher does

How To Become an Early Childhood Teacher

If you're interested in becoming an early childhood teacher, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 58.2% of early childhood teachers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 14.4% of early childhood teachers have master's degrees. Even though most early childhood teachers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become an Early Childhood Teacher

Early Childhood Teacher Career Paths

Average Salary for an Early Childhood Teacher

Early Childhood Teachers in America make an average salary of $33,205 per year or $16 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $48,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $22,000 per year.
Average Early Childhood Teacher Salary
$33,205 Yearly
$15.96 hourly

What Am I Worth?

salary-calculator

Roles and Types of Early Childhood Teacher

The role of an early childhood teacher includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general early childhood teacher responsibilities:

  • Provide a warm, safe, and caring environment for students to grow, learn
  • Company descriptionkiddie academy has been a leader in education-based child care. Kiddie academy proprietary life essentials ‚ curriculum, supporting programs, methods, activities
  • Leads and implements classroom instruction within an assigned classroom. Works in conjunction with program teaching staff

There are several types of early childhood teacher, including:

Teacher

Role:

A teacher isn't just someone you realize you look up to later in life. A teacher is someone who teaches important life lessons while making sure to include academic lessons along the way.

Typically, a teacher only works during school hours, which means they get to beat rush hour traffic. Although, it's not uncommon for teachers to spend their nights and weekends preparing lessons and grading papers. An added bonus of being a teacher is getting to enjoy summer vacation.

  • Average Salary: $47,989
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Teacher Aide

Role:

A Teacher Aide assists a classroom teacher in dealing with a large number of children. He/She or she helps engage children's attention through one-on-one activities or group exercises. These are part of the integral lesson plan created by the teacher. They might be involved in helping the teacher design the lessons and activities or provide support for dealing with children with special needs.

Teacher aides help manage outdoor games and physical activities or assist with extra activities such as physiotherapy. Sometimes they are responsible for extra classes, like teaching a foreign language. They administer medication to students who need it and help with requests regarding personal hygiene.

Part of the responsibilities of a teacher's aide is to monitor and discuss the child's progress with the parents and other teachers.

  • Average Salary: $29,480
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Student Teacher

Role:

Any teacher that has a student teacher is relieved they have them. As a student teacher, you get to go through school again, but this time you get to help others with the assignment rather than actually complete the assignment yourself.

Most student teachers are learning to become teachers themselves and generally shadow a classroom in an elementary or secondary school. But don't limit yourself. While much more rare, there are student teachers that work at universities or colleges. So it comes down to whether you'd rather assist dependent or independent students.

Generally, your student teaching experience will only last a semester or two. So make sure you're writing down good notes! At the end of being a student teacher, you'll have the opportunity to take over the class on your own. From preparing the lesson to correcting homework, you'll be doing it all by yourself in no time.

  • Average Salary: $59,035
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Early Childhood Teacher Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active early childhood teacher jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where early childhood teachers earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Early Childhood Teacher Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California1,780$42,734
2Texas1,499$35,906
3Illinois1,460$34,824
4Florida1,292$27,228
5New Jersey972$39,524
6New York970$47,213
7Pennsylvania849$35,388
8Maryland718$45,228
9Georgia717$30,412
10Michigan693$37,492
11Massachusetts690$45,487
12Colorado685$32,893
13Virginia648$34,321
14North Carolina628$30,450
15Arizona617$35,039
16Ohio604$28,254
17Minnesota558$37,110
18Indiana544$26,915
19Washington424$36,248
20Missouri375$31,068
21Tennessee348$30,647
22Wisconsin323$33,257
23South Carolina321$30,464
24Connecticut295$37,293
25Nevada284$30,579
26Oklahoma253$27,615
27Kansas244$32,022
28Iowa235$32,825
29New Mexico211$33,023
30Oregon209$34,748
31New Hampshire175$35,552
32Louisiana170$30,381
33Alabama158$22,442
34Nebraska153$32,944
35Arkansas140$32,392
36Kentucky135$32,371
37Utah120$25,771
38Delaware108$29,953
39Idaho103$24,889
40Montana102$32,200
41Mississippi92$26,239
42Rhode Island53$31,746
43Vermont48$44,245
44Maine44$37,330
45Wyoming42$36,997
46West Virginia28$38,007
47North Dakota26$34,824
48Alaska24$35,358
49South Dakota18$31,581
50Hawaii15$39,224

Early Childhood Teacher Education

Early Childhood Teacher Majors

Early Childhood Teacher Degrees

Bachelors

58.2 %

Associate

16.2 %

Masters

14.4 %

Top Colleges for Early Childhood Teachers

1. Northwestern University

Evanston, IL • Private

In-State Tuition

$54,568

Enrollment

8,451

2. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,584

Enrollment

10,764

3. California State University - Long Beach

Long Beach, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$6,798

Enrollment

31,503

4. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, NC • Private

In-State Tuition

$8,987

Enrollment

18,946

5. San Diego State University

San Diego, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$7,488

Enrollment

30,018

6. Fairfield University

Fairfield, CT • Private

In-State Tuition

$48,350

Enrollment

4,103

7. Harvard University

Cambridge, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$50,420

Enrollment

7,582

8. Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore, MD • Private

In-State Tuition

$53,740

Enrollment

5,567

9. Vanderbilt University

Nashville, TN • Private

In-State Tuition

$49,816

Enrollment

6,840

10. University of Washington

Seattle, WA • Private

In-State Tuition

$11,207

Enrollment

30,905

Top Skills For an Early Childhood Teacher

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 20.6% of early childhood teachers listed cpr on their resume, but soft skills such as creativity and organizational skills are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Early Childhood Teacher Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Early Childhood Teacher templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Early Childhood Teacher resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

Early Childhood Teacher Resume
Early Childhood Teacher Resume
Early Childhood Teacher Resume
Early Childhood Teacher Resume
Early Childhood Teacher Resume
Early Childhood Teacher Resume
Early Childhood Teacher Resume
Early Childhood Teacher Resume
Early Childhood Teacher Resume
Early Childhood Teacher Resume
Early Childhood Teacher Resume
Early Childhood Teacher Resume
Early Childhood Teacher Resume
Early Childhood Teacher Resume
Early Childhood Teacher Resume
Early Childhood Teacher Resume

Early Childhood Teacher diversity

Early Childhood Teacher Gender Distribution

Female
Female
92%
Male
Male
8%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among early childhood teachers, 92.4% of them are women, while 7.6% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among early childhood teachers is White, which makes up 62.3% of all early childhood teachers.

  • The most common foreign language among early childhood teachers is Spanish at 69.0%.

Online Courses For Early Childhood Teacher That You May Like

Advertising Disclosure  

1. Introduction to Early Childhood

coursera

This course is targeted toward individuals wishing to operate a family day care center, and it covers topics including the fundamentals of early childhood development; the importance of play and Developmentally Appropriate Practice; and the significance of building strong family-educator relationships and how to achieve them. Since a Family Policy Handbook is essential for anyone operating a family day care center, this course includes the development of one of three imperative sections of the...

2. The Teacher and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

coursera

Social and emotional learning, or SEL, programs have flourished in schools during the last decade. These programs vary widely but most share a concern for five individual, student competencies: self awareness; self-management; social awareness; relationship skills; and finally responsible decision making. It is important for teachers and parents to know about and understand these programs. While lots of SEL programs emphasize K-12 student social and emotional learning, only a very few programs...

3. Understanding The Impact of Trauma in Early Childhood

udemy
4.4
(341)

The Biological Impact of Early Childhood Trauma on Brain Development and Social-Emotional Functioning...

Show More Online Courses For Early Childhood Teacher
Job type you want
Full Time
Part Time
Internship
Temporary

Best States For an Early Childhood Teacher

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an early childhood teacher. The best states for people in this position are New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Vermont. Early childhood teachers make the most in New York with an average salary of $47,213. Whereas in Massachusetts and Maryland, they would average $45,487 and $45,228, respectively. While early childhood teachers would only make an average of $44,245 in Vermont, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. District of Columbia

Total Early Childhood Teacher Jobs: 140
Highest 10% Earn:
$77,000
Location Quotient:
1.12

2. Maryland

Total Early Childhood Teacher Jobs: 718
Highest 10% Earn:
$69,000
Location Quotient:
1.51

3. New York

Total Early Childhood Teacher Jobs: 970
Highest 10% Earn:
$71,000
Location Quotient:
1.01
Full List Of Best States For Early Childhood Teachers

How Do Early Childhood Teachers Rate Their Jobs?

Working as an Early Childhood Teacher? Share your experience anonymously.
Overall Rating*
Career Growth
Work/Life balance
Pay/Salary

Top Early Childhood Teacher Employers

Most Common Employers For Early Childhood Teacher

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1District of Columbia Public Schools$52,552$25.278
2Prince George's County Memorial Library System$51,974$24.9932
3East Aurora School District 131$51,918$24.9610
4Cerner$51,776$24.8916
5Denver Public Schools$40,222$19.3425
6Jewish Community Center Inc$39,818$19.1420
7Educational Opportunities for Children and Families$38,838$18.678
8University of Wisconsin System$37,685$18.129
9Sutton High School$36,829$17.718
10Kiddie Academy$35,437$17.048

Early Childhood Teacher Videos