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As a lead teacher, you're considered a rock star in the education sector. Other educators, administrators, and even parents look to you for advice and knowledge. And at this point in your experience, you're probably able to give really great advice and share experiences that you've learned from.

A big part of your job is ensuring each and every students' educational experience is productive and positive. No child left behind is your motto. Whether that's helping out a new teacher or providing advice to a teacher who is dealing with a challenging situation, you're going to be there for them.

Lead teachers are devoted to improving the educational landscape. They understand the importance of a well-rounded education. Many look to them as a resource, expert, or even a counselor in some situations.

What Does a Lead Teacher Do

There are certain skills that many lead 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 communication skills, patience and creativity.

Learn more about what a Lead Teacher does

How To Become a Lead Teacher

If you're interested in becoming a lead teacher, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 50.8% of lead teachers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 10.1% of lead teachers have master's degrees. Even though most lead 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 a Lead Teacher

Lead Teacher Job Description

A lead teacher is responsible for the oversight and mentoring of all the teachers within their level or their subjects. They are also responsible for creating and implementing a study plan for their own students. Other duties include offering teacher's advice, creating a safe educational environment, and assisting students.

Learn more about Lead Teacher Job Description

Career Path For a Lead Teacher

In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of assistant manager you might progress to a role such as office manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title patient care manager.

Lead Teacher

Average Salary for a Lead Teacher

Lead Teachers in America make an average salary of $33,652 per year or $16 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $50,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $22,000 per year.
Average Lead Teacher Salary
$33,652 Yearly
$16.18 hourly

What Am I Worth?

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Roles and Types of Lead Teacher

The role of a lead 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 lead teacher responsibilities:

  • Responds to needs, questions, concerns of parents
  • 1. Supervises the classroom team. Completes performance reviews as specified by the personnel policies
  • Collaborates with one assistant teacher, classroom assistant teachers, volunteers

There are several types of lead teacher, including:

Preschool Lead Teacher

Role:

The preschool lead teacher is responsible for the growth of preschool children. You are in charge of implementing, planning, and teaching the curriculum and providing quality care for the children. For the growth of the children, you must plan and implement indoor and outdoor activities for the children added to their memories. Concerning the activities, you are expected to ensure a safe environment for them to have their fun. You must oversee the performance of the children.

To do this, you have to meet with their parents, administration, and staff about their performance and how to make it better. You will need to collaborate with other teachers to ensure their growth, monitor the usage of the curriculum, and develop new classroom projects and lesson plans. You must keep in mind that you must abide by state, local, and schools rules and regulations. During all training and certifications, you must be current and well informed on it. You will also address issues like domestic violence, depression, and other psychosocial disabilities.

To become a preschool lead teacher, you must be a lover of children, have good communication skills, patience, the capacity to multitask, and interpersonal skills. An average of $31,256 is earned by a preschool lead teacher yearly. The educational requirement that you must meet to become a preschool lead teacher is a bachelor's degree in Childhood Education or other related fields.

  • Average Salary: $33,176
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Lead Toddler Teacher

Role:

Lead toddler teachers specialize in developing and implementing curricula to cater to the basic and educational needs of children younger than those in kindergarten. They manage the teaching staff within their department to ensure that the students' needs are met. This includes training, supervising, and mentoring them. They follow all legal and educational protocols to maintain the well-being and safety of toddlers. Also, they assess them to determine their progress. Additionally, they organize staff and parent meetings.

The educational requirements for this job vary by location and type of preschool. However, applicants would need at least an associate's degree in early childhood education and would need to obtain a license to work. They must have first aid and CPR certification. The skills for this job are leadership, organization, monitoring, and interpersonal skills. Lead Toddler Teachers' salary ranges from $28,115 to $34,047, with the average salary being $30,568 in a year.
  • Average Salary: $29,942
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Infant Lead Teacher

Role:

An infant lead teacher typically works in a preschool, often with an assistant teacher to share duties. These professionals instruct students, especially children, in concepts like the alphabet, colors, and shapes, often through play or encouraging imaginative thinking. Preschool education involves language, motor, and social skills, so lead teachers often work those into their curriculum alongside the alphabet and other concepts.

Some schools will require you to oversee multiple classrooms. Because teachers in a preschool setting spend so much time around children, you might need to be well-versed in responding to children's needs and recognizing behavioral or emotional problems, which are in turn reported to their parents.

Your average salary in this role would probably be around $32,500 annually. However, to get into this role, you must first obtain a bachelor's degree in early childhood education or related discipline.
  • Average Salary: $29,949
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Lead Teacher Jobs

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

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Lead Teacher Jobs By State

Lead Teacher Education

Lead Teacher Majors

Lead Teacher Degrees

Bachelors

50.8 %

Associate

21.7 %

High School Diploma

11.9 %

Top Colleges for Lead Teachers

1. San Diego State University

San Diego, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$7,488

Enrollment

30,018

2. Boston University

Boston, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$53,948

Enrollment

17,238

3. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

Minneapolis, MN • Private

In-State Tuition

$14,760

Enrollment

31,451

4. California State University - Fullerton

Fullerton, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$6,886

Enrollment

34,637

5. Fairfield University

Fairfield, CT • Private

In-State Tuition

$48,350

Enrollment

4,103

6. Ohio State University

Columbus, OH • Private

In-State Tuition

$10,726

Enrollment

45,769

7. Minnesota State University - Mankato

Mankato, MN • Private

In-State Tuition

$8,184

Enrollment

11,675

8. Vanderbilt University

Nashville, TN • Private

In-State Tuition

$49,816

Enrollment

6,840

9. Brigham Young University

Provo, UT • Private

In-State Tuition

$5,620

Enrollment

31,441

10. California State University - Sacramento

Sacramento, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$7,310

Enrollment

28,439

Top Skills For a Lead 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, 19.2% of lead teachers listed cpr on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and patience are important as well.

  • CPR, 19.2%
  • Customer Service, 18.0%
  • Child Care, 17.5%
  • Child Development, 15.2%
  • Classroom Management, 11.1%
  • Other Skills, 19.0%

Choose From 10+ Customizable Lead Teacher Resume templates

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

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Lead Teacher diversity

Lead Teacher Gender Distribution

Female
Female
90%
Male
Male
10%

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

  • Among lead teachers, 89.8% of them are women, while 10.2% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among lead teachers is White, which makes up 72.9% of all lead teachers.

  • The most common foreign language among lead teachers is Spanish at 63.9%.

Online Courses For Lead Teacher That You May Like

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

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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...

2. The Teacher's Social and Emotional Learning

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Social and emotional learning, or SEL, programs have flourished in schools during the last decade. While this growth has been impressive, inadequate attention has been paid to teachers’ social and emotional learning. In this course Dan Liston and Randy Testa introduce you to various rationales for why teacher SEL is needed as well as examine and reflect on various emotions in teaching and learning. This course is a part of the 5-course Specialization “The Teacher and Social Emotional Learning...

3. Preparation for CELTA Teacher Training

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Learn the skills required to succeed in your CELTA training - gain practice in lesson planning and writing assignments!...

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Best States For a Lead Teacher

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a lead teacher. The best states for people in this position are California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Hawaii. Lead teachers make the most in California with an average salary of $50,352. Whereas in Massachusetts and Connecticut, they would average $46,179 and $46,111, respectively. While lead teachers would only make an average of $44,482 in Hawaii, 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. Connecticut

Total Lead Teacher Jobs: 345
Highest 10% Earn:
$72,000
Location Quotient:
1.14

2. Nevada

Total Lead Teacher Jobs: 851
Highest 10% Earn:
$57,000
Location Quotient:
4.46

3. Massachusetts

Total Lead Teacher Jobs: 731
Highest 10% Earn:
$71,000
Location Quotient:
0.87
Full List Of Best States For Lead Teachers

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Top Lead Teacher Employers

Most Common Employers For Lead Teacher

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Kiddie Academy$35,458$17.05279
2Bright Beginnings$34,915$16.79102
3Learning Care Group$34,417$16.55105
4Sunrise Preschools$34,364$16.52119
5Children's Learning Adventure$31,690$15.24126
6Kids' Corps$31,617$15.2098
7New Horizon Academy$31,501$15.14121
8Bright Horizons$31,041$14.92646
9Brightside Academy$31,035$14.92176
10KinderCare Education$31,013$14.911,659

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Becoming a Lead Teacher FAQs

How Long Does It Take To Become A Lead Teacher?

It takes 4 years of professional experience to become a lead teacher. That is the time it takes to learn specific lead teacher skills, but does not account for time spent in formal education. If you include the normal education requirements to complete a college degree, then it takes 7 to 9 years years to become a lead teacher.

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