Private School Teacher: What the Job Is and How to Get Hired

"Private school" is the umbrella term for K–12 schools that are not public schools: they sit outside district systems and public charter schools.

Under that umbrella sit independent schools, Catholic and other Christian schools, Jewish day schools, Islamic schools, Montessori, classical and Waldorf schools, boarding schools, online schools, special education schools and microschools.

Each is governed in its own way, whether by a board of trustees, a church, a diocese or an owner.

The sector is large.

In 2021–22, NCES's Private School Universe Survey counted 29,727 private K–12 schools enrolling 4,731,303 students and employing 482,571 full-time-equivalent teachers.

By headcount, the same survey counted 526,416 private school teachers, of whom 425,569 (80.8%) worked full time.

Others work reduced schedules: in 2021–22, 8.4% of private school teachers worked half time to under three-quarter time, and 6.4% worked under half time.

In NCES's 2020–21 teacher survey, 75.3% of private school teachers were women.

Those are the newest counts NCES has published: the school survey covers 2021–22 and the teacher survey covers 2020–21, with no newer release as of October 2026.

For running counts of schools, students and staffing across the private and charter sectors, see our private and charter school industry statistics.

The core of the job is classroom teaching: plan and deliver the courses your schedule assigns, assess student work, and communicate with students and families.

Around that core, schools add roles that vary by school: advisory groups, club or arts programs, coaching posts, supervision rotations and parent conference cycles.

Some of the shape of that day shows up in the survey numbers.

Classes are small: private school classes averaged 14.2 students in self-contained elementary and middle school classes and 15.8 in departmentalized secondary classes in 2020–21, against 19.0 and 22.0 respectively in traditional public schools (NCES).

The week extends past the classroom.

Regular full-time private school teachers reported 51.8 hours on all school-related activities in a typical full week in 2020–21 — 39.3 of them required by contract and 24.0 spent delivering instruction.

Teachers also report real say in how their schools run: in 2020–21, 95.1% said they had control over selecting textbooks and materials, 61.8% said they had influence over hiring new full-time teachers, and 63.5% said they had influence over evaluating teachers (NCES).

Two-thirds of the sector is religious.

In 2021–22, 19,628 of 29,727 private schools — 66.0% — had a religious orientation, and 10,099 (34.0%) were nonsectarian.

Religious schools enrolled 76.7% of private school students and employed 68.1% of private school FTE teachers that year.

The nonsectarian side is substantial on its own: 10,099 schools, 1,103,417 students and 153,834 FTE teachers — 31.9% of all private school FTE teachers.

Private schools are also small employers: in 2021–22, 40.0% enrolled fewer than 50 students and 84.9% enrolled fewer than 300.

In a school under 300 students, faculties are small enough that one teacher may cover several courses, grades or duties alongside teaching.

The school types a private school teacher moves between include:

• Independent schools — schools governed by their own boards of trustees.
• Catholic schools — parish, diocesan and order-run schools under church authority.
• Christian schools — Protestant-tradition schools, each with its own expectations of staff.
• Jewish day schools — schools teaching general and Jewish studies side by side.
• Islamic and other faith-based schools — schools where supporting the religious mission is part of the job description.
• Montessori schools — schools built around the Montessori method and its trained teachers.
• Classical and Waldorf schools — schools built around classical education or Waldorf pedagogy.
• IB schools — schools built around the International Baccalaureate frameworks.
• Boarding schools — residential schools where faculty life extends to campus.
• Online schools — schools teaching through virtual classrooms.
• Special education schools — schools serving students with documented learning differences.
• Microschools — very small, founder-led schools.

Each type shapes the job differently — in mission, in pedagogy, and in what it asks of teachers beyond the classroom.

There is no single national answer: whether a private school teacher needs a state teaching certificate depends on the state, and on the kind of private school it is.

State rules treat private schools differently, and where a state attaches requirements they can turn on the school's category — accredited, approved, chartered, licensed or exempt — rather than applying to every private school alike.

School-choice programs add a layer: in states with voucher, ESA or scholarship programs, the teacher rules can come from the program's rules as well as from the state's general private-school framework.

Schools also set their own hiring expectations, which can differ from what the state requires of the school; the posting tells you which.

The workforce reflects that range.

In 2020–21, 5.0% of private school teachers held no bachelor's degree — 8.9% in non-Catholic religious schools and 1.8% in Catholic schools — against 0.8% of traditional public school teachers, and 49.8% held a master's degree or higher (NCES).

Those are survey facts about the workforce, not hiring rules: each school decides what it asks for, and the strongest signal is always the posting.

Private schools sit outside district hiring systems, so the process varies from school to school, from first contact to contract.

There is more than one way in: career changers, subject specialists without education coursework, and teaching assistants moving up take private school jobs too, where the school's own bar and its state's rules allow.

What travels between schools is your evidence — subject knowledge, classroom results, and the story of why you teach — more than any single credential.

The three sectors — district public schools, public charter schools and private schools — differ in certification, pay, governance and how teachers move between them.

Certification is the sharpest edge.

In 2020–21, 90.9% of traditional public school teachers held a regular state teaching certificate and 1.3% held none, while 75.3% of public charter school teachers held a regular certificate and 11.5% held none (NCES).

Charter certification follows each state's charter law, which sets its own requirements and waivers; private school certification follows state rules that depend on the school's category, as the section above explains.

Pay runs lower at private schools on average.

In NCES's 2020–21 survey, regular full-time private school teachers earned an average base salary of $46,400, against $62,100 for traditional public school teachers and $54,400 for public charter school teachers.

Reported weekly hours look similar across sectors: regular full-time teachers reported 51.8 hours at private schools, 51.9 at traditional public schools and 53.2 at charter schools (NCES, 2020–21).

Governance differs too: a district job sits inside a district system with its schedules and policies, a charter school answers to its authorizer under its charter, and a private school answers to its board, diocese or owner.

The sectors are connected.

Of private school teachers who changed schools between 2020–21 and 2021–22, 46.1% moved to a public school and 53.9% to another private school; among movers with 1–3 years of experience, 58.4% moved to public schools (NCES).

Private school faculties mix long-serving teachers with newer arrivals: in 2020–21, private school teachers averaged 14.5 years of teaching experience and 8.2 years at their current school, while 17.4% had three years or less (NCES).

There is no single ladder — each school builds its own — but three tracks cover the paths teachers take.

• Deepen in the classroom: take on lead-teacher, department-chair or grade-level responsibilities, mentor newer colleagues, and build a specialty in a subject or an approach.
• Move into school leadership: teachers move into roles such as dean, division head, assistant head and head of school, and roles such as learning specialist and instructional coach sit along the same route.
• Move sideways: teachers shift into admissions, advancement, counseling or administration, or into a different school, sector or role.

Staying in the classroom is its own track as well: senior teachers carry curriculum, mentoring and school-culture responsibilities without leaving teaching.

Before you accept an offer, ask how the school handles contracts and renewal, since those terms set the rhythm of the job alongside the work itself.

Private school openings surface in several places at once: school career pages, diocese and association job boards, network career pages and aggregators.

Our private school teacher job listings collect private school openings in one place, across independent, Catholic, Christian, Jewish, Montessori, classical, Waldorf, boarding, online and special education schools.

Listings range from full-time contracts to part-time roles and single-course schedules; in 2021–22, 8.4% of private school teachers worked half time to under three-quarter time and 6.4% worked under half time (NCES).

If you are on the hiring side instead, post a private school teaching job on SchoolHires to reach teachers looking at independent and faith-based schools.

Career information, not legal, tax or immigration advice; certification and employment rules change, so confirm them with your state education agency, the school, or the body that makes the rule.