What does your school need from a classical school teacher?
You are hiring a subject teacher for a liberal-arts curriculum — think Latin, logic, rhetoric, literature, history, mathematics, science — who can also carry your school's pedagogy and mission. That makes the hire different from a generic teaching search in two ways. The curriculum is yours to specify, so the subjects and load you need are decisions to make before you post. And several of the credentials that matter are association credentials rather than state licenses, which changes both what you ask for and how you verify it.
Start with the size of the segment you are hiring into. In the NCES Private School Universe Survey for 2021-22, 288 private schools reported membership in the Association of Classical and Christian Schools (ACCS), with 57,024 students and 6,750 teachers (headcount). That count covers ACCS members only; classical schools also operate outside ACCS, and the charter-side models differ again.
Great Hearts — a classical network that operates charter academies — lists academies in Arizona, Louisiana and Texas, plus separate private Christian academies, an online school and Young Hearts preschools. Hillsdale College's K-12 Education Office advises public and private schools, including charter schools; its 'Member Schools' receive curriculum, consultation and training, while 'Curriculum Schools' license the K-12 Program Guide. The office says all its assistance is free of charge.
Before you write the posting, inventory the job at your school. List the grades and subjects you need covered, where your curriculum comes from, the teaching load and any advisory, coaching or duty expectations, and the faith commitments the role carries at a classical Christian school. An upper-school Latin position and a third-grade homeroom role at a small school are different hires, and the posting should say so.
Your affiliations also shape who you can afford to hire. If your school is ACCS-accredited, ACCS teacher certification runs through your school: teachers progress under their administrator's supervision with ClassicalATLAS training support, and the certification focuses on both the theory of classical Christian education and classical pedagogy. If you are a Hillsdale Member School, the curriculum, consultation and training behind your program arrive free of charge. Both change what you must buy versus what you can build in house.
For the candidate-side picture before you define the role, our career guide explains what a classical school teacher does — the subjects, the settings and how educators reach the classroom. The rest of this page stays on your side of the table.
Looking to hire? Post your classical school teacher role on SchoolHires and reach people who already work in private and charter schools.
Post a Classical School Teacher Job →What qualifications are required at a private vs a charter school?
The state, not the pedagogy, sets the floor. Nationally, charter teachers' certification shares run below traditional public schools': in 2020-21, 75% of public charter school teachers held a regular teaching certificate, against 91% of traditional public school teachers (NCES NTPS). In the same year, 12% of charter school teachers held no certificate at all, versus 1% of traditional public school teachers.
What a charter school must require is set by its state's charter law, and it differs state by state; the specifics belong to your state and your authorizer. Confirm the rule that binds your school with your state education agency or your authorizer before the posting goes live, and write your requirement line from that answer.
A private classical school follows its state's private-school rules, which differ by state and by school category. Accreditation, any school-choice program you participate in, and your own association can add requirements of their own. The same step applies: confirm with your state education agency what attaches to your school, then write the posting.
Beside any state rule, the credentials specific to classical education are association credentials, not state licenses. The Society for Classical Learning's certification, run with Taylor University and ClassicalU, is a track of seven self-paced graduate courses ending in a practicum at an SCL-accredited or endorsed school, and applicants need a bachelor's degree.
The CiRCE Institute's Apprenticeship is a part-time, three-year program of twice-yearly in-person retreats and twice-monthly online sessions leading to a CiRCE Classical Education Certification — private credentialing, not a state license. ACCS lists CiRCE as an endorsed teacher-training partner and recommends school-hosted summer trainings such as Logos School's Summer Teacher Training in Moscow, Idaho.
Graduate routes feed the same pipeline. Eastern University's Templeton Honors College offers a 30-credit MAT in Classical Education that can be completed in 16 months through on-ground seminars and online courses. Hillsdale's Graduate School of Classical Education offers master's programs for people who want to teach in, administer or found classical schools; the college states it is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
One writing rule for the posting itself: state the requirement your situation actually carries. Where your state, category or accreditor requires a certificate, say so plainly. Otherwise ask for the degree and subject depth you need, and name the association pathway as preferred — never as a blanket claim about certification in either direction.
How much should you pay a classical school teacher?
There is no federal wage series for classical school teachers. BLS's occupational tables carry no private-school or charter-school occupation code, so any BLS figure you read covers schools of all ownerships together — never a classical-school rate on its own.
The closest broad group is Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education (SOC 25-2021). In BLS OEWS May 2025, across elementary and secondary schools (NAICS 611100) — public district, charter and private schools combined — the occupation paid a median annual wage of $63,980, with a 10th-to-90th percentile range of $47,990 to $104,390.
BLS's series for privately owned elementary and secondary schools (industry 611105) puts the same occupation at a median of $58,140 nationally. That series isolates privately owned schools, but it is not labelled by school philosophy, so it is still not a classical-school figure.
The federal survey that separates sectors is older. NCES's 2020-21 NTPS put average base salaries at $46,400 for regular full-time private school teachers, $54,400 for public charter school teachers and $62,100 for traditional public school teachers — 2020-21 dollars, not current pay, and all private schools rather than classical schools specifically.
One published data point for a classical charter is a network's own figure. Great Hearts' Arizona academies reported an average teacher salary of $48,455 in fiscal year 2024, up 11.21% from $43,699 in FY2023, in the network's Arizona statutory salary disclosure. That number is that employer's, for its schools, in its fiscal year — a data point, not a market rate.
For your own budget, work from your salary scale and the schools you actually compete with. Decide the stipend lines alongside the base — coaching, advisory, duty coverage — and publish the range in the posting. Private school teachers averaged less than traditional public school teachers in the NCES survey above, so a school that cannot match the district number should expect to compete for candidates on something other than base pay.
Where do you find classical school teachers?
Scale the pond first. NCES counted 466,000 private school teachers, full- and part-time, and 251,000 public charter school teachers in 2020-21. Classical schools recruit from inside both pools, plus the career changers neither number captures.
The classical-specific pipelines are the training bodies themselves. Participants and graduates of the CiRCE Apprenticeship, the SCL certification track with Taylor University and ClassicalU, Eastern's MAT in Classical Education and Hillsdale's Graduate School of Classical Education have deliberately prepared to teach classically. A school-hosted summer training — the model ACCS recommends, such as Logos School's Summer Teacher Training — doubles as sourcing, because the teachers who show up are the ones looking.
Hillsdale's Hoogland Center for Teacher Excellence runs free one-day seminars around the U.S., open to teachers from all types of schools; lunch is included and accommodations are not. Sending a team costs a day of travel and puts your school's name in front of classical teachers who are already training.
ACCS teacher certification runs inside ACCS-accredited schools, with teachers progressing under their administrator's supervision. If your school is prepared to form pedagogy on the job, you can hire for subject depth. That widens the pool you can responsibly consider, within whatever your state requires of your school category. Strong graduates and career changers who have never stood in front of a class become candidates to interview rather than screen out — as long as your interview actually tests teaching.
Placement firms are the other established channel, described on their own terms. Carney Sandoe says it works with over 2,000 independent, private, boarding and charter schools in 48 states and 32 countries. Its placement group is success-based — a school pays a fee only when it hires a candidate through the firm, and the fee amount is not published — and listed openings go only to accepted candidates rather than public postings. Its services are free to candidates.
Membership changes the economics: Carney Sandoe member schools get free unlimited position listings, significantly reduced placement fees and discounted hiring-conference registration, and membership is optional for listing positions. Whichever channel you use, post where your peers do their hiring for private and charter schools, and write the posting from your scope document rather than from a generic template.
How do you screen and interview classical school teachers?
Screen against the scope you wrote: subject depth in the discipline you are hiring, an approach to teaching that fits a classical classroom, and alignment with your school's mission. A resume can argue for the first. Only your process can test the second and the third.
Ask for artifacts. Transcripts matter in this pool — 50% of private school teachers held a postbaccalaureate degree in 2020-21, against 51% of charter school teachers and 62% of traditional public school teachers. A writing sample, or a short lecture on a text you choose, will tell you more than a cover letter. For Latin and upper-humanities seats, set a demo lesson from your curriculum on short notice.
Watch the demo lesson for what you cannot train quickly: whether the candidate asks real questions and waits for answers, whether they can hold a text and a class at the same time, and how they handle a student who is confidently wrong. Habits of a classical classroom can be formed on the job. The habits of mind in front of a room are the hire.
Verify credentials at the source. Where your sector requires a state certificate, confirm it with the issuing state agency rather than taking the resume's word. Association credentials check differently: ACCS-certified teachers are recorded with ACCS by their accredited schools, and the CiRCE certification is the institute's own credential, not a state license — so confirm through the association or the candidate's prior school.
If your school is a classical Christian school with faith expectations for staff, raise them early and apply them consistently across candidates. How far faith requirements reach in hiring is its own legal subject — our guide to religious-school employment law covers the federal framework — and it is worth a conversation with counsel before you standardize your questions.
Run background checks before the first day, for the new teacher and for any role with student contact, following your state's requirements for schools and whatever your accreditor adds on top. Build the checks into the search timeline rather than the week before orientation.
On the panel, seat the administrator the teacher will report to, a department or grade-level colleague, and someone who can speak to your curriculum day to day. Mission fit surfaces fastest when the interviewers can describe it concretely.
When in the hiring calendar should you start?
Anchor the search to the season the hiring conferences run. Carney Sandoe runs its hiring conferences from January through April each year, and that window marks the core of the independent-school faculty hiring season. Its 2026 events included FORUM/Connect Philadelphia on January 30-31, FORUM/Boston on February 13-14, FORUM/West Los Angeles on February 20 and FORUM/NYC on March 6.
The conferences themselves are structured. Carney Sandoe hosts them each winter and spring in U.S. cities with pre-scheduled 30-minute interviews; they are free for candidates, and schools pay registration, discounted for members. If you use the conference route, your posting, screening rubric and pay band need to be settled before January — the interviews are 30 minutes and pre-booked, so there is no time to define the role in the room.
Then work backwards from three dates at your school: your faculty contract cycle and whatever notice your returning teachers give, the conference calendar above, and your start date for the new school year. Post in the fall, screen through the winter, and hold final rounds while candidates are still choosing between schools.
For the full sequence, our guide walks through the school hiring process end to end. If the vacancy opens mid-year, name interim coverage first and run the same sequence against the next season's calendar rather than improvising a rushed hire.
How do you onboard and keep them?
Onboarding a classical teacher is mostly formation. Pair the new hire with a mentor who teaches in your tradition, hand over the curriculum scope and the texts, and set the observation cycle you will actually run — before the first day, not after the first hard week.
Use the structure your affiliations give you. A Hillsdale Member School receives curriculum, consultation and training free of charge, which is your onboarding spine. An ACCS-accredited school runs new teachers through the ACCS certification program under the administrator's supervision, with ClassicalATLAS training support — the program is formation and a growth ladder in one.
Decide before hiring what training you will fund. As a dated example of the private market, the CiRCE Apprenticeship costs $3,247 per year plus a $400 deposit and a $75 application fee, with travel, lodging and food for its two annual retreats extra. A three-year program funded by the school is a retention instrument as much as a credential — write the terms, including what happens if the teacher leaves early, into the agreement.
The charter networks show the same logic at scale. Great Hearts partners with higher-education institutions so employees can earn degrees while working, and runs a Special Student Services Pathway that encourages current teachers to train for special education and ESL roles. Its APEX program runs short leadership courses for teacher-leaders, rising leaders and academy leaders in classical schools. You do not need their scale to copy the pattern: fund the next credential, and name the next role.
Put your faculty in the room with the wider movement when you can. The Great Hearts Institute hosts the annual National Symposium for Classical Education, and Hillsdale's free one-day seminars run around the country. Conference season fills your pipeline; these rooms fill your bench.
Keep the retention numbers in front of your budget. Among 2020-21 teachers, 82% of private school teachers stayed at the same school the following year and 12% left teaching. Among teachers who moved schools voluntarily, 36% of private school teachers cited salary and benefits as the most important reason, against 9% of public school teachers. Pay is one lever those movers name; workload, mentorship and the growth ladder are the ones you control without a budget meeting.
This page is employer information, not legal advice. Certification requirements, background-check rules and employment rules are set state by state and differ between private and charter schools. Confirm the current requirements with your state education agency or, at a charter school, your authorizer. Talk with counsel before you finalize contracts or screening questions.