Education resume examples & templates

A great education resume is like a well-planned lesson: it gets to the objective in an engaging, memorable manner. Your goal is to get your next education job with a resume that makes the grade.

As an educator, your resume should reflect your teaching philosophy and the impact you’ve had on your students. It should show your commitment to education, convincing a school or district that you’re the perfect teacher to join the ranks.

Your resume can send you to the top of the class—or land you in detention. Choose the right path by crafting a comprehensive, organized resume that impresses employers and sets you apart from other educators.

Resume guide for an education resume

With Resume.io, you can boost your career in education. Resume.io is a powerful tool for job seekers, with writing guides and resume examples for over 500 professions backed up by an easy-to-use resume builder.

This guide and education resume example will discuss these topics:

• How to write an education resume
• Advice on choosing the right resume format for education
• Adding your contact information
• How to write a resume summary
• Listing your experience in education
• Outlining your education and certifications
• How to select the right resume design and layout
• What the education job market looks like and average salaries

How to write an education resume

When you plan a teaching unit, you first consider what needs to go into it. Structure your education resume the same way. Your resume should contain these elements:

• A resume header
• A resume summary (also called a profile or personal statement)
• An employment history section
• A resume skills section
• An education section

A great lesson takes into account who you are teaching. A great education resume takes into account the school where you want to work. Aim your message at your audience.

To do that, research the school, the demographics of its students, and its teaching philosophy.

Using this information, customize your resume to prove why you’d be a good addition to the faculty.

Follow these other tips to earn top marks for your resume:

• Emphasize your career accomplishments in education. Did you develop a new science curriculum or improve student performance in your last teaching job? Explain the value you can bring to stand out from other educators.
• Choose an appropriate resume template. An educator should be approachable, clear, and direct. Make sure your resume reflects your professional image.
• Incorporate keywords. Without the right keywords, your education resume may fail the most important test of all: getting past an applicant tracking system. Include relevant keywords on your resume to ensure a passing grade.

Select the right resume format for education

As an educator, you know that consistency counts. Recruiters want to find the information they seek without a struggle. For most educators, that means sticking with a standard resume template, known as the reverse-chronological resume.

This chronological format focuses on your employment history, which should start with your most recent position and work backwards, showing employers how you’ve advanced in your career.

Other resume formats also exist if you don’t have much teaching experience or you have gaps in your employment history. The functional resume format emphasizes your transferable skills, while a hybrid resume works well if you’re making a career change but have some relevant experience.

To find the right format for you, explore the resume templates we offer in our resume builder. You can also browse samples of all three formats when you check out our resume examples.

Include your contact information

On the first day of school, you may display your name prominently in the classroom, so your new students immediately know who you are. Your resume header serves the same purpose: to introduce you to a recruiter or a school’s human resources manager.

Provide your contact information in a clear and organized format. This information should include:

• Your full name and title. List your first and last name and your title as an educator, such as “elementary school teacher” or “high school English teacher.”
• Professional email address. Don’t use a personal email for job-related correspondence. Instead, use an address with a structured format, such as firstname.lastname@email.com.
• Phone number. Provide the number you use most often and set a professional voicemail greeting in case you miss a recruiter’s call.
• Location. Only include your city and state, not your full mailing address. It’s unsafe to put your street address and zip code on your resume.
• LinkedIn profile. You can include a link to your LinkedIn page if the information there is active and relevant.

Don’t include these details:

• Your date of birth. Providing your age or date of birth can potentially lead to age discrimination in the hiring process.
• Personal information. There’s no reason to provide personal information, like your marital status or Social Security number.
• A photo of you. What you look like is irrelevant to the position, so you don’t need to include a photo.

Write an education resume summary

Every good teacher starts a unit with one “big idea,” or the central concept they want students to understand. The summary section of your education resume is your big idea. Think about the core message you want to deliver and target it to the specific job.

Write three to four sentences describing your education experience and proficiencies. Include some notable achievements or unique qualifications, like a teaching certification you’ve earned.

You can also include some personality in your education resume summary. Use language that reflects your teaching style. You can also incorporate some personal touches, such as your proudest teaching moment or the passion you have for your subject.

You can find education resume examples for summaries below:

Describe your education work experience: make the grade

The employment history section of your education resume allows you to tell recruiters what you have already accomplished in your career. Begin with your current or most recent position in the education field. List your other jobs in reverse order.

If you have experience in related roles, such as a childcare provider or an academic tutor, you can also include those jobs on your resume. For non-relevant roles, create a section on your resume called “Other Experience.”

When describing your professional experience, highlight the results of your work, rather than the duties you performed. Here are a few examples of bullet points focused on responsibilities:

• Taught math to seventh-graders in classes ranging from 15 to 18 students
• Created and administered tests to evaluate students’ progress
• Managed classroom behavior and created a positive learning environment

These bullet points could describe nearly any seventh-grade math teacher in the country. Instead, focus your bullet points on the results and outcomes you’ve achieved in your education career. Prove you can contribute to the success of a school or district.

For example, did you raise the average grade for your class? Were you able to engage a student who struggled with the subject? Did you develop a lesson plan that other teachers in your school started using?

Since education often relies on numbers and statistics to measure progress, you can also include quantifiable data in your work history section to show the impact you had in each position.

Here are reworked versions of the bullet points above, now focused on outcomes:

• Designed interactive math lessons to improve student engagement, leading to a 34% increase in classroom participation
• Identified learning gaps through targeted assessments, using data to make lesson plan adjustments and address areas of concern
• Reduced disciplinary incidents by 15% after developing a comprehensive strategy for managing classroom behavior and creating a positive environment

You will find an adaptable employment history resume sample below:

Include relevant education skills on your resume

The key to your skills section is creating a blend of your academic and technical knowledge and the attributes that make parents and students alike love you. This section gives recruiters a quick way to understand if you have the qualities they seek, but also lets them know what makes you a great educator.

Teaching has become an increasingly tech-heavy job, so make sure you list your computer skills, especially those listed in the job description. You should also include other relevant hard skills, such as curriculum development and classroom management.

For soft skills, think about the traits that allow you to connect with students, faculty, and administrators. Some good education soft skills include communication, collaboration, empathy, and organization.

With our resume builder, you can choose from pre-written skills that employers expect to see on education resumes. You can also add the specific skills you want to feature.

Here’s what the skills box looks like in our education resume template. 

While a skills list can give recruiters an at-a-glance understanding of your abilities, you should mention your skills in other places on your resume. Back up your skills with specific examples or data to show credibility.

For example, in your resume summary and work experience section, you can describe your:

• Communication skills by explaining how you convey information to students and build positive relationships with parents, teachers, and administrators.
• Adaptability by mentioning how you adjust lesson plans to increase classroom participation and engagement.
• Instructional design knowledge by discussing student learning outcomes and improved test scores.

Don’t forget to reference the job description as you decide what skills to include. Make sure you’re highlighting skills an employer wants you to have.

Detail your education & relevant education certifications

It’s not surprising that educators value education, so pay attention to this section of your resume. Like your work experience, list your education on a resume in reverse-chronological order if you have multiple degrees.

If you’re a first-year teacher, you can move your education above your work experience. Otherwise, provide this information at the bottom of your resume.

Besides your formal education, you can include other credentials in this section, such as:

• Your teaching license or certification. Include the issuing state and the date to show it’s active.
• Seminars or training classes. If you’ve participated in this type of continuing education, you can list it here.
• Professional development. List your membership in educational organizations to show a commitment to professional development. If you’ve presented at conferences or published articles related to education, include that information here, too.

Choose the right education resume layout & design

All school teachers know they should have the classroom display looking great by the start of the school year. The layout and design of your resume serve the same purpose: to make a great first visual impression!

You may be tempted to incorporate color and creativity, especially if you are an elementary school teacher. Give yourself a little leeway in that case, but unless you are an art teacher showing off your work, keep your resume free of flash. Why? Because you want it to look professional, and you want it to be legible. This format helps hiring managers review your qualifications quickly.

Set standard one-inch margins for your resume document and vary your line lengths to leave some white space. Use bold, standard headings for your sections to break up the type and double-check to make sure your grammar and spelling are perfect (especially if you are an English teacher!).

If you’d prefer to focus on the writing without worrying about the formatting, you may consider using a resume template. These professionally designed layouts allow you to add your own information and customize them for your personal taste, all while making sure the document looks great.

Education ​​text-only resume example

Education job market & outlook

If you work in education, you know there’s almost always a demand for good teachers. In particular, schools in urban areas often report teaching shortages. In rural districts, it can also be tough to recruit new teachers. If you’re looking for an education job and you have the right qualifications, you should be able to find one.

What type of salary you can expect in education

Most teachers earn an annual salary, and they usually have the option to receive their salary in installments during the school year or over the summer break as well.

An educator’s salary can vary depending on the grade level and subject(s) they teach. The general salary range for a public school teacher is about $40,000 to $83,000 per year, with the average teacher making $58,474 annually.

Key takeaways for building an education resume

Your resume is your way of instructing recruiters on why you’re the right educator for the job. When building your resume, choose the right format, customize your skills and experience to the job, and use a clean, professional design. Check out our education resume example if you want more ideas on creating a fresh and functional resume. With a well-written and optimized education resume, you can be in a new job before the start of the school year.

Start your education job search with a resume builder, but why stop there? With Career.io’s 18 advanced tools, you can search for teaching jobs, track your progress, get ready for interviews, and negotiate your salary—all with our all-inclusive career toolkit at your fingertips.