Editor: how teachers move into curriculum and educational publishing

“Editors plan, review, and revise content for publication.”

Know this first

  • DegreeBLS lists a bachelor's degree, often in English, communications, or journalism.
From
Teaching
To
Editor (Curriculum and Educational Publishing)
U.S. median pay
$77,920
U.S. median, BLS (May 2025)
Job outlook
-1%
BLS, 2025–35
Entry education
Bachelor's degree
Related experience
Less than 5 years
SOC27-3041Source: BLS

Pay varies by state and sector.Figures cover all editors, not only those at education publishers.

Already packed

What carries over from your classroom

  • Knowing what actually works in a classroom, which publishers pay for
  • Aligning content to standards
  • Grading thousands of pages of writing

Still to pack

What you’d likely need to add

  • Publishing workflows and style guides
  • Editing samples you can show

Test flights

Try it before you quit

Small, low-risk ways to find out if you’d actually like this work.

  1. Review curriculum drafts or field-test materials for a publisher
  2. Write or edit resources for a teacher marketplace
  3. Offer to edit your department’s shared curriculum documents

Is this one of your 3 paths?

Answer a few questions about the teaching work you enjoy and your constraints around time, money, and pay. See 3 careers your skills already fit, including ones you’ve probably never heard of.

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Other routes from teaching

Data checked September 2026 from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook (SOC 27-3041). Suggestions on this page are our own editorial guidance, not BLS data.