Making Education Your Encore Career

Tools for Aspiring Teachers

The following organizations and websites are useful resources for pursuing a later-in-life education career.

American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence: A non-partisan non-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to recruiting, preparing, certifying and supporting teachers.

Encore Careers: This organization has lots of information about career reinvention, including a useful article called "Speeding Certification for Enclore Teachers."

National Education Association: The NEA teachers union has extensive, state-specific information about teaching as well as articles about issues that impact education.

National Retired Teachers Association: Did you know that AARP was created by a teacher? NRTA, which is part of AARP, has programs and information for age-50+ people who have a passion for learning and want to share their talents with others.

Troops to Teachers: Information geared specifically to how members of the armed forces can pursue teaching as a second career.

U.S. Department of Education: Check out information about the "Transition to Teaching" program and a publication called "Innovations in Education: Alternative Routes to Teacher Certifications."

Other useful resources and organizations include Teach for America, the federal government's Learn and Serve America program and The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.

Recommendations can also be found in "Talking About Second Careers in Education," which is a transcript of Jane Pauley's live online chat with guests Anthony Tata, chief operating officer of D.C. Public Schools, and Elizabeth Foster of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future.

Additional reporting by Robin D. Cochran and Lindsay Zoldaz