What jobs can you do with graphic design education?

Curriculum design: Education / career paths

• My wife, currently a preschool teacher, has expressed an interest in getting into the field of curriculum design. If you are experienced in that or a similar field, we'd love to hear from you about degree requirements, job availability, etc. Relevant info and The Doña has been assisting with or teaching preschool students in the New Jersey school system (community education) for about 4 years now. The thing she's enjoyed most about the experience has been developing curricula, especially science and geography/social studies, for her kids. She's pretty good at it (if she does say so herself), and thinks it'd be swell to do that for a living. She's ~30 years old, and has her Bachelor's and Master's in Elementary Education. (In case it matters, the former is from a small liberal arts college, and the latter is from a major state school.) From her undergrad days, she has some experience performing education research, but not specifically related to this topic. Questions we're wondering about: (1) Will a doctoral degree be necessary? Ed.D or PhD? What sorts of programs should we be looking at — educational policy or what? (1a) We're in the U.S. and would like to eventually settle here, but we may go to Europe (U.K., Germany, France, Switzerland) for a few years. If she does schooling over there, will that translate favorably when looking for jobs in the U.S.? (2) Is there an opportunity anywhere to sort of dip a toe in without committing to more schooling? (3) What sorts of jobs are available in the public vs. private sectors? (4) [Not-quite-fully-formed question about room for creativity given the rise of standardized testing in the U.S.] Of course, feel free to share anything else you feel like we should be thinking about. Thanks in advance!

• Answer:

  She absolutely DOES NOT need another advanced degree to get involved in curriculum development. If she has already started to develop items she should consider first posting them online for others to use and review (there are a lot of websites that let you post your curriculum) and also start presenting it at local teacher professional development conferences. Almost every state has a science teacher association or she could go to NSTA (I mention this because you said that she has created some science curriculum, but there are just the general teacher association meetings too). The fact that she is doing kindergarten science is extra awesome, as there is little elementary science (in comparison to high school) and new standards will require more teachers to do science with their kids at younger grades. More specifically: (1) Will a doctoral degree be necessary? Ed.D or PhD? What sorts of programs should we be looking at — educational policy or what? No, absolutely not. It is more beneficial that she have hands-on experience as a teacher. (1a) We're in the U.S. and would like to eventually settle here, but we may go to Europe (U.K., Germany, France, Switzerland) for a few years. If she does schooling over there, will that translate favorably when looking for jobs in the U.S.? Not really sure if it'll matter. (2) Is there an opportunity anywhere to sort of dip a toe in without committing to more schooling? See comments above. Also consider getting in touch with the education department at your local university. They are developing curriculum/activities/lessons all the time with research components and always looking for teachers to work/consult with. (3) What sorts of jobs are available in the public vs. private sectors? These jobs appear periodically, just go to Indeed.com and type in "curriculum development" - you can see what is out there are what qualifications are necessary. (4) [Not-quite-fully-formed question about room for creativity given the rise of standardized testing in the U.S.] She should align anything she is doing with NGSS, Common Core and any standards that are related to her specific state if she wants to teachers to use it.