Leaving Academia for K-12 Teaching, Part 1

Welcome to this Ethical ELA article series on leaving academia for K-12 teaching. Dr. Russ Mayo will offer insight into this process over the next few weeks. Subscribe to the site to receive each installment of this important series.

by Russell Mayo, PhD

Russell Mayo is an English Language Arts teacher at Burley School, a public K-8 school on the northside of Chicago. Previously, he worked as an assistant professor of English at Purdue University Northwest, where he served as Writing Center Director and Writing Program Director. Russ completed his doctorate in English Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2020. His research centers on writing studies, critical pedagogy, and the environment. Most recently, Russ co-edited and contributed to the Teaching Writing in the Age of Catastrophic Climate Change, (Lexington Press, 2024).

In Casino, Out (of Academia)

If you are a graduate student an adjunct professor, or even someone considering graduate school, I want you to imagine the following scenario: You are walking through a bustling casino. All around, you can hear the sporadic dings of slot machines and cheers from nearby gamblers. Suddenly, you are drawn to a high-stakes craps table, where an exciting game of is already underway.

As you squeeze in among the excited players, you notice people placing large bets. For some reason, almost everyone is betting that the shooter will roll a 4. What are the odds? you wonder, knowing they must be low. Remembering a statistics lesson from high school, you recall this is a 3 in 36 chance, or around just 8 percent. Too risky, you think. You decide to hold your money for now.

The shooter rolls a 7, and new bets begin to be placed. This time, the betters tend to place their money on the number 2. Even worse odds than rolling a 4, since there is only one combination, 1-1. Snake eyes, less than a 3 percent chance! As the shooter prepares to roll again, you feel a jolt of nerves as you consider placing the bet.

Would you gamble on such a long-shot, in spite of these dismal odds? Would you look for better odds, or simply hold on to your money?

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For many current and prospective graduate students in the United States expecting to join the professorate, these long odds have become normalized. They reflect one’s prospects on the academic job market. While statistics vary widely by field, Christopher Caterine, author of Leaving Academia: A Practical Guide, argues that roughly 7 percent of those who enter a doctoral program today will secure a quality, tenure-track job (2). These are worse odds than trying to roll a 4 at the craps table.

The numbers are even worse for those pursuing a doctorate in a field like English, as I did. Caterine estimates that “only about 1.2 percent of people who enter a doctoral program in the arts and humanities earn a tenure-track position in a leading institution” (7). Presenting roughly half the odds of rolling snake eyes, this is a gamble indeed. Yet most graduate students are expected to proceed toward the academic job market as if they will be one of the lucky few. After grad school, many adjuncts toil with bad pay and no job security for a chance to beat the odds.

While Caterine’s book Leaving Academia offers excellent career guidance for academics seeking wide array of jobs in industry or other non-profit jobs, I wish to present a more specific, targeted alternative. Most graduate students and college professors can quickly and easily parlay (if you’ll forgive the gambling pun) their skills into a career in K-12 teaching. This field typically offers more job opportunities with better pay, better benefits, and better retirement plans plus more flexibility in choosing where to live and work.

With this series of articles, I will make an honest and blunt case for graduate students as well as those holding a Masters or PhD to reconsider a career in academia, considering instead the opportunities of working as a K-12 educator. I should know—in the past 20 years, I moved from K-12 teaching to academia and back again. I am far better off now since leaving academia.

If you’ve ever thought about making such a move, or if you’re concerned about the long odds and troubling working conditions in higher education today, then this series for Ethical ELA is for you. That said, if you have a secure academic gig that you’re happy with, congrats! Unfortunately, this is not the reality for the vast majority of professors, particularly the growing numbers of contingent faculty that make up the majority of college faculty today.

In future posts, I will discuss why someone might want to make the transition from academia to a career in K-12 education, drawing on my experiences as a teacher and academic over the past 20 years. I’ll describe what these transitions might look like, particularly for those considering a career in K-12 teaching for the first time. I’ll also offer recommendations on where, when, and how to make such a move.

I also encourage you to join this conversations. Share your thoughts in the comments below. Tell us about your experiences with the academic job market or transitioning between K-12 teaching and academia. If you’re curious about making such a move, what do you want to know more about? I will do my best to answer your questions here and in future posts.  

**Note: The name of this article is borrowed from the title of the incredible 1998 album In/Casino/Out by the chaotic, melodic post-hardcore band At the Drive-In.