FlightWay / Careers / Teaching Assistants, Preschool, Elementary, Middle, and Secondary School, Except Special Education
Education
Teaching Assistants, Preschool, Elementary, Middle, and Secondary School, Except Special Education
Assist a preschool, elementary, middle, or secondary school teacher with instructional duties.
- Sector: Education
- Preparation: Zone 3 — medium preparation needed
- O*NET code: 25-9042.00
What you'll actually do
The activities O*NET rates highest for this occupation, most important first. Numbers are out of 100.
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Assisting and Caring for Others
central to the job — rated 88/100 for importance.
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Thinking Creatively
central to the job — rated 87/100 for importance.
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Getting Information
central to the job — rated 86/100 for importance.
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Making Decisions and Solving Problems
a major part of the work — rated 84/100 for importance.
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Resolving Conflicts and Negotiating with Others
a major part of the work — rated 83/100 for importance.
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Developing Objectives and Strategies
a major part of the work — rated 79/100 for importance.
Assist a preschool, elementary, middle, or secondary school teacher with instructional duties. Serve in a position for which a teacher has primary responsibility for the design and implementation of educational programs and services.
What it takes
Two numbers per line: the level the work expects, and how important it is to doing the job well. Both are O*NET ratings, already on a 0–100 scale.
Skills
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Active Listening
Needed at a solid working level (52/100), and rated 69/100 for importance.
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Social Perceptiveness
Needed at a solid working level (48/100), and rated 69/100 for importance.
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Reading Comprehension
Needed at a solid working level (52/100), and rated 66/100 for importance.
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Speaking
Needed at a solid working level (46/100), and rated 66/100 for importance.
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Service Orientation
Needed at a solid working level (48/100), and rated 63/100 for importance.
Knowledge
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Customer and Personal Service
Needed at a high level (72/100), and rated 78/100 for importance.
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English Language
Needed at a high level (63/100), and rated 70/100 for importance.
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Psychology
Needed at a solid working level (54/100), and rated 69/100 for importance.
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Mathematics
Needed at a solid working level (48/100), and rated 63/100 for importance.
Abilities
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Oral Expression
Needed at a solid working level (55/100), and rated 69/100 for importance.
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Oral Comprehension
Needed at a solid working level (54/100), and rated 69/100 for importance.
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Written Comprehension
Needed at a solid working level (50/100), and rated 69/100 for importance.
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Information Ordering
Needed at a solid working level (46/100), and rated 66/100 for importance.
How people get in
O*NET places this occupation in Zone 3 — medium preparation needed. That is a statement about what employers typically require, not a rule about you.
Education
Vocational training, an associate degree, or equivalent on-the-job experience.
Experience
One to two years of related experience is typical.
Training
Employers expect you to arrive with the core skill already.
What it pays
These are typical education compensation bands by employer tier — sector-level figures, not a measured salary for Teaching Assistants, Preschool, Elementary, Middle, and Secondary School, Except Special Education specifically. Treat them as the shape of the market, then check a real posting for the number.
Top University Admin
$90k – $180k
Public School Districts
$55k – $85k
Charter & Private Schools
$45k – $75k
How the work tends to run
Each line below is read off a single O*NET activity rating for this occupation — named, so you can disagree with it.
- The work is physical — you are on your feet and handling things, not sitting still.From “Performing General Physical Activities”
- Long-running relationships carry the work; the same people come back.From “Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships”
- Part of the job is other people’s output, not only your own.From “Coordinating the Work and Activities of Others”
- You own decisions rather than execute someone else’s.From “Making Decisions and Solving Problems”
- There is real room to invent — the answer is not in a manual.From “Thinking Creatively”
How FlightWay scores your fit against this
No black box. Here is the whole method, factor by factor.
- 1. You answer a short quiz
- Your answers build a profile across the same 161 O*NET dimensions this page is describing — skills, knowledge, abilities and work activities. Same axes, so the comparison is like-for-like.
- 2. We correlate the two profiles
- Fit is a mean-centered cosine — a correlation between the SHAPE of your profile and the shape of Teaching Assistants, Preschool, Elementary, Middle, and Secondary School, Except Special Education. Centering matters: raw similarity between any two occupations sits at 0.70–0.85 because all work shares a common profile, so without it every career would look like a match.
- 3. The number you see is personality fit only
- "Would I want this work" and "am I ready for this work" are different questions, and averaging them answers neither. So readiness — what your résumé, coursework and projects prove — is scored separately and shown next to fit, never blended into it.
- 4. Every factor is visible
- You can open any match and see which dimensions pushed it up and which pulled it down. If you disagree with the number, you can see exactly where it came from.
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See your fit for Teaching Assistants, Preschool, Elementary, Middle, and Secondary School, Except Special Education
Ten questions, about 90 seconds. You get your match against Teaching Assistants, Preschool, Elementary, Middle, and Secondary School, Except Special Education and 782+ other real careers — with the reasoning shown.
Take the quiz Open in FlightWayOccupational data on this page comes from the O*NET 30.3 Database, published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). O*NET is a registered trademark of USDOL/ETA. FlightWay is not endorsed by, and USDOL/ETA is not responsible for, anything built on that data — see our terms. What is ours is the comparison, the score and the plan.