Secondary Education · Illinois

Secondary Education colleges in Illinois

CampusPin lists 90 U.S. colleges in Illinois that offer Secondary Education programs. Compare tuition, acceptance rate, and enrollment in the table below, every figure links back to the institution's official IPEDS data.

Secondary Education prepares you to teach a subject to middle- and high-school students, blending content mastery with classroom instruction methods, and suits people who want to teach teens rather than young children.

Schools in Illinois that offer Secondary Education

Secondary Education programs in Illinois: by the numbers

A quick comparison of the 50 schools (of 90 total) listed above, drawn from each institution's published IPEDS data.

Schools listed

90

Public / private

11 / 39

Universities / 2-year

40 / 10

Cities represented

30

In-state tuition range

$3,180–$55,704

Median in-state tuition

$18,807

Lowest published in-state tuition

Elgin Community College

$3,180

Most selective

McCormick Theological Seminary

36% acceptance

Largest by enrollment

Chamberlain University-Illinois

28,871 students

Figures reflect the schools currently listed and each institution's most recent reported data. Verify current tuition and admissions details with the school before applying.

What you'll study in a Secondary Education program

  • Adolescent development and learning psychology
  • Subject-area content coursework in your chosen teaching field
  • Methods of teaching your specific discipline to secondary students
  • Lesson planning, unit design, and standards alignment
  • Classroom management and behavior strategies for teenagers
  • Designing and grading assessments, rubrics, and feedback
  • Differentiated instruction for diverse and special-needs learners
  • Educational technology and instructional tools for the classroom
  • Supervised student-teaching practicum in a real secondary school

Where a Secondary Education degree can lead

  • High School Teacher
  • Subject-Area Teacher
  • Department Chair
  • Curriculum Specialist
  • Instructional Coordinator
  • Education Consultant

Typical pay: Early-career wages vary by employer, region, and experience (BLS, 2024 secondary school teachers, except special and career/technical education median $64,580).

Secondary Education trains you to teach students in the upper grades, roughly the middle-school through high-school range depending on your state and school system. Unlike elementary preparation, which spans every subject for younger learners, this major pairs a teaching focus with a single content area such as English, mathematics, science, history, or a world language, so you graduate ready to lead a subject-specific classroom of adolescents. You study how teenagers learn and develop, how to design lessons and assessments, how to manage a classroom of older students, and how to adapt instruction for diverse learners and varying reading and skill levels. Coursework moves back and forth between the subject you plan to teach and the methods for teaching it, which sets it apart from a pure content degree like a mathematics or biology major that carries no teaching preparation.

The most common entry path is a bachelor's degree that combines subject coursework with education courses and supervised field experience. Programs typically build toward a full-time student-teaching practicum, where you take on classroom responsibilities under a mentor teacher, often capped by a portfolio or performance assessment of your readiness. Teaching in public schools requires a state-issued license or certification, and both programmatic accreditation and the specific licensure rules vary by state and should be verified directly, since requirements and required exams differ from one state to another. Graduates work mainly in public and private middle and high schools, and the preparation can also transfer to settings such as tutoring centers, charter and alternative schools, educational publishing, and curriculum or instructional support roles.

In federal data for the closely related occupation of secondary school teachers, except special and career/technical education, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a 2024 median wage of $64,580 and projects employment to decline about 1.6% from 2024 to 2034; a bachelor's degree is the typical entry-level education for that occupation. National figures are occupation-wide medians across all experience levels, not starting wages or graduate outcomes.

Secondary Education in other states

Other majors in Illinois

Find more Secondary Education schools

Use CampusPin's filter-first search to narrow 90+ Secondary Education programs in Illinois by tuition, school size, acceptance rate, and campus setting.

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