Best States for Elementary School Teachers in 2026

Across the top 10 states, the CareerGPS Pro rankings show that strong pay often coincides with higher scores, but not in a simple one‑to‑one way. Washington has the highest reported median salary in this group, yet California holds the #1 overall ranking. The data also highlight that large employment counts do not automatically translate into a higher Geography Score. California and Texas have the two largest employment counts among the top 10, but California ranks first while Texas is fifth. All listed states share the same projected growth rate of -2.0%. With identical growth assumptions, differences in the CareerGPS Geography Score among these states reflect other elements of the scoring methodology that are not broken out in this dataset. Taken together, these results show that state‑level conditions for elementary school teachers can differ substantially on salary, employment scale, and CareerGPS Geography Score, even when projected growth is the same across locations.

The national median annual salary for elementary school teachers in 2026 is $63,970. Several of the top‑ranked states have higher median salaries than this national figure. California reports $99,650, New York $85,760, Washington $102,350, Massachusetts $94,000, New Jersey $78,200, Pennsylvania $77,060, Ohio $77,370, Illinois $75,320, and Rhode Island $90,930. Employment counts also vary widely between the national figure and individual states. National employment is 1,388,390 elementary school teaching jobs in 2026. Within the top 10 states, the largest reported employment count is California at 155,160, followed by Texas at 116,260 and New York at 101,410. These comparisons show that top‑ranked states can differ substantially from national benchmarks on both median salary and employment counts, even within a single occupation.

California ranks #1 in the CareerGPS Pro list with a Geography Score of 85.12, the highest score among the top 10 states. Its median salary of $99,650 is also among the higher figures in this group, and its employment count of 155,160 is the largest reported in the dataset for any state. Compared with Texas, which ranks #5 with a Geography Score of 50.43, California has a higher median salary ($99,650 versus $62,760) and a larger employment count (155,160 versus 116,260). California also ranks ahead of New York, which is #2 with a Geography Score of 64.94, a median salary of $85,760, and employment of 101,410. All three states share the same projected growth rate of -2.0%, so their different Geography Scores and ranks do not come from differences in the growth figure within this top‑10 set.

Washington has the highest reported median salary among the top 10 states at $102,350, yet it ranks #3 overall with a Geography Score of 59.67. Massachusetts also reports a relatively high median salary of $94,000 and ranks #4 with a Geography Score of 56.03. Compared with California, both Washington and Massachusetts have smaller employment counts. Washington reports 28,980 elementary school teachers, and Massachusetts 29,930, versus California’s 155,160. New York provides another point of comparison: it ranks #2 with a Geography Score of 64.94 and has a median salary of $85,760 and employment of 101,410. This combination differs from Washington’s highest median salary and lower employment count while falling between California and Massachusetts on both salary and Geography Score.

Texas ranks #5 with a Geography Score of 50.43, the second‑largest employment count in the top 10 at 116,260, and a median salary of $62,760. Texas has a larger employment count than New Jersey (40,300), Pennsylvania (48,370), Ohio (47,870), Illinois (61,520), and Rhode Island (3,830). New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois form a middle band of states in this ranking, from #6 through #9. All four have median salaries between $75,320 and $78,200 and Geography Scores between 45.23 and 46.74. Within this group, New Jersey has the highest Geography Score at 46.74 and the lowest employment count at 40,300, while Illinois has the largest employment count at 61,520 and the lowest Geography Score at 45.23. This spread illustrates that states with somewhat similar median salaries can still differ in Geography Score and employment scale within the same occupation.

Rhode Island ranks #10 with a Geography Score of 45.13 and has the smallest employment count in the top 10 at 3,830. Despite this, its median salary of $90,930 is higher than the median salaries reported for New Jersey ($78,200), Pennsylvania ($77,060), Ohio ($77,370), Illinois ($75,320), and Texas ($62,760). Compared with California, Rhode Island has a lower Geography Score (45.13 versus 85.12), a smaller employment count (3,830 versus 155,160), and a lower median salary ($90,930 versus $99,650). Rhode Island’s combination of a relatively high median salary and a small employment count underscores how different the scale and pay profile of a state can be while still appearing in the top 10 of the CareerGPS Pro rankings.

CareerGPS Pro builds these rankings from authoritative labor‑market sources and its proprietary CareerGPS Geography Score. For this article, we use 2026 national and state‑level data for elementary school teachers (25-2021), focusing on median annual salary, employment counts, projected growth, and the Geography Score. The Geography Score summarizes how each state performs across multiple factors, then ranks states from #1 downward. In this dataset, we see the final scores and ranks but not the individual factor weights. These state rankings are a starting point for comparing locations. Teachers should interpret them alongside personal considerations such as preferred regions, school systems, and non‑labor‑market factors that are outside the scope of this data.