Adult Education and English Language Instructor Career Assessment

2What is a Adult Education and English Language Instructor?

An adult education instructor teaches at an Adult Learning Center. North Dakota has eight regional centers plus satellite sites and five correctional sites, and every one of them is free to the student. In one class you might have a 17-year-old who just left high school, a 34-year-old warehouse worker who needs math to move into a lead job, and a 52-year-old who reads at a fourth-grade level and has hidden it for thirty years. You test each one to find out where they actually are, then teach from there — not from a grade level, from the person. On the English side you teach listening and speaking first, then reading and writing, and often citizenship material alongside it. Centers also help with resumes, interview practice, job search, and digital skills, because the point is not the paper. The point is the life after the paper.

The Reality: Two honest things. First, attendance is not required, so people disappear. A student who was doing great vanishes for three weeks because a shift changed or a car broke, and you learn not to take it personally and to keep the door open. Second, many of these jobs are part-time, evening, or a mix of both, and a full-time position with benefits is not a given. Ask about hours and benefits in the first conversation, not the last.

Your Responsibilities:

• Test new students to find out what they can already do
• Teach reading, writing, and math from wherever the student actually is
• Prepare students for the four high school equivalency exams
• Teach English listening, speaking, reading, and writing to adults from other countries
• Teach basic computer and phone skills, because nearly every next step needs them
• Help with resumes, job applications, and interview practice
• Keep attendance, test scores, and progress records the program is measured on
• Connect students to other services and keep track of who has gone quiet

You give an adult back a door that closed on them years ago.

3A Day in the Life

9:00 AM — Open the center. Two students are already waiting. One wants to start today, before she changes her mind.

9:30 AM — Give the placement test to the new student. You keep it low-key, because tests are exactly what scared her off school the first time.

10:30 AM — Math group. Four students, four different levels, all in one room. You rotate.

12:00 PM — Lunch, and a phone call to a student who has missed a week.

1:00 PM — One-on-one: a man studying for the social studies test who reads well but panics on timed questions. You work on the panic, not the content.

3:00 PM — English class. Vocabulary for a doctor’s visit, then practice out loud with a partner.

5:30 PM — Evening English class, because the daytime one does not work for people with jobs.

7:30 PM — Enter attendance and test data. The program’s funding depends on these numbers being right.

The day is split between daytime and evening, because your students work.

4Training in North Dakota

This is the one teaching job on this list that does not require a K-12 teaching license. Here is the fact worth the whole page. The North Dakota Department of Public Instruction lists every credential and certificate it issues — counselor, principal, superintendent, library media, dyslexia, special education director, Title I, paraprofessional, school health technician, computer science — and there is no adult education credential on that list. North Dakota does not license adult education instructors. What you need is set by whoever runs your Adult Learning Center, and in North Dakota that is a school district (Bismarck, Fargo, Grand Forks, Minot, Dickinson), a community college (Williston State, Lake Region State), or a career and technology center. Most of them want a bachelor’s degree and will strongly prefer a teaching license if they have one. Some hire without a license. You have to ask the center, because the answer is local. Do not assume you need to spend four years and $60,000 on a license that this job may never ask you for.

Training Pathways:

• A bachelor’s degree in almost anything (4 years): This is the most common ask. English, math, education, social work, psychology, business — centers care more about whether you can teach adults kindly and clearly than about your major. If you already have a degree in something else, you may already qualify. Call and ask.
• A teaching license you already hold: If you are a licensed North Dakota teacher, you are already qualified nearly everywhere, and this is a real second act for teachers who are burned out on classroom management but still love teaching. Adults do not throw things. They also do not have to be there, which is a different challenge.
• A voluntary English-teaching certificate (about 1 to 2 years, part-time): TESOL stands for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. A TESOL or TEFL certificate is not required in North Dakota and is not a state license, but it makes you much stronger for the English side of the job and it is the single best add-on if adult English is what pulls at you. UND’s online TESOL graduate certificate is 20 credits and about 1.5 years. If you are a licensed teacher, ESPB’s English Language Learner endorsement is the version that goes on your license.

Where to Train in North Dakota:

• University of North Dakota (Grand Forks) — Graduate Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, 20 credit hours, about 1.5 years, 100% online and asynchronous with no campus visits. UND says graduates are qualified to teach English learners in K-12 schools, adult education, and international settings, and that the coursework leads to eligibility for the North Dakota English Language Learner teacher endorsement — und.edu/programs/teaching-english-speakers-of-other-languages-certificate
• University of North Dakota (Grand Forks) — M.Ed. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, 32 credit hours, 2 or more years, 100% online and asynchronous, including a 90-hour practicum. UND says graduates are eligible for the ND English Language Learner endorsement and may fully or partly meet the requirements in other states, and names community adult programs as one place graduates work — und.edu/programs/teaching-english-speakers-of-other-languages-med
• North Dakota State University (Fargo) — English Learner (EL) Endorsement, 16 semester hours including 2 semester hours of field teaching, offered online as professional development. Courses include Foundations of Second Language Acquisition, Methods of Teaching English as a Second Language, ELL Evaluation and Assessment, Field Experience, and Native American Best Practices. NDSU notes these courses are not eligible for use on a graduate program of study, so if you want them to count toward a master’s later, ask first — ndsu.edu/continued-learning/k-12-professionals/endorsements
• The eight North Dakota Adult Learning Centers, which are both where the jobs are and where you should call with your questions. Region 1: Williston State College, Williston, with a satellite in Watford City. Region 2: Minot Public Schools, Minot. Region 3: Lake Region State College, Devils Lake, with a satellite at Turtle Mountain Community College in Belcourt. Region 4: Grand Forks Public Schools. Region 5: Fargo Public Schools, with a satellite at NDSCS in Wahpeton. Region 6: Sheyenne Valley Career and Technology Center, Valley City, with a satellite at James Valley Career and Technical Center in Jamestown. Region 7: Bismarck Public Schools. Region 8: Dickinson Public Schools. Fargo also runs the integrated English literacy and civics program, and the ND Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation runs the corrections sites — nd.gov/dpi/education-programs/adult-education-ged/adult-learning-centers-alc
• Bismarck Public Schools Adult Learning Center — 1200 College Drive, Bismarck, 701-323-4530. Offers high school equivalency preparation in math, reasoning through language arts, social studies, and science, plus English language classes and computer and career services — alc.bismarckschools.org
• Lake Region State College Adult Learning Center (Devils Lake) — free classes and materials, open Monday through Thursday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Friday 9 a.m. to noon, with extra times arranged around students. Enrollment takes about three hours and you bring a photo ID and Social Security card. The Belcourt satellite is by appointment at 701-394-4306 — lrsc.edu/ged-services
• A note on the four-year teaching degree road, if you decide you want the license anyway: Mayville State, Minot State, UND, University of Mary, Valley City State, and Dickinson State all run approved teacher preparation programs, and the licensure details are on the K-12 teaching pages in this series.

Before You Start: A high school diploma or GED to start any of this. Most centers want a bachelor’s degree; a few do not. A background check. Patience with adults who are embarrassed, which is most of them at the start. If you want the English side, it helps enormously to have learned a second language yourself, or to have lived somewhere you did not speak the language — you will understand exactly how tiring it is.

Tip: Start with financial aid and scholarships. Fill out the FAFSA, ask the school’s financial aid office what you qualify for, and ask an employer whether they help pay for school. That is where the money starts. After that, a career counselor or Job Service North Dakota may be able to help with what is left over, like tuition, books, a laptop, or exam fees. What can be paid for depends on the program and on your own situation, so ask before you enroll rather than after. Worth asking about specifically: two-year degrees that train you for a job, like civil engineering technology, land surveying, mechatronics, electronics, or instrumentation. North Dakota two-year colleges also cost far less than a university. Ask about paid summer internships too — engineering firms, plants, and survey crews hire students while they are still in school.

5Certification & Licensing

North Dakota issues no adult education credential. The center hires you, not the state. This is the opposite of every other page in this series, so read it slowly. For a K-12 teaching job, the state licenses you personally and no district can hire you without it. For adult education, there is no state license to get. The state pays for the program and checks its results; the local center writes the job description. That means two people doing the same job in two North Dakota towns can have very different credentials, and both are legal.

What to Check Before You Apply:

• No North Dakota adult education license exists — the ND DPI credentials and certificates page lists every credential DPI issues, and adult education is not among them (nd.gov/dpi/educators/credentials-and-certificates)
• The center sets the requirement — ask the specific Adult Learning Center whether they require a bachelor’s degree, whether they require a teaching license, and whether they will hire someone still finishing a degree
• Who signs your paycheck changes the rules — if the center is run by a school district, district hiring policies may pull a teaching license into the job description even though the state does not require one. If it is run by a college, it is usually college instructor hiring instead
• English Language Learner endorsement (ESPB, $80) — only relevant if you already hold a ND teaching license. It is added through your ND Teach account. UND says its TESOL certificate and M.Ed. lead to eligibility for it, and NDSU offers a 16-semester-hour endorsement route
• TESOL or TEFL certificate — voluntary, not a North Dakota license, not required by any center, and still the strongest thing you can add if you want the English side of the work. UND’s is 20 credits and online
• Background check — expect one, especially for the five correctional sites
• High school equivalency testing, for your students, not you — North Dakota uses the GED. The minimum age for enrollment and testing is 16. There are four exams: Reasoning through Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies, available in English and Spanish, $36 each, taken at approved ND testing centers and Adult Learning Centers. A score of 145 passes and earns a diploma from the Department of Public Instruction; 165 or above is marked College Ready. The Bank of North Dakota reimburses the first and last exam for actively enrolled adult education students who pass. ND DPI’s pages describe GED testing and do not mention HiSET, so if a student asks about HiSET, check with the center before you answer (nd.gov/dpi/education-programs/adult-education-ged/ged-testing)

The Exams: There is no state exam for you. The exams in this job belong to your students. If you add the ESPB English Language Learner endorsement to an existing teaching license, ESPB decides what testing that requires, so ask them directly rather than guessing.

Cost: Close to nothing on the state side, because there is no license to buy. Your costs are whatever degree or certificate a center asks for. UND’s TESOL certificate is 20 graduate credits; UND says its tuition is lower than comparable online TESOL graduate programs but does not publish the number on the program page, so ask for the current per-credit rate. If you add the ESPB endorsement to a license you already have, that is $80.

Keeping It Current: Nothing to renew, again because there is no state credential. What you will do instead is ongoing training through the state adult education office and the regional network, and centers expect it. If you hold a ND teaching license, that still renews on the ESPB five-year cycle with six semester hours of continuing education.

6Salary & Job Outlook

North Dakota Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Language Instructor Pay (May 2025):

• Starting out (bottom 10–25%): $22.74–$28.30/hour ($47,310–$58,860/year)
• Middle (median — half earn more, half earn less): $30.68/hour ($63,820/year)
• Experienced (top 25–10%): $36.78–$41.11/hour ($76,500–$85,510/year)

What that means: These are real published North Dakota hourly wages, not figures worked out from a yearly salary, which fits a job that is often paid by the hour. The middle instructor in North Dakota earns about $30.68 an hour, or about $63,820 a year. That is higher than the national middle of $29.59 and $61,540, and it is higher than what most North Dakota K-12 teachers make, which surprises people. There are two likely reasons and you should know both. Most North Dakota centers are run by school districts and colleges, so instructors often sit on a regular staff salary scale. And North Dakota counts only about 130 workers in this job, which is a small enough number that a handful of well-paid full-timers pull the middle up. The number that should worry you more is the bottom: $22.74 an hour, about $47,310. If a center offers you part-time evening hours, that is the end of the range you are being offered, and part-time means no benefits. So do not read $63,820 as the starting offer. Ask the center for the actual hourly rate, the actual number of hours, and whether the position comes with insurance, before you get attached to it.

Jobs in North Dakota: About 130 people do this work in ND today. By 2034, that should be about 130 (flat, no growth). Expect about 20 job openings every year in ND from growth and people retiring or changing jobs. Across the U.S., the change is about 14% decline.

Outlook: Flat in North Dakota, and falling hard nationally. Say it plainly. O*NET shows North Dakota holding at about 130 workers from 2024 to 2034 — no growth at all — with about 20 openings a year, which are replacement openings, people leaving rather than new jobs being made. Nationally the job is projected to drop about 14%, from about 40,900 workers to about 35,300. North Dakota is doing better than the country, and the state does keep the eight centers running, but this is not a growing field and you should not plan on it becoming one. What keeps North Dakota steadier than most is a real need: the centers serve tribal, rural, and new American populations across all eight regions and five correctional sites. If you want education work in North Dakota with stronger numbers, look at elementary school teaching, elementary special education, or instructional coordinator work, which shows about 530 workers growing to about 560 with about 50 openings a year and a middle wage around $75,340.

Who Hires in ND: The eight regional Adult Learning Centers and their satellites, which are run by school districts (Bismarck, Fargo, Grand Forks, Minot, Dickinson), community colleges (Williston State, Lake Region State), and career and technology centers (Sheyenne Valley, James Valley); the ND Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation at five correctional sites; tribal colleges and tribal programs; and refugee and immigrant resettlement agencies for English language work.

Work Setting: A classroom or lab inside a school, a college, or a downtown storefront, usually with computers and a lot of coffee. Class sizes are small and the room is informal — adults sit where they want and ask what they want. Hours are split: some daytime, a lot of evening, because your students work. Correctional sites are a different world, with controlled entry, no phone, and a fixed schedule. Some instructors drive to satellite towns once or twice a week.

Physical Demands: Low. You are on your feet in a classroom and moving between tables, and that is about it. The strain in this job is emotional, not physical: keeping your steadiness when a student who was almost finished stops coming, and keeping your face neutral when an adult tells you they have never been able to read a menu.

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, North Dakota, May 2025 (SOC 25-3011); North Dakota and U.S. long-term employment projections 2024–2034, via O*NET OnLine. Numbers are rounded.

7Where This Leads

Path 1: Adult Education Instructor — Teach basic skills and high school equivalency preparation.

Path 2: English Language Instructor — Specialize in adults learning English, often with a TESOL certificate.

Path 3: Adult Learning Center Director — Run a regional center, its staff, its data, and its budget.

Path 4: Corrections Education Instructor — Teach at one of the five correctional sites.

Path 5: Workforce or Career Navigator — Move toward job coaching, resumes, and employer connections.

Path 6: K-12 Teacher — Add an ESPB license and move into a school, or move the other direction later in your career.

8The Real Talk

What's Great:

• Every student chose to be there, which changes the whole room
• You see adults change their own lives, and they tell you so
• No North Dakota license required, so the door is far cheaper than K-12 teaching
• Small classes, informal rooms, no bells, no hallway duty
• Middle pay of about $30.68 an hour is solid for the training required
• North Dakota’s pass rate is strong — 84% in 2024, top five nationally for five years running

What's Hard:

• The job is flat in North Dakota and shrinking nationally, about 14% down
• Many positions are part-time or evening, with no benefits
• Students disappear for reasons you cannot fix, and some do not come back
• One room, several levels, all at once — you are always rotating
• You carry the program’s data and testing numbers, and they are watched
• Split shifts mean your evenings belong to work

Be Honest: Can you teach four different levels in one room at the same time without losing anyone? Can you let a student vanish for a month and greet them warmly when they come back, with no lecture? Can you live with a schedule that includes evenings? And can you take a job that might start part-time, and be honest with yourself about whether that works for your household?

9Part 1: What Attracts You?

10Part 2: Are You Ready?

11Part 3: Your Next Move

Your Adult Education and English Language Instructor Assessment Results