There are 59 school districts and/or educational service
agencies in Alaska that hire certified teachers and
administrators. All are members of Alaska Teacher Placement,
and list openings with the ATP Applitrack
database.
There are also several districts that have their own
Applitrack system which display their listings in our search
results, but the links
go
to a separate database the school districts maintain
themselves, not through ATP. These are sometimes
referred to as the Big Five Districts, and originally
included Anchorage, Mat Su, Kenai, Fairbanks and Juneau. In
the last year two additional districts - Kodiak & North
Slope - have begun to run their own Applitrack databases for
job postings. Candidates can import parts of their ATP
Applitrack applications into all seven of these systems, but
because the data fields are slightly different with each,
there will also be additional information you will need to
input. See our
FAQ sheet on this for more information on how ATP's
Applitrack system and the other districts interact.
Alaska's approximately 500 public schools are organized within 55 school districts. These include 34 city and borough school districts and 19 Regional Educational Attendance Areas. REAAs serve students living in towns and villages in politically unorganized areas of rural Alaska. Alaska definitions of "city” and "borough” are not necessarily indicative of an urban setting, but refer to form of political organization.
Alaska schools vary greatly in size. High schools in Anchorage, the state’s largest city, may serve more than 2,000 students. Schools in other urban areas such as Juneau, Fairbanks, the Kenai Peninsula, or the Matanuska-Susitna Valley may serve hundreds and are similar to schools in small cities in the rest of the United States.
Many schools in rural areas are small, some with 20 or fewer students at a variety of grade levels.
Note: Although the state boarding school in Sitka, Mt. Edgecumbe High School, is included in the total of 55, a number of statewide correspondence schools are operated directly by districts, and are therefore not counted as separate districts themselves.
The "road system" in the state includes only a small portion of the state. Use the About Alaska page to learn more.
Because the state is so geographically diverse, it's a good idea to use a map to understand a little more about where each is located. You can use the map below to locate Alaska's school districts. All but six have at least some type of website, and we've linked their names to each district's main page.
A school district's website is potentially an excellent way to get a feel what life is like for teachers and administrators working there now. Look for clues about what each organization stresses in its programs, approaches and interactions with the public.
Alaska School Districts:
Locations & Website Links (Updated
10/21) |
![]() |
By far, the most common request for information we get at Alaska Teacher Placement is from candidates asking about Alaska's pay scale.
» Myth Number 1: You will get rich as a teacher in Alaska!
Unlike some parts of the country, Alaska's school districts are all responsible for reaching agreement with an official bargaining unit representing the teachers in that district. There is no state pay scale. Each district sets its own in agreement with a union – either local NEA, or AFT associations in most cases.
There was a time when school districts in Alaska paid
teachers significantly more that other parts of the country,
and offered many recruitment incentives. Those days are
gone. Salaries are somewhere in the middle of the pack when
adjusted for cost of living, and only in the top third in
raw dollars.
The recent economic struggles in Alaska brought about by
the crash of oil prices has had a significant impact on
school districts because the vast majority of school funding
in Alaska comes from oil tax revenues, not property
taxes. Several articles
and feature
stories in national newspapers in recent years have made
education funding in Alaska a national story. Although
districts are indeed struggling, they still need to
keep the doors open, and hire new teachers every year to
replace retiring and relocating staff. The budget process
this year resulted in urban districts laying off some
teachers, increasing some class sizes, and reducing non-core
programs. Hiring has not stopped, but jobs have been
posted more sporadically as budgets and funding shifted.
District hiring incentives, such as moving allowances, signing bonuses, round trip airfare for teachers to their village from Anchorage, and cost of living adjustments are beginning to make a comeback. Each district is offering something a little different.
Districts also try to help reduce taxable income with subsidized housing, "cafeteria" medical expense plans, and other strategies. They offer good insurance plans, decent pay, much better housing, and meaningful staff development. If you are primarily seeking to teach in Alaska for financial consideration, you should look more closely at Michigan, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, California and several other states. That doesn't mean teachers are suffering hardship in Alaska. They are, for the most part, paid a living wage in the majority of districts.
We have attempted in the past to list District Salary
Schedules for the benefit of candidates. However, we are not
able to keep the salary schedules for all districts up to
date and this has caused problems for our candidates and
districts. Therefore, we are no longer posting this
information. Please contact the districts directly for
salary information, or use this link where we have set up a
search assistant.