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How do states map their teacher job titles to the federal 11 professional categories for reporting purposes?
Executive summary
There is little direct, centralized reporting in the provided sources about how U.S. states map their local teacher job titles to a specific set of “11 federal professional categories” for reporting; available sources do not mention an “11 professional categories” framework or a nationwide mapping process (not found in current reporting). What the record does show is that federal classification systems exist for government jobs (OPM’s series/GS framework and related guidance) and states maintain their own large classification systems — but the connection between K–12 teacher titles and a stated 11-category federal schema is not documented in the supplied material [1] [2].
1. Federal classification exists, but it’s not K–12 teacher‑specific
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) publishes position-classification and qualification guidance that defines federal occupational series, official position titles, and grading rules used across federal agencies [3] [1]. That system uses four‑digit series codes and General Schedule (GS) grades for many federal white‑collar jobs and education roles [4] [5]. The sources describe federal job‑series mechanics, not a bespoke 11‑category reporting taxonomy for state K–12 teacher titles [3] [1] [4].
2. States have their own classification catalogs and practices
State human‑resources offices maintain detailed classification systems for state employees; for example, North Carolina’s system lists roughly 1,400 job titles and groups education/training work under defined categories and descriptions [2]. That demonstrates states already translate local roles into a controlled vocabulary for internal payroll and HR, but the supplied reporting does not show states mapping K–12 teacher job titles to a specific federal 11‑category set [2].
3. Public-facing job title lists are plentiful but inconsistent
Job‑title aggregators and career sites list many teacher titles and hierarchies for career guidance — useful for understanding common local labels (e.g., “Lead Teacher,” “Director of Curriculum and Instruction,” teacher aides) — but these commercial lists are not official mapping tools and do not reference a federal 11‑category reporting scheme [6] [7]. They illustrate the variety states and districts must reconcile if they were to align local titles with any single federal taxonomy [6].
4. How a mapping process would likely work, given available systems
Based on OPM’s position‑classification approach and state classification catalogs, a plausible mapping workflow would: (a) compile local/district job titles, (b) match job functions to a standard occupational code or series (federal or state), and (c) assign a category/grade based on duties and qualifications using published guidance [3] [1] [2]. However, the sources do not confirm that such a workflow is used to map K–12 teacher titles into an “11 professional categories” framework [3] [2].
5. What the supplied sources do not show — important gaps
The documents and articles in the search set do not mention a federal requirement that states report K–12 teacher data into 11 specific professional categories, nor do they provide an example crosswalk or template states use to perform such a mapping (not found in current reporting). There is no supplied evidence that OPM’s federal series/GS framework has been repurposed into an 11‑category teacher reporting taxonomy in state education data [3] [1].
6. Competing perspectives and implications
OPM and related federal guidance present a formal, centralized classification logic for federal jobs [3] [1]. State systems show decentralized, bespoke catalogs reflecting local policy and HR needs [2]. If policymakers or researchers advocate a fixed federal 11‑category teacher taxonomy, they face the practical challenge reflected in the sources: states already use heterogeneous title systems and the supplied materials contain no documented national crosswalk to a single 11‑category schema [3] [2] [6].
7. Where to look next (based on source types)
To resolve this question definitively, the most relevant documents would be federal education data reporting guidance (e.g., from ED/NCES) or state education agency crosswalks tying local job titles to federal categories — neither appear in the current search results. The closest existing references in these results are OPM classification rules for federal positions and state classification catalogs; both are useful context but do not answer the specific 11‑category mapping question [3] [1] [2].
Limitations: This analysis uses only the supplied search results; claims about an explicit “11 professional categories” mapping are not supported by these items and therefore treated as not documented in current reporting (not found in current reporting).