Teachers & Principals, help me.....?

Question

Is it at all possible to get into grad school for administration as a licensed teacher, but without having any actual prior classroom teaching experience? I will have by B.A. in Elementary Education (along with a teaching license), but I'd like to go to grad school for admin. straight out of college if possible...can I?

Answer 1

Get your feet wet with teaching before you move into administration.  There' s nothing worse than having someone "over" you in education who has not been in your shoes as a teacher.  Don't put the cart before the horse....sounds like you are overplanning and an overachiever, which can be  a good thing...just direct these desires in the right direction.

Answer 2

I dont know if thats even possible.

I know you can certainly get a degree. But you would still have to find a job - I dont know of any administrator ever in my 16 years to not have any classroom experience. There are so many school level things you need to know. In my district they require all admins to be out of the classroom in coordinatorship positions before theyll hire - they need experince in all the different admin areas - budgets, curriculum, plant, scheduling of students - surely there is no possible way schooling can prepare you for all that.

Heres an interview question - what experience do you have with title 1 budgets? No college kid could answer that correctly.

Perhaps people who have experience in private school settings might...

Good luck to you!

Answer 3

Every master's program is different, so if I were you I would research the schools that you might be interested in.  However, my personal opinion is that you should have some in-class teaching experience before or while you get your master's in administration.  In fact, I think you'll find that most of the people in those programs are teaching simultaneously, or are involved in education to some degree.  My philosophy is that you learn best by experiencing things first hand.  The things you will learn in a master's program for administration will not be as meaningful if you haven't had some experience with them.  I also think that the best administrators are the ones who have been teachers before and can relate to what teachers go through.  Have you considered getting a teaching job and going to school maybe at night?  So many programs are really geared toward working teachers these days.  Whatever you decide, GOOD LUCK!  :)

Answer 4

There are some programs that will allow you to do that, but it would be difficult because they will be talking about classroom and school wide issues quite a bit.  Without that experience, it would be tough to know what they are talking about.

Answer 5

For most Admin Credential programs you have to have 3 years teaching experience before you can apply.  Depending on the school you need to show that you have leadership experience in order to get into a program.

Answer 6

I believe that you have to have some classroom experience before going into administration. For us, its five years.

Answer 7

From my understanding, to be a school administrator, you must have classroom experience.  It's even better to have classroom experience at the level in which you're hoping to become an administrator (i.e.  Elementary principal - teach Elementary school)

Keep in mind, too, that especially in this time of budget cuts and poor economy, it is hard enough to get a teaching job with a Bachelors, let alone a teaching job with a master's or more.  Many districts shy away from hiring teachers with advanced degrees because it means they have to pay them a higher salary right from the get go.  Knowing this, a friend of mine hired in with her Bachelors and more than half of her masters finished (she had been substitute teaching while going to school since she didn't have a full-time classroom.)  After a year and half of teaching, she wrapped up her masters and was already set with a job.

I too, aspire to be an administrator one day, and from some research in local schools in my area, I need to have at least 5 years of classroom experience in the desired admin level.  My plan is to actually teach for 10 - 15 years before stepping up to admin.  I love the classroom, and the more classroom experience I get, the better administrator I'll be.

Good luck!