Nature of the Work: Successful operation of an educational institution requires competent administrators. Education administrators provide instructional leadership and manage the day-to-day activities in schools, preschools, day care centers, and colleges and universities. They also direct the educational programs of businesses, correctional institutions, museums, and job training and community service organizations. College presidents and school superintendents are covered in general managers and top executives.

Education administrators set educational standards and goals and establish the policies and procedures required to achieve them. They also supervise managers, support staff, teachers, counselors, librarians, coaches, and other employees. They develop academic programs, monitor students’ educational progress, train and motivate teachers and other staff, manage career counseling and other student services, administer record keeping, prepare budgets, and perform many other duties. They also handle relations with parents, prospective and current students, employers, and the community. In a smaller organization such as a small day care center, one administrator may handle all these functions. In universities or large school systems, responsibilities are divided among many administrators, each with a specific function.

Educational administrators who manage elementary, middle, and secondary schools are called principals. They set the academic tone and work actively with teachers to develop and maintain high curriculum standards, formulate mission statements, and establish performance goals and objectives. Principals confer with staff to advise, explain, or answer procedural questions. They hire and evaluate teachers and other staff. They visit classrooms, observe teaching methods, review instructional objectives, and examine learning materials. Principals must use clear, objective guidelines for teacher appraisals, because principals’ pay often is based on performance ratings.

Principals also meet with other administrators and students, parents, and representatives of community organizations. Decision making authority increasingly has shifted from school district central offices to individual schools. School principals have greater flexibility in setting school policies and goals, but when making administrative decisions, they must pay attention to the concerns of parents, teachers, and other members of the community.

Principals also are responsible for preparing budgets and reports on various subjects, such as finances, attendance and student performance. As school budgets become tighter, many principals have become more involved in public relations and fundraising to secure financial support for their schools from local businesses and the community.

Principals ensure that students meet national, State, and local academic standards. Many principals develop partnerships with local businesses and school-to-work transition programs for students. Principals must be sensitive to the needs of a rising number of non-English-speaking students and a culturally diverse student body. In some areas, growing enrollments are a cause for concern, because they lead to overcrowding at many schools. When addressing problems of inadequate resources, administrators serve as advocates for the building of new schools or the repair of existing ones. During the summer months, principals are responsible for planning for the upcoming year, overseeing summer school, participating in workshops for teachers and administrators, supervising building repairs and improvements, and working to make sure that the school has adequate staff for the upcoming school year.

Schools continue to be involved with students’ emotional welfare as well as their academic achievement. As a result, principals face responsibilities outside of academics. For example, many schools have a large number of students from single-parent families, families in which both parents work outside the home or students who are teenage parents. To support these students and their families, some schools have established before- and after-school child care programs or family resource centers, which also may offer parenting classes and social service referrals. With the help of community organizations, some principals have established programs to combat increases in crime, drug and alcohol abuse, and sexually transmitted diseases among students.

Assistant principals aid the principal in the overall administration of the school. Some assistant principals hold the position for only a few years, during which time they prepare for advancement to principal; others are assistant principals throughout their careers. They are primarily responsible for scheduling student classes and ordering textbooks and supplies. They also coordinate transportation, custodial, cafeteria, and other support services. They usually handle student discipline and attendance problems, social and recreational programs, and matters of health and safety. In addition, they may counsel students on personal, educational, or vocational matters. With the advent of site-based management, assistant principals play a greater role in academic planning by helping to develop new curricula, evaluating teachers, and dealing with school-community relations—responsibilities previously assumed solely by the principal. The number of assistant principals that a school employs may vary with the number of students.

Administrators in school district central offices oversee public schools under their jurisdiction. This group of administrators includes those who direct subject-area programs such as English, music, vocational education, special education, and mathematics. They supervise instructional coordinators and curriculum specialists and work with them to evaluate curricula and teaching techniques and to develop programs and strategies to improve them. (Instructional coordinators are covered elsewhere in the Handbook.) Some administrators may oversee career counseling programs. Others may administer testing that measures students’ abilities and helps to place them in appropriate classes. Some may direct programs such as school psychology, athletics, curriculum and instruction, and professional development. With site-based management, administrators have transferred the primary responsibility for many of these programs to the principals, assistant principals, teachers, instructional coordinators, and other staff in the schools.

In preschools and child care centers, which are usually much smaller than other educational institutions, the director or supervisor of the school or center often serves as the sole administrator. The director’s or supervisor’s job is similar to that of other school administrators in that he or she oversees the school’s daily activities and operation, hires and develops staff, and ensures that the school meets required regulations and educational standards.

In colleges and universities, provosts, also known as chief academic officers, assist presidents, make faculty appointments and tenure decisions, develop budgets, and establish academic policies and programs. With the assistance of academic deans and deans of faculty, provosts also direct and coordinate the activities of deans of individual colleges and chairpersons of academic departments. Fundraising is the chief responsibility of the director of development and also is becoming an essential part of the job for all administrators.

College or university department heads or chairpersons are in charge of departments that specialize in particular fields of study, such as English, biological science, or mathematics. In addition to teaching, they coordinate schedules of classes and teaching assignments; propose budgets; recruit, interview, and hire applicants for teaching positions; evaluate faculty members; encourage faculty development; serve on committees; and perform other administrative duties. In overseeing their departments, chairpersons must consider and balance the concerns of faculty, administrators, and students.

Higher education administrators also direct and coordinate the provision of student services. Vice presidents of student affairs or student life, deans of students, and directors of student services may direct and coordinate admissions, foreign student services, health and counseling services, career services, financial aid, and housing and residential life, as well as social, recreational, and related programs. In small colleges, they may counsel students. In larger colleges and universities, separate administrators may handle each of these services. Registrars are custodians of students’ records. They register students, record grades, prepare student transcripts, evaluate academic records, assess and collect tuition and fees, plan and implement commencement exercises, oversee the preparation of college catalogs and schedules of classes, and analyze enrollment and demographic statistics. Directors of admissions manage the process of recruiting, evaluating, and admitting students, and work closely with financial aid directors, who oversee scholarship, fellowship, and loan programs. Registrars and admissions officers at most institutions need computer skills because they use electronic student information systems. For example, for those whose institutions present college catalogs, schedules, and other information on the Internet, knowledge of online resources, imaging, and other computer skills is important. Athletic directors plan and direct intramural and intercollegiate athletic activities, overseeing the publicity for athletic events, preparing budgets, and supervising coaches. Other increasingly important administrators direct public relations, distance learning, and technology.

Work environment: Education administrators hold leadership positions with significant responsibility. Most find working with students extremely rewarding, but as the responsibilities of administrators have increased in recent years, so has the stress. Coordinating and interacting with faculty, parents, students, community members, business leaders, and State and local policymakers can be fast paced and stimulating, but also stressful and demanding. Principals and assistant principals, whose duties include disciplining students, may find working with difficult students challenging. They also are increasingly being held accountable for their schools meeting State and Federal guidelines for student performance and teacher qualifications.

About 35 percent of education administrators worked more than 40 hours a week in 2008. They often supervise school activities at night and on weekends. Most administrators work year round, although some work only during the academic year.