Can You Specialize A Master’s in Education in Educational Administration?

As an educational graduate student, you have the option of specializing your degree in different ways, and many students choose to specialize a Master’s in Education in Educational Administration. Administrators include principals, superintendents and others who help with the day to day operations of a school. These positions often require that applicants have experience and a graduate degree, and most graduate programs include an internship or student teaching experience that give graduates some experience.

What is an Educational Administration Degree?

An educational administration degree is a degree designed for those planning to work in administrative positions after graduation. Most programs consist of at least 30 credit hours of work, but the programs can include up to 36 credit hours of courses. A large number of graduate degree programs also let students choose a thesis path or a non-thesis path. Thesis students must submit a topic to a professor or a board of professors, write the paper with feedback from someone in the program and defend the paper in front of that same board.

Administration Classes for Students

If you decide to specialize a Master’s in Education in Educational Administration, you should look at the classes you need to take. Most programs ask students to take one or more classes on leadership. In addition to learning how to project yourself, you also learn leadership techniques that professionals use in the educational field. Students also take classes on administration and what administrators do. Those courses prepare you for handling problems relating to bullying, sexual harassment, inappropriate relationships between students and teachers and harassment that occurs online. Some programs also require that education students do an internship and take a course on legal issues in the educational field.

Where do Administrators Work?

Those with an educational administration degree can work in public and private schools at the elementary, middle school and high school level, but they can also work for colleges and universities. Though many people think of principals and superintendents, those with a degree in this field might work at a community center, a daycare facility, in leadership programs or on college campuses in the residential housing department or Greek system. They often focus on helping students take care of issues that arise, but they also deal with traditional administrative tasks, including hiring new professors, assisting with fundraising campaigns and working out contract negotiations for workers.

How Much do Administrators Make?

Now that you know you can specialize a Master’s in Education in Educational Administration, you might want to get some idea of how much you can make with your degree. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found principals working for public and private schools make $87,760 a year. Superintendents are often responsible for maintaining the operations of multiple schools within a single district, and those workers can make up to twice as much of a principal or even more. The BLS believes that the number of principal will slowly increase but that it will still add more than 13,000 new jobs.

Related Resource: School Psychology

A Master’s in Education is a degree designed for those who have an undergraduate degree, and these programs offer concentrations that let students focus themselves on one area of the educational world. If you want to work as a principal or in an administrative position, you can specialize a Master’s in Education in Educational Administration.