Can I be a principal in New York State without being a teacher first? What should I do?

Question

I recently graduated with a BA in poli sci and have decided to pursue a career as a high school principal and eventually superintendent of a school district. I live in New York and while starting out as a teacher is the logical choice, with the degree I have chosen I would have to jump through many hoops in order to receive teacher certification. I was wondering if there was another route I could go.

Answer 1

There ARE school principals that have never been classroom teachers, and ALL of them suck!

They have absolutely no clue about so many aspects of how a school must operate, you will only embarrass yourself.

Moreover, you will have no credibility among your faculty and staff when they discover within your first three minutes on the job that you were never a classroom teacher.

This will be easy to handle compared to how the local community and parents will interact with you when they find out this "little secret" in a day or two.

Please do everyone a favor and get SOME experience in the classroom before you attempt to run a school.

I usually end with "Good Luck," but I think I will withhold this salutation for this question.

Answer 2

I sure hope that New York does not certify principals without them having teaching experience. A principle needs to not only have great administration, organization, and financial planning skills, a principle must also be able to connect with the students AND the teachers. Teachers are not going to give you the respect you deserve if you have never been in a classroom. Also, how are you going to lead teachers if you don't know how it feels to be one.

One option you could do, is there is a program called Teach for America. With this program, you can be a teacher in an inner-city area without a teaching degree. While you are doing this it is very easy to get you teaching credentials, and you also have the experience of teaching for two years. After you get certified to teach, getting in a educational leadership program should not be too difficult. I really wish you the best of luck and are able to make a difference in the country's atrocious (sp?) educational system.

Answer 3

I don't know about New York State but no principal should ever be hired without spending time in the classroom. You need to understand what it is like to teach, to maintain discipline, to interact with the administration and deal with the day to day demands of the job. It is like trying to be a general without ever having been a soldier. Yes, there were generals in the Civil War who did just that but as a rule they got their men and often themselves killed. If you do not have the desire to educate children in the classroom you probably do not have what it takes to be an effective principal.

Answer 4

I know of principals who were not first teachers. As a general rule though, you don't get much respect from teachers without having been one yourself. We get offended when someone who hasn't been trained to do our job tries to tell us how to do it. To curb this, I would recommend taking some extra education classes and/or substitute teaching while you go for your degree in administration. Best wishes!

Answer 5

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