No, principals are not teachers. Principals are considered building administrators. They do not teach a subject nor are they responsible for teaching classrooms of students. Many principals were at some point were teachers but as they transition into the principal role they stop being a classroom teacher.
I surveyed 91 principals and assistant principals on the Reddit r/teachingresources Subreddit to find out how long they had been a classroom teacher for before becoming a principal/assistant principal.
Here are the results from the survey:
Principals were asked: How long were you a classroom teacher for before taking a principal or assistant principal role?
| Years Teaching Prior To Becoming Principal | Amount (out of 91 total responses) |
| 0 years | 13 |
| 1-2 years | 8 |
| 3-4 years | 9 |
| 5-6 years | 18 |
| 7-8 years | 8 |
| 9 or more years | 35 |
School Principals Are Administrators, Not Teachers
School principals don’t teach in classrooms, they instead manage the school and school personael.
Every school is going to be a little different in terms of what a principal does.
Also, there is a difference in being a high school principal versus and elementary school principal.
In general thought there are some basic things that all principals do:
- Manage school activities and the staff.
- Responsible for evaluating teachers and providing feedback to improve teaching. Principals are also responsible to teacher discipline when necessary. Principals usually observe teachers teaching and then have a follow-up meeting with them to discuss their teaching practice.
- Create class schedules and assign room usage. Principals create a master schedule of which teacher is teaching in different classrooms and create a schedule of the day for students. Most principals will do this for the next school year prior to the end of the present school year.
- Discipline students. Principals often have a role in student discipline that goes beyond what the classroom teacher can do.
- Meet with parents and people from the community to address concerns and possible solutions.
- Organize professional development activities for teachers and staff. These are usually done during staff meetings and professional development days.
- Coordinate with local police and fire departments to organize how the school will respond to emergency situations.
- Attend meetings with other principals within the school district.
- Implement learning standards using data and provide teachers with opportunities to discuss and use the data to improve learning.
- Organize schedules for parent teacher conferences.
- Organize and administer state testing implementation.
Principals also have to make sure that the schools day to day operations are running smoothly.
Does A Principal Need To Be A Teacher First?
Technically no, a principal doesn’t need to be a teacher first.
They can get their master’s degree in education administration/leadership and become a principal without stepping foot in the classroom.
You can see in my survey data above that some principals (13 out of 91) were never teachers prior to becoming a principal. For the most part (78 out of 91) spent time as a teacher before becoming a principal.
Does it happen? Yes. Is it common? No.
Most school districts are looking for potential principals that have experience as a classroom teacher first.
This is important because in order to become a principal you need to know what it is like working as a teacher in a classroom so that you have some perspective later on when you are in a principal position and making decisions that will impact your school.
How Does A Teacher Become A Principal?
The most common way a teacher becomes a principal is this:
- First, find a teaching positon (assuming you have acquired teacher certification and student taught) at a school and work as a regular classroom teacher.
- Second, while working as a classroom teacher you complete courses at an accredited College or University towards an education administration degree. Where I live the degree is called a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership.
- Next, complete an internship. The education leadership internship is not like student teaching. During this internship (often up to a year) you are actually working with an assigned principal and helping them fulfill activities/assignments for their school. I often see teachers in my building completing their internship in our building by working with our principals. You can complete the internship while still working as a full-time classroom teacher.
- Finally, depending on your state you may have to pass a principal state exam for a principal endorsement.
- Seek a school principal or assistant principal job.
For specifics you need to do some research for the state you live in.
States have expectations and requirements that vary.
What Kinds Of Courses Do School Principals Take?
I can’t speak for all colleges and Universities but locally (Chicago suburbs) below are the types of courses that all of the schools around here offer.
The names of the courses (listed below) are all a little different so keep in mind this is a list of the types of courses, not exact names of courses.
I have included a link here to the College not far from where I teach that a lot if teachers go to for their degree in case you are interested to see how this all looks.
- School Law and Policies
- Supervision and Instruction
- School, Home, and Community.
- Educational Leadership
- Operations and Management
- Education Administration and Organization
- Data Based Decision Making
- Legal Requirements For Education Diverse Students
