Hiring Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary

What do education administrators, kindergarten through secondary do?

• Evaluate curricula, teaching methods, and programs to determine their effectiveness, efficiency, and use, and to ensure compliance with federal, state, and local regulations.
• Observe teaching methods and examine learning materials to evaluate and standardize curricula and teaching techniques and to determine areas for improvement.
• Counsel and provide guidance to students regarding personal, academic, vocational, or behavioral issues.
• Collaborate with teachers to develop and maintain curriculum standards, develop mission statements, and set performance goals and objectives.
• Direct and coordinate activities of teachers, administrators, and support staff at schools, public agencies, and institutions.
• Recruit, hire, train, and evaluate primary and supplemental staff.

Core tasks, O*NET OnLine, 11-9032.00.

What does it take to become one?

Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.

Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

O*NET Job Zone 5, SVP (8.0 and above). O*NET OnLine.

Employers commonly list experience with Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Office software, Microsoft PowerPoint, Apache Cassandra, IBM SPSS Statistics, Microsoft Access for this role.

What do education administrators, kindergarten through secondary get paid?

BLS OEWS, May 2025 publishes a wage for education administrators, kindergarten through secondary in 92 of the metro areas we publish data for. The median ranges from $78,720 to $174,260 a year depending on the metro, with a midpoint of $104,050. This is what employers pay, place of work, not a single national figure and not what any one person takes home.

BLS OEWS, BLS OEWS, May 2025, SOC 11-9032.

What does hiring one cost?

The same as any role: tier, not location or salary, sets the fee. Across all six tiers the published range is $6,240 to $54,340 per search. For scale, the highest median any metro we publish data for pays education administrators, kindergarten through secondary is $174,260 a year, place of work (BLS OEWS, May 2025). A contingency firm hiring at that level would bill roughly $34,852 to $52,278 on the first year salary alone, 20 to 30%.

Frequently asked

How fast can a school administrator search fill?

Typically 23 to 35 days, and typically 2 to 3x faster than a contingency search, per our recruiting partner's published figures. Both are typical rather than guaranteed.

What if the hire does not work out?

A 45-day replacement guarantee, at 50% off a repeat search for the same role.