Are you a teacher? Do you love working in education, shaping the minds of tomorrow? With a love for learning and a passion for instilling knowledge in kids, being a teacher is an incredibly rewarding career. However, did you know there are career options in the education sector beyond just teaching?
This article will provide a brief overview of pivoting from being a teacher into a position of leadership in the education sector. We’ll cover what educational leadership is and then discuss potential careers in this field. So, continue reading to learn more about this interesting topic.
What is Educational Leadership?
Educational leadership is the term given to the management of activities within an academic institution, including primary or secondary schools and colleges or universities. Professionals working in these roles aim to fulfill learning objectives while also ensuring the institution has the right level of staffing and financial resources to function properly. Educational leadership can also involve the wider community, where teachers and administrators aim to build positive rapport with the parents and families of the students who attend the schools.
If you’re interested in educational leadership, completing educational leadership doctoral programs online allows you to pursue advanced roles in the education sector, including leadership roles.
What Roles in Educational Leadership Are There?
Now, we’ll discuss some of the key roles in educational leadership and their responsibilities and tasks.
Program Director
A program director will develop activities and lecture materials for participants or students of an educational program such as a college course or similar. Working with specific learning objectives in mind, program directors achieve tasks such as building and maintaining budgets for the program. They will report progress to the leaders of the organizations they work for. They also ensure the concepts and goals of the programs align with the organization’s interests.
Dean of Students
A dean of students is a tertiary educational administrator who leads student services at a higher education facility such as a college or university. The dean of students monitors the admissions department to track data such as enrollment rates, and they also help establish programs to retain student engagement, such as events, functions, and campus organizations. They collaborate with other administrative educational leaders, such as the vice president and provost of the college, to address the needs of students who attend the educational institution.
Assistant Principal
An assistant principal is an educational administrator who oversees activities within a grade school, which includes levels like elementary, middle, and high school students. They can also be called vice principals, and these roles work closely with classroom teachers and board members to meet state and federal regulatory requirements for academics. They build a safe and productive learning environment for students, ensuring that school is fun, engaging, and pleasant to attend.
Principal
A principal is an educational leader who manages and oversees the operations of a grade school such as primary, middle, or high school. Also called headteachers or headmasters, principals are the immediate line supervisors of teachers, and they work closely with other administrative staff to ensure the smooth operations of the school. Principals also build and develop school regulations that cover academic performance, dress codes, and discipline. They have an important role as they also represent the school to the public, and they decide where to allocate financial resources and track budgets and expenditures.
Curriculum Leader
A curriculum leader is an educational leadership professional who structures and oversees the required and elective courses of an education program such as within a school. Using the results of extensive research, curriculum leaders achieve tasks such as implementing classes that can bring out academic excellence in students, attract new students to the school, and prepare students for their desired careers after graduation and college pathways. They may also consider the institution’s available resources, such as funding, workforce size, and the teaching specialties of faculty members, and ensure these align with the curriculum and learning objectives for students.
School Superintendent
A school superintendent is an educational leader within a school district, which is a term given to a group of academic institutions in a local community area. School superintendents do things like appointing principals to oversee each school in the district, and they also implement policies and programs to align with the expectations of the school board and relevant government departments. They also monitor the academic performance of students within the district and manage the community’s financial resources for education, allocating budgets to the schools they manage.
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