Educational Leadership Degree: Principal Licensure and Programs

By the Transforming Education editorial team. Reviewed for accuracy against the sources listed below.

An educational leadership degree is the master's that moves a teacher into the principal's office, and in most states it is also the legal prerequisite for the administrator license that goes with the job. The coursework can be online. The internship, the state exam and the years of classroom experience the license requires cannot. This guide explains how principal licensure works, what the internship involves, how licensure and non-licensure tracks differ, what the degree costs, where the Ed.D. and Ph.D. fit, and what the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports about principal pay.

What the degree is and who it is for

The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook describes the path plainly: principals typically need a master's degree in education leadership or education administration, several years of teaching experience, and, in most states, a license as a school administrator. Most of those states require a master's degree for the license, some offer alternative programs for candidates without one, and most also require an exam and a background check. Principals in private schools are not required to hold a state-issued license.

Program titles vary: M.Ed. in Educational Leadership, M.Ed. in Administration, M.S.E. in Educational Administration, M.Ed. in Administration and Supervision, M.S. in Educational Leadership. They serve the same reader: a licensed teacher with a few years in the classroom who wants to become an assistant principal, principal or district administrator. Several also offer non-licensure tracks for people who want to lead in settings that do not require a state administrator license.

If you are not yet a teacher, start with how to become a teacher; every licensure track on this page requires a teaching license and classroom years before admission.

Principal licensure: how the pieces fit

Licensure is a state process, and each program is built to one state's rules. The table shows how the pieces line up across five states.

Dayton is careful to say its tracks fulfill the academic eligibility requirements to sit for the Ohio exam and do not guarantee licensure in any state. The degree is a necessary step; the license is a separate state decision.

Internship hours and how they are arranged

The internship is the leadership equivalent of student teaching, and it is in person. Program pages describe it differently, which tells you something about how each is designed.

• Dayton: one 150-hour internship, required in both the standard and combined tracks.
• Kansas: the internship (ELPS 895, 3 credits) can be completed within your current school across multiple semesters and requires a minimum of 10 hours in each of nine leadership areas.
• Lamar: the 15-week Internship in Principal (EDLD 5398) is designed as job-related experience under the joint supervision of a school administrator and Lamar faculty and should be the last course taken. Texas applicants must have access to a TEA-approved campus and a site supervisor, though they need not be employed there.
• WGU: two practicum courses at an approved K-12 site under a practicing principal or assistant principal, available after completing a minimum of 18 competency units.
• Liberty: practicums plus a 3-credit internship, with the endorsement granted after licensure tests and a third year of experience.
• Florida: the Florida Department of Education-required field experience; students who skip certification take an additional elective or practicum in its place.

Note: Most interns are full-time teachers, so ask early whether your principal will supervise you and whether the hours can be spread across the school year. Several programs also require a recent performance evaluation at admission; request it before deadlines.

Licensure and non-licensure tracks

Not everyone who studies leadership wants a public school principalship, and several programs split accordingly.

Kansas offers a building leadership track with the internship and a non-licensure track that is 100% online with no internship. Dayton's standard M.S.E. does not require a teaching background and offers Higher Education and Student Affairs and Literacy concentrations; only the combined track leads toward the principal license. Florida's Systems Leadership track earns the same M.Ed. as School Leadership but without Level 1 certification eligibility. WGU's program is licensure-only. Choose a non-licensure track for private, charter, higher education or nonprofit settings where the state administrator license is not required; choose the licensure track for a public school principalship.

Credits, duration and admissions

• WGU: 13 courses plus a capstone; 60% of graduates finish within 23 months.
• Lamar: 30 credits in 5-week courses, with a 15-week internship; as few as 13 months.
• Florida: 36 credits; about two years at a typical load of 6 credits a semester, full or part time.
• Kansas: 30 credits in 10 courses of 8 weeks; as few as two years.
• Dayton: 30 credits for the standard M.S.E. in as few as two years part time; 39 credits for the combined M.S.E. and Principal Licensure track, which the admission page prices for 2026-27, over 30 months.
• Liberty: 36 credits in 8-week courses.

Admissions turn on experience rather than tests. Kansas states no GRE is required, Dayton's admission page lists GRE or MAT scores as optional, and Liberty requires no standardized testing. GPA floors are 2.5 at Liberty and Lamar, 2.75 at Dayton and 3.0 in the last 60 undergraduate credits at Florida. WGU requires a candidate interview, a valid professional license, a résumé showing three years of licensed P-12 experience, a confidential recommendation and a recent evaluation; Lamar requires a principal's reference and a $25 application fee.

Ed.D. or Ph.D.: a brief word

Neither doctorate is required for a principal license, which is a master's-level credential in most states. The Ed.D. is the practitioner's doctorate for people who lead schools, districts and organizations and want to apply research to problems of practice. The Ph.D. is the research doctorate for people who want to produce scholarship, often as university faculty. Decide after the master's and a first leadership role, when you know whether you want to run systems or study them. Our guide to the education specialist degree covers the Ed.S., the credential between the two.

Accreditation and why it matters

Check the institution first. Florida is accredited by SACSCOC. Kansas is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Dayton states it is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. WGU is accredited by NWCCU. Liberty is accredited by SACSCOC. Lamar's program page does not carry an institutional accreditation statement, so we list only its programmatic accreditation below; the university's home page identifies it as a member of the Texas State University System.

Then check the educator preparation accreditor. The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation is recognized by CHEA. The Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation, founded in 2017, is also CHEA-recognized and has more than 200 member providers in 34 states and territories. Lamar's M.Ed. in Administration holds full AAQEP accreditation through December 2027. Florida's College of Education reports CAEP accreditation in 2017 and reaccreditation in 2024. Kansas's programs are accredited under CAEP standards from fall 2021 to fall 2028 and by the Kansas State Department of Education. Dayton's accreditation page reports CAEP accreditation for its educator preparation programs in spring 2017, a spring 2024 review that included its principal and superintendent programs, and approval of all its programs by the Ohio Department of Higher Education. WGU holds CAEP and AAQEP accreditation. Liberty's School of Education is CAEP-accredited.

State approval is the layer that produces the license. Every licensure track on this page names its state; make sure that state is yours.

What it costs (approximate ranges)

The NCES Digest of Education Statistics reports average graduate tuition and required fees of $20,513 in 2021-22, with public institutions at $12,596 and private nonprofits at $29,931. Published rates for the programs here, which change annually:

Licensure exams, fingerprinting and background checks are extra. Lamar notes that its total depends on transfer hours and program advisement.

Career outlook and pay

The BLS reports a median annual wage of $105,870 for elementary, middle and high school principals in May 2025. There were about 343,800 jobs in 2025. Employment is projected to show little or no change from 2025 to 2035, a decline of about 1,200 jobs, yet about 20,600 openings are projected each year on average, most to replace principals who transfer to other occupations or leave the labor force. The typical entry-level education is a master's degree with five or more years of related work experience.

For context, kindergarten and elementary school teachers earned a median of $63,820 in May 2025, and instructional coordinators, a common district-office destination for leadership graduates who do not want a principalship, earned $77,440, with a master's as the typical requirement.

The state reciprocity caveat

Administrator licenses move between states less smoothly than teaching licenses, and program pages say so. WGU's program is not accepted in Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas or Minnesota. Liberty notes that students who enrolled after April 1, 2020 are not eligible for Georgia Tier I or Tier II certification, and that a Virginia initial teaching license must be obtained during the program if yours is from elsewhere. Lamar notes that students who do not complete practicum activities on a TEA-approved Texas campus cannot apply for Texas certification or take the Texas principal exam. Florida's Level 1 certification and Kansas's endorsement are state credentials. Enroll in a program approved by the state where you intend to lead.

How to choose

1. Confirm the track leads to the administrator license your state issues, and that your state accepts the program.
2. Check that you meet the experience requirement now, or will by the time the internship starts.
3. Ask how the internship hours are arranged and whether your current school can host them.
4. Check institutional accreditation, then CAEP or AAQEP, then state approval.
5. Compare total published cost, including fees and the licensure exam. If curriculum rather than administration is the draw, compare this degree with a master's in curriculum and instruction.

How we verified this guide

Every figure above was checked on the page cited on November 7, 2026. Pay and employment data come from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook (May 2025 wages, 2025-35 projections). Program credits, costs, internship requirements and admission rules come from each university's own program, admission or accreditation pages, and nonprofit status from the institution's site or its IRS filings as indexed by ProPublica. Where a page did not state a figure, such as Kansas's tuition or Lamar's institutional accreditor, we left it out.