Run a school: the staff, the budget, the discipline, the buses and the blame. You teach first, then you lead.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical
$105,870
Assistant principal or small school
$76,280
Large high school or wealthy district
$167,770
The national median is $105,870 a year, and the bottom tenth start near $76,280. This counts principals and assistant principals from kindergarten through high school. The single biggest factor is the district: a suburban high school principal in New York or California can earn more than double a rural elementary principal in a low-funding state.
Usually a large raise
Assistant principal is the normal first administrative job
The catch is the contract. Teachers are typically paid for around 190 school days. Principals are usually on a 220 day or full-year contract, so part of the extra money is simply extra weeks worked.
$167,770 and up
Top tenth: large high schools and high-paying suburban districts
Above principal sits district administration and then superintendent, which pays more again and is a genuinely different job: politics, boards, budgets and very little contact with students.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
You teach first, so this is two degrees and a teaching licence. The low end is a bachelor's degree started at community college and finished in state, then a 30 credit master's in educational leadership at around $12,000, plus the school leadership exam and certificate and background check fees. The high end is a full price in state bachelor's degree at $14,000 a year, then a 36 credit master's at $35,000. The master's is usually done part time while you teach and draw a full salary, so there are no lost earnings in it. Many districts pay part of that master's for teachers they want to keep, and public school work counts toward federal loan forgiveness.
File the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). Many districts also pay part of the master's for teachers they want to keep, and public school employment counts toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness on federal loans.
State pension
You stay in the same teacher retirement system, and the higher salary raises the pension it eventually pays.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness
Ten years of qualifying payments while working for a public district can cancel the rest of federal student loans.
Health and dental
District coverage, usually the best plan the district offers.
Tuition help for a doctorate
Common if you are on the track toward district administration.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Almost nobody becomes a principal without teaching first. Districts do not hire leaders who have never run a classroom.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Any strong academic track. Coaching, tutoring, student government and running anything with other people all count.
Bachelor's degree and teaching license
4 to 5 years
A subject degree plus a teacher preparation program and your state's teaching exams.
Teach
3 to 5 years
Three to five years in a classroom is the usual requirement, and the real education. Take on department head, grade lead or coaching roles.
Master's in educational leadership
2 years
Usually 30 to 36 credits, done part time while teaching, with a supervised administrative internship inside a school.
Exam, certificate, then assistant principal
2 to 5 years
Pass your state's school leadership test, get the principal certificate, then serve two to five years as an assistant principal.
English
Principals write constantly: letters to families, evaluations, improvement plans, incident reports.
Statistics
Modern school leadership is heavily data driven: attendance, test scores, discipline, graduation.
Public speaking
Assemblies, staff meetings, angry parent meetings and school board presentations.
Any subject you might teach
You need a teaching license first, so pick a subject you would happily teach for five years.
A teaching license does not let you lead a school. Every state issues a separate administrator credential, and the usual requirements are a master's degree, an approved principal preparation program with an internship, a set number of years of classroom teaching, and a school leadership exam. In Texas, for example, the principal certificate is issued by the Texas Education Agency through an approved educator preparation program. Many states use a school leadership test from the Praxis series, the national educator testing program. Private and charter schools set their own rules and sometimes hire uncertified leaders, but public districts do not.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Special education knowledge
Individual education plans, accommodations and the law around them. Principals are legally responsible for getting this right.
School finance
Reading and defending a budget. The single most common gap in new administrators.
Bilingual certification
In districts with large multilingual populations it is close to a requirement for leadership.
Dean, department head or athletic director
The in-between roles that prove you can manage adults, not just students.
Discipline and restorative practice training
Because a huge share of the job is what happens after something goes wrong.
Coaching a team or running a club
The fastest way for a teacher to be seen as a leader by staff and families.
Summer school leadership
A low-risk way to try running a building before you commit to it.
A mentor who is already a principal
This field hires on reputation inside a district. Somebody has to vouch for you.
Thick skin
You will be publicly criticized by parents, staff and sometimes a school board, often about something you did not decide.
Principal is not the top of the ladder. Above it sit district roles: curriculum director, human resources, assistant superintendent and then superintendent, who answers to an elected school board and runs everything. Pay rises at each step, and so does the politics. Many superintendents hold a doctorate in education, often paid for partly by the district. The trade is straightforward: more money and more reach, and you stop knowing students' names.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
In by 6:45 to cover a teacher who called in sick. Out front for buses and drop-off. Morning is classroom walkthroughs and observations, interrupted twice. Then a discipline meeting, then a parent who wants their child's teacher changed, then a fire alarm test nobody told you about. Lunch duty. Afternoon is the budget, a hiring interview and an email you have to write very carefully. Then a basketball game or a band concert, because you are expected there. You answer email at 9:30pm.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
The National Principals Association, the professional body for principals and assistant principals, also runs the National Honor Society, the National Junior Honor Society and the National Student Councils. The awards on your transcript come from your principal's own association.
The government career profile rates this occupation as below average, expecting employment to decline. It reflects flat and falling school enrollment in much of the country, not falling demand for good leaders.
The Praxis series, used for teacher certification in most states, includes a School Leadership Series specifically for certification in school and district leadership. Many states require one of those tests before issuing a principal certificate.
Most states require classroom teaching experience before you can hold an administrator certificate. It is one of the few leadership jobs in America where you legally cannot skip the front line.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise.