Education
The traditional route to being a superintendent starts with teacher's college.
The next step is tenure as a teacher, then preferably as a successful principal
until you are hired as a superintendent by the school board.
"There's no official certification, but to be a superintendent you must
have a master's degree in education," says Neil Gannon. He is the former director
of an organization of superintendents.
"The minimum requirement is a master's degree, but a good 20 percent also
have their doctorate. Then you need a minimum of five years of experience
as a teacher before you apply for some administrative position in most school
boards."
"School superintendents are licensed by the state. So each state has guidelines
for the training required to be a school superintendent," says Joseph Schneider.
He is the former deputy director of the American Association of School Administrators.
"But it would normally be at least a master's degree in education administration,
plus at least 30 to 45 hours of graduate credit beyond a master's."
"Usually, public schools look for people who have had some teaching experience,
supervision and administrative experience, normally as a principal," says
former superintendent Anne Patterson. "However, there are some unique situations
where you're seeing more and more people coming from a business background
into school administration."