K-12 Principalship Program

The K-12 Principal Certificate is for students seeking endorsement for state (MN and WI) licensure as a K-12 Principal but not seeking the Specialist (EdS) degree.

The K-12 Principal is a formal licensure area for Minnesota schools.

Licensure is a state function through the Minnesota Board of School Administrators (BOSA), for which the WSU Leadership Education Department is an approved program aligning with the rules outlined in Minnesota Rule 3512.2500.

Wisconsin accepts the WSU endorsement for K-12 Principal, and Iowa requires that the candidate receive a Minnesota K-12 Principal license.

The Minnesota K-12 Principal license is accepted for a provisional principal’s license, in many other states.

The K-12 Principal is also an emphasis within the Education Specialist Degree (EdS) in Education Leadership.

The EdS degree requires the same coursework and experiences as licensure with the addition of six credits related to research and scholarly study.

Licensure as a K-12 Principal requires students to have completed 3 years as a teacher in an area in which they were certified as a teacher.

Social workers, school counselors and school psychologists who do not have the 3 years of classroom experience are required to complete 1,050 hours in a teaching internship before being licensed as a K-12 Principal.

Licensure as a K-12 Principal requires the following coursework:

• 24 credits of EdS Core Courses (or their equivalent done at the master’s level)
• 6 credits specific to the K-12 Principalship

Minnesota rules require a principal to have at least 60 credits past their bachelor’s degree.

For the Education Specialist Degree students must complete a minimum of 30 credits beyond the Master’s Degree. This includes:

• 24 credits of licensure courses (or their equivalent done at the master’s level)
• 6 credits of internships for the K-12 Principalship
• 6 credits related to research

Up to 10 graduate credits (beyond the MS degree) may be transferred into a WSU EdS degree.

Field Study

Students are required to complete a field study as part of  the EdS degree.

The field study is a scholarly or academic activity intended to better prepare a leader for the meaningful understanding of schools and organizations by:

• Identifying a research question
• Understanding how others have answered the question
• Collecting and analyzing relevant data
• Preparing a written summary

Students have a writing seminar course where they review how the scientific method may be applied to social activities and human behavior.

During this experience, a final document is prepared (the field study) and students prepare for a professional dialogue with their field study committees (often called the defense).

Each internship is 160 hours, where students are immersed in the environment, activities, decisions, and tasks of a K-12 principal.

The site for the internship is initiated by the student, and a site supervisor (a practicing school principal) approached.

The University Internship Supervisor will finalize these arrangements or can assist in finding a site and supervisor.

Site visits by the University Supervisor are used to initiate a list of activities for the semester and review the candidate’s engagement at the end of the semester.

A reflective journal is kept to personalize the internship experiences and formalize connections to course work and leadership theories.