This concentration is intended primarily for those wishing to meet the requirements set by the Maine Department of Education for Building Administrative certification. Assistant Building Administrator (040) can be met in this program. All other certification, will be accomplished through Transcript Analysis by the Maine Department of Education. However, each degree program covers all required course work to meet those certifications. The degree’s two main purposes are to enable participants to master the knowledge and techniques necessary for educational administration, and to review and evaluate best practices from both the public and private sectors in order to select among the managerial options available to address their various courses of action.

Both the MSED degree concentration and the Leadership Certificate are designed to satisfy the standards of The Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL). The certificate provides the general knowledge areas most states require for early-career school leaders, the degree concentration for those areas required of principals and superintendents.

The general approaches used in pursuing these purposes are similar to those in the School Educator concentration and the School Leadership concentration however, this program requires students to enroll in the 6-month internship in either ED 580P (principal) ED 580 S (superintendent) or ED 580 SE (Special Education). 

Students in the MSEd School Administration concentration will:

• be aware of different supervisory management methods and be able to use goal-setting, feedback, reinforcement and delegation to enhance both satisfaction and efficiency;
• have appropriate knowledge of the legal and financial requirements and options of various administrative positions as well as the ethical issues potentially involved with them;
• appreciate the advantages and drawbacks of different leadership styles and the conditions which are favorable or unfavorable to them;
• be familiar with organizational planning and development models and how individuals’ development goals may be matched with the organization’s; and
• be able to see the educational organization as a subsystem of larger social and political systems and be adept at recognizing the requirements for productive relationships.