Superintendent's Certification

In today’s complicated and evolving educational environment, superintendents and central office leaders are challenged to develop high-quality school systems that create success for all students. In order to improve entire systems, administrators must understand how to work with their schools and communities. The Texas State University Superintendent Certification Program prepares educators to serve as school district superintendents or in other central office leadership positions.

Program Overview

The program consists of:

• 15 semester hours of graduate course work that may be completed in one year
• collaborative instruction by experienced university faculty and clinical practitioners
• course content aligned with state and national standards for superintendent preparation
• a flexible schedule of monthly seminars combined with online learning
• a field-based internship during the fall and spring semesters
• preparation for the TExES examination, which students must pass for full certification

Program participants will be eligible for a temporary Superintendent Certificate.

Why choose Texas State?

• courses taught by highly experienced and knowledgeable superintendents, central office leaders and university faculty
• exceptional opportunity to build your professional network
• recognized by the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) as a national model for creating equity-oriented leaders
• approved by the Texas Education Agency
• recognized as an Emerging Research University
• serves a diverse student population and has been designated a Hispanic Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education
• working with the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) to refine our curriculum and instruction

Who is the program for?

The program is designed for educational leaders who desire to increase their knowledge, strengthen their skills, improve their effectiveness and advance their careers. To be considered for this program, applicants must:

• have earned a master’s degree from an accredited college or university with a 2.75 minimum GPA
• hold a standard principal or other equivalent Texas administrative certification

Required courses include:

• ED 7347 The Superintendency (Summer)
• ED 7345 Human Resources and Instructional Management (Fall)
• ED 7349 School Finance and Business Management (Spring)
• EDCL 7389 Field-based Practicum (Fall)
• EDCL 7390 Field-based Practicum (Spring)

Applicants must obtain approval from their superintendent to serve as their site mentor for the field-based practicum during the fall and spring semesters. Some credit hours may be applied to a Texas State University doctoral program in school improvement.  For more information on the Ph.D. program, click here.

To Apply

The superintendent certification program begins in the summer term. Deadline for admission is May 15.  Applicants should submit the following to The Graduate College through the Graduate Admissions Document Upload (GADU) system:

• an application for admission (https://apply.gradcollege.txstate.edu/apply/)*
• one official transcript for each college/university attended**
• a copy of principal certificate or equivalent
• a copy of the applicant’s service record

*Students using the online ApplyTexas application should follow the menu options:

• Select Create a New Graduate School Admissions Application.
• Select Texas State University as the target university and Graduate U.S. as the application type.
• Choose Summer 1 as the semester of entry and Educational Leadership-Superintendent (Teacher Cert) as your major.

**Transcripts can be mailed or sent electronically. Learn more about submitting transcripts

See tips on using the GADU system