Certificates in K-12 administration for license

Mission and vision 

As a land-grant institution dedicated to serving all Minnesota citizens, we prepare visionary leaders to fulfill the licensing requirements of the State of Minnesota, the Minnesota Board of School Administrators (BOSA), and the University of Minnesota. We welcome both traditional and alternative licensure candidates across four tracks: school superintendents, K-12 principals, directors of special education, and directors of community education.

We are committed to honoring the diversity of communities and learners through integrating professional wisdom, research, inquiry, reflection, and authentic practice in the lifelong development of educational administrators. We ensure authentic learning opportunities through project-based learning throughout our program. We empower educational leaders to build equitable, collaborative systems so that every high school graduate is fully prepared for college or the workforce without remediation.

Our core beliefs

• We believe in the wisdom of those who drafted the guiding principles of MR3512 with particular emphasis on the shared role among the universities and field practitioners for preparing educational administrators.
• Our students bring unique strengths, formal training, and experiences, which  must be valued and recognized in the preparation of educational administrators. Therefore, our program must allow for individualization to accommodate each learner.
• Educational administrators make an essential difference in the lives of children, communities, and the roles children and youth play as adults in the world. Therefore, administrators must be well prepared to meet the challenging responsibilities of leading educational organizations that respond to the needs of each child that comes to us.
• Leaders must be able to recognize and analyze complexities, think about problems and solutions in ways that integrate multiple competencies in authentic practice situations, use research, and model best practices.