Career Explorer Management
Changing shape
Education administrators, kindergarten through secondary
Plan, direct, or coordinate the academic, administrative, or auxiliary activities of kindergarten, elementary, or secondary schools.
Changing faster than most: more resilient than 28% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is high (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it high), and US jobs are projected to change by -0.3% by 2035, expected to shrink. The work leans on emotional intelligence and creative vision.
AI can do many of the tasks, and hiring is expected to grow slower than average or to shrink. The job is likely to change, so build the human parts of it.
- Median pay (2025)
- $105,870
- Job growth to 2035
- -0.3%
- Openings a year
- 20,600
- People doing it (2025)
- 344,000
- Usual route in
- Master's degree
Where people already use AI for this work
- Advise others on educational or vocational matters
- Provide support or encouragement to others
- Advise others on business or operational matters
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Develop educational programs, plans, or procedures
- Supervise personnel activities
- Develop organizational policies, systems, or processes
What the work looks like
- Counsel and provide guidance to students regarding personal, academic, vocational, or behavioral issues.
- Confer with parents and staff to discuss educational activities, policies, and student behavior or learning problems.
- Observe teaching methods and examine learning materials to evaluate and standardize curricula and teaching techniques and to determine areas for improvement.
- Determine the scope of educational program offerings, and prepare drafts of course schedules and descriptions to estimate staffing and facility requirements.
- Enforce discipline and attendance rules.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Human resources managersGrows with AI, Index 68, +5.5%
- Chief executivesChanging shape, Index 43, +3.2%
- Education administrators, postsecondaryChanging shape, Index 29, +1.8%
- Social and community service managersGrows with AI, Index 63, +7.2%
Also known as: Elementary Principal, MS Principal (Middle School Principal), School Administrator (School Admin), Superintendent, Athletic Director, Curriculum and Instruction Superintendent, Curriculum Director, K-12 Principal (Kindergarten Through Twelfth Grade Principal).
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Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections 2025 to 2035; O*NET 31.0; Microsoft Research (2025); Anthropic Economic Index (2026); Eloundou and colleagues (Science, 2024); Felten, Raj and Seamans (2023). How we score. Updated 12 October 2026.