Please contact Dr. Tom Frankman, Associate Dean of Academic Services at tom.frankman@williamwoods.edu or 573-592-1166 if you have any questions.

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This message explains the route available for students in William Woods University’s Educational Specialist (Ed.S.) program, Administration track, who wish to earn Missouri certification as an Elementary Principal or Secondary Principal.  The process for doing this through William Woods changed during Summer 2008.

There are three courses needed in addition to the Specialist - Administration program of study to meet requirements for Missouri principalship certification.

Those courses at William Woods are:

EDU 535 (or 536) - Elementary (or Secondary) Administration

EDU 545 (or 546) - Elementary (or Secondary) Curriculum

EDU 598 (or 599) - Elementary (or Secondary) Field Experience

This group of courses is referred to as "principalship courses" elsewhere on this page.  You also need to pass the state's principalship examination and hold teaching certification at the initial level or higher for the university to recommend you to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for certification.

Each of the principalship courses is three credits.  The administration and curriculum courses are six weeks long and part of our Master of Education - Administration program of study.  They must be completed before beginning the field experience course, which is 10 weeks long.

A schedule of upcoming sections of principalship courses is available here. You may take the administration and curriculum courses in either order.  If you see sections that you wish to enroll in, please e-mail Dr. Tom Frankman, Associate Dean of Graduate Adult Studies, at tom.frankman@williamwoods.edu so that the registration can be processed.  Since most of our MED and EdS courses meet on Wednesday evenings, you may find it most convenient to take the three principalship courses after completing your EdS program.

You are required to take the EDU 598 or 599 course and to begin logging hours for your principalship field experience after finishing the field experience course in your specialist program (EDU 697) and after finishing the principalship administration (EDU 535 or 536) and curriculum (EDU 545 or 546) courses.

The primary reason for this timing of the principalship field experience is that you will be meeting the state’s other principalship certification requirements through the rest of the specialist program’s courses, the administration course and the curriculum course.  The field experience is designed to be the conclusion of that certification sequence.  We encourage you to take the ISLLC exam after your field experience so that you will have addressed all of the competencies before you take the examination.

The offices of the Registrar and of the Dean of Education coordinate to schedule sections of EDU 598 and EDU 599.  Sections of this course do not start in June or July because of the general lack of adequate field experience opportunities available during those months.

If you wish to register for principalship courses, please send an email to Tom Frankman (tom.frankman@williamwoods.edu) and identify the location and dates of the course sections that you are interested in. He will process your request for the Registrar's office.

There are factors involving your graduation date and financial aid regulations that you may need to consider if you take the principalship courses.  If you choose to graduate with your EdS cohort, any principalship courses you took after then would likely not be eligible for federal financial aid.  This is because the three courses would not be considered part of a degree program, a designation necessary for federal financial aid eligibility.  You have the option of changing your William Woods degree program to Specialist with Principalship Certification and graduating after you complete the principalship courses.  Which route you take will reflect your personal priorities.  Some students wish to have the specialist degree at the earliest possible date for professional and/or financial (i.e., salary scale) reasons.  Others prefer to wait so that they can take advantage of the additional financial aid options for the principalship courses.

Michelle Payne, our financial aid coordinator, can provide additional information concerning financial aid.  She may be reached at mpayne1@williamwoods.edu or at 573-592-4215.

William Woods also offers coursework needed for Special Education Director certification. A review of those requirements may be found here.