Best Education programs in Iowa, ranked by enrollment
Plan, direct, or coordinate academic or nonacademic activities of preschools or childcare centers and programs, including before- and after-school.
9 schools in Iowa run programs that feed this job, graduating 343 people a year. The job pays a median of $47,480 in Iowa across about 1,020 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).
Fields of study in Iowa that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.
2 programs in Iowa that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year in Iowa (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own Iowa page.
Top 9 schools in Iowa
Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 0 of the 9 schools in this state.
| # | School | Graduates / yr | Top feeder program | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Grad rate | Net price | Acceptance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Northwestern College Orange City, IA Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 123 | Educational Leadership and Administration, General | — | 66% | $22,419 | 80% |
| 2 | Drake University Des Moines, IA Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 122 | Educational Leadership and Administration, General | — | 74% | $28,855 | 64% |
| 3 | Dordt University Sioux Center, IA Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 32 | Educational Leadership and Administration, General | — | 70% | $24,569 | 68% |
| 4 | University of Northern Iowa Cedar Falls, IA Public · 1 feeder programs | 32 | Educational Leadership and Administration, General | — | 68% | — | 93% |
| 5 | Mount Mercy University Cedar Rapids, IA Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 11 | Educational Leadership and Administration, General | — | 58% | $23,054 | 83% |
| 6 | University of Iowa Iowa City, IA Public · 1 feeder programs | 10 | Superintendency and Educational System Administration | — | 75% | — | 84% |
| 7 | Morningside University Sioux City, IA Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 7 | Educational Leadership and Administration, General | — | 50% | $22,816 | 71% |
| 8 | Iowa State University Ames, IA Public · 1 feeder programs | 5 | Educational Leadership and Administration, General | — | 75% | — | 89% |
| 9 | Upper Iowa University Fayette, IA Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 1 | Educational Leadership and Administration, General | — | 34% | $22,697 | 96% |
All 9 schools in Iowa
Every school in Iowa with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.
| School | City | Control | Graduates / yr | Feeder programs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northwestern College | Orange City | Private not-for-profit | 123 | 1 |
| Drake University | Des Moines | Private not-for-profit | 122 | 1 |
| Dordt University | Sioux Center | Private not-for-profit | 32 | 1 |
| University of Northern Iowa | Cedar Falls | Public | 32 | 1 |
| Mount Mercy University | Cedar Rapids | Private not-for-profit | 11 | 1 |
| University of Iowa | Iowa City | Public | 10 | 1 |
| Morningside University | Sioux City | Private not-for-profit | 7 | 1 |
| Iowa State University | Ames | Public | 5 | 1 |
| Upper Iowa University | Fayette | Private not-for-profit | 1 | 1 |
What education and childcare administrators, preschool and daycare earn in Iowa
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
U.S. median $59,300. Iowa pays below the national figure.
Concentrated here: Iowa employs more of this job per worker than the U.S. average.
Metro areas in Iowa
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.
How to get in
The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Education and Childcare Administrators, Preschool and Daycare page.
How to become a Education
Job zone 4 of 5 · SVP 7.0 to < 8.0- Typical entry education
- Bachelor's degree
- Work experience needed
- Less than 5 years
Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.
Top skills
The same job in other states
Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.
Related careers in Iowa
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 5 majors mapped to Education and Childcare Administrators, Preschool and Daycare5 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 13.0401Educational Leadership and Administration, General
- 13.0404Educational, Instructional, and Curriculum Supervision
- 13.0411Superintendency and Educational System Administration
- 13.0412International School Administration/Leadership
- 13.0414Early Childhood Program Administration
Common questions
Answers for people weighing education and childcare administrators, preschool and daycare programs in Iowa.
What degree do you need to become an Education?+
Bachelor's degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Educational Leadership and Administration, General, which awarded 333 degrees in Iowa in 2024-25, 97.1% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming an Education?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 2 programs to this occupation. The largest are Educational Administration and Supervision. Together they graduate about 343 people a year in Iowa.
How much do education and childcare administrators, preschool and daycare earn in Iowa?+
The median is $47,480 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 19.9% below the U.S. median of $59,300. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.
Is demand for education and childcare administrators, preschool and daycare growing?+
BLS projects a -2.5% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, decline, with roughly 5,500 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career in Iowa?+
9 institutions in Iowa reported graduates from at least one of the 2 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.
What other job titles do education and childcare administrators, preschool and daycare work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Principal, Site Coordinator, Education Director, Preschool Director among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 11-9031.
About the data on this page
Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).
BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics
May 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.
IPEDS Completions
2024-25 (provisional)Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.
College Scorecard, Field of Study
2020-21 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.
Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA
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