Best States for K–12 Education Administrators: California Leads While Top Markets Mix High Pay and Scale

Across the top-ranked states in this analysis, the numbers show that strong LaborCove Geography Scores can be achieved through very different mixes of salary and employment scale. California leads the overall rankings with a Geography Score of 80.06, a median salary above the national figure, and one of the largest employment counts in the dataset. New York and Washington also outpace the national median salary while posting high Geography Scores, but with substantially smaller employment counts than California. Texas illustrates that a state can rank highly on LaborCove’s list even with a median salary below the national median, supported here by the largest employment count among the supplied top geographies. Several northeastern states—New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts—pair median salaries above the national median with mid-range Geography Scores and moderate employment counts. Overall, the data show a national median salary of $105,870 and national employment of 328,330 for this occupation, with national projected employment growth of -1.5%. Within that context, the top states in LaborCove’s rankings span a wide range of salaries and workforce sizes while still clustering toward the upper end of the scoring scale.

For education administrators in kindergarten through secondary settings, LaborCove’s national data show a median annual salary of $105,870 and employment of 328,330. The occupation’s national projected employment growth is -1.5%, indicating a national projection of decline rather than expansion over the projection period. This projection applies to the occupation across the United States as a whole and is not a forecast for any individual state. Within that national backdrop, LaborCove identifies 50 geographies in its dataset, with the largest single state employment count among the top-ranked states at 37,140. The ten states highlighted here represent the highest Geography Scores in the current LaborCove rankings for this occupation.

Among LaborCove’s top-ranked states, Washington has the highest supplied median salary for education administrators, at $166,590. California follows at $159,950, and Connecticut is close behind at $156,240. All three sit well above the national median salary of $105,870. New York and New Jersey also report median salaries above the national figure, at $138,830 and $137,440 respectively. Maryland and Massachusetts, with median salaries of $131,510 and $128,430, are likewise above the national median. Pennsylvania and Illinois have median salaries of $118,710 and $113,360, which also exceed the national median. Texas is the one top-ten state where the median salary, at $93,910, falls below the national median salary of $105,870.

LaborCove’s rankings show that the highest median salary does not automatically produce the highest Geography Score. Washington has the highest supplied median salary at $166,590 but is ranked #3 with a Geography Score of 59.77, while California ranks #1 with a Geography Score of 80.06 and a slightly lower median salary of $159,950. Similarly, Connecticut reports a higher median salary ($156,240) than New York ($138,830) but ranks lower, at #6 with a Geography Score of 49.44 compared with New York’s #2 ranking and Geography Score of 60.45. This pattern repeats with Maryland and Massachusetts: Maryland’s median salary of $131,510 is higher than Massachusetts’ $128,430, yet Maryland is ranked #9 with a Geography Score of 45.59, while Massachusetts holds the #7 rank with a Geography Score of 49.20. These comparisons illustrate that LaborCove’s Geography Scores incorporate more than salary alone, leading to ordering where states with somewhat lower pay can still outrank higher-paying peers.

Within the ten top-ranked states, Texas has the largest supplied employment count for K–12 education administrators, at 37,140. California follows with employment of 31,370. Both states have substantially larger employment counts than any of the other top-ten states. New York, with employment of 19,210, sits between these largest markets and a group of mid-sized states that includes Illinois (14,850), Pennsylvania (14,460), and New Jersey (11,450). Massachusetts has an employment count of 10,570. Among the remaining top states, Maryland reports employment of 7,200, Washington 6,470, and Connecticut 4,610. These employment figures describe the number of jobs included in the dataset for each state and are not estimates of job openings or of employer counts.

California’s #1 rank combines a Geography Score of 80.06 with a median salary of $159,950 and employment of 31,370. New York, ranked #2, has a Geography Score of 60.45, a median salary of $138,830, and employment of 19,210. Washington’s profile is distinct: it has the highest median salary in the top ten at $166,590 but a smaller employment count of 6,470 and a Geography Score of 59.77, placing it just behind New York. Texas offers the largest employment count in this group at 37,140 and a Geography Score of 54.89, but its median salary of $93,910 is below the national median of $105,870. In the Northeast, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts all sit in the middle of the top-ten ranking, with Geography Scores between 49.20 and 52.30 and employment counts between 4,610 and 11,450. Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Illinois round out the list with Geography Scores between 41.83 and 46.19, median salaries above the national median, and employment counts between 7,200 and 14,850.

For education administrators considering geography as part of their career planning, LaborCove’s state rankings provide a structured way to compare median pay, employment counts, and Geography Scores. The ten highlighted states all rank near the top of LaborCove’s list, but they do so with different balances of salary level, scale of employment, and overall Geography Score. Some states pair very high salaries with moderate employment counts, while others combine larger employment counts with pay closer to or below the national median. These quantitative differences can help users focus further research on the states whose profiles align with their own priorities, recognizing that the LaborCove rankings are one input among many in a well-rounded decision.

LaborCove builds its rankings from structured labor-market data and its own Geography Score methodology. For education administrators, kindergarten through secondary (occupation code 11-9032), national median annual salary, national employment, and national projected employment growth are used to describe the occupation overall. In this dataset, the national median annual salary is $105,870, national employment is 328,330, and the national projected employment growth rate is -1.5%. National growth is a separate projection and not an OEWS observation. At the state level, LaborCove’s database supplies median annual salary, employment counts, and LaborCove Geography Scores. These metrics are combined into a single Geography Score and rank for each state. The internal weighting of these components is part of LaborCove’s scoring methodology and is not broken out in this article. All salary and employment figures are based on Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) observations with a reference period of May 2025. The 2026 report year reflects when LaborCove packages and publishes these results, not when the underlying OEWS data were collected. Geographic projected employment growth rates are not supplied in this evidence, so no state-level or metro-level growth comparisons are made. All discussions of projected employment growth refer only to the national occupation. Rankings and scores are analytical tools that users should weigh alongside their own career priorities and local knowledge.