Graduate students seeking to be educational leaders in today’s high-demand society require more than lectures and textbooks to learn the requisite leadership skills. They must also have the opportunity to develop and test job skills in an on-the-job environment. Future leaders need the opportunity to grapple with the dilemmas principals face (Southern Regional Education Board [SREB], 2007). This is best accomplished in an internship under the guidance of a fully involved site mentor and a university mentor working in tandem with the graduate student.
There has been continuous interest among many leadership preparation program faculty to learn which preparation approaches more effectively prepare their candidates as principals and district leaders. . The problem universities face as school leadership programs migrate to the online environment is how to construct a meaningful online internship – an internship that provides accountability, flexibility, and one that is based on accepted national and state standards. ACCESS FULL MANUSCRIPT HERE: http://cnx.org/content/m19568/latest/
