Internship-Project Requirements

Introduction
Policymakers and educators continue to view field-based learning experiences as an important component of educational leadership programs. For example, the National Policy Board for Educational Administration’s (NPBEA) Standards for Programs in Educational Leadership requires that all pre-service programs include a structured internship experience. Similarly, New York State requires that all candidates seeking certification as a School Administrator and Supervisor (S.A.S.) complete an internship under the supervision of a practicing school administrator. Those candidates pursuing New York State’s School District Administrator (S.D.A.) certificate can also elect to include an internship as part of their administrative program.

As part of its required internship, the Educational Leadership Program now requires all candidates to complete a project to help them learn and think carefully about educational reform and improvement and, most importantly, make thoughtful and informed decisions. Candidates who are enrolled in a master’s degree program are encouraged to develop their project in tandem with their master’s paper.

Details about the project are provided in the Administration Internship Handbook. In what follows, we have included some excerpts that describe the expectations and criteria for the project.

Project Specifications
Purpose and Content
The purpose of the project is to provide our candidates with a realistic opportunity to obtain the knowledge, skills, and dispositions toward which the ECLCC/NPBEA standards are directed.

In brief, the project requires that candidates develop a plan for reforming a significant aspect of their school and/or district. The plan should involve a statement of goals, a vision, a definition of the problem, a review of possible alternative solutions, a proposed solution and an argument in favor of the chosen solution, a reference to relevant research and data, a discussion of resources, a discussion of implementation issues including a communication plan, and proposed evaluation schema. In effect, candidates are asked to make an argument for a policy choice – a choice between two or more options – relying on introductory tools of decision-making to which the candidates will be introduced.

Planned and Guided Cooperatively
Each candidate will formulate a project committee. The project committee is comprised of the candidate, a university supervisor, and a field supervisor. The university supervisor must be an Educational Leadership Program faculty member, presumptively the candidate’s advisor. The field supervisor for S.A.S. candidates must be a full-time school-level administrator who holds an S.A.S. certificate. The field supervisor for S.D.A. candidates must be a full-time district-level administrator who holds an S.D.A. certificate.

Real-Setting Experience (Project Site)
The candidate will undertake the project in a school or district office. The project for the
S.A.S certificate must be directed to a reform at the building level although, with the project committee’s approval, the project can include a district-level component. Candidates pursuing the S.D.A. certificate will direct their projects to a district-wide reform.

Substantial and Standards Based
The project should focus on a reform that assists the candidate in obtaining the knowledge, skills and dispositions incorporated in the ECLL/NPBEA standards.

Sustained Effort
Work on the project should be sustained throughout the program and conclude with the internship. Course work should thus inform work on the project.

Evidence of consultation
The project should be undertaken with the support and advice of both the faculty advisor and field-based consultant. The final project should be accompanied with a letter from the field-based consultant testifying to the fact of their having consulted and worked with the candidate.

Reliance on Appropriate Literature
The project should be undertaken and written up in light of relevant literature on decision- making and planning.

Report Length
We are interested in the quality of the thought and quality of the writing and not in length. A project meeting the criteria for an acceptable project need not exceed 15 pages.

Performance Assessment
Candidates are expected to have submitted their completed project either prior to or with their internship portfolio. After reviewing the portfolio, in accordance with Warner School Policy, the university supervisor will assign the candidate either a grade of satisfactory/pass or unsatisfactory/fail. The university supervisor will use the following rubric to determine a grade.

Satisfactory/Pass
• The writing of the project is mechanically sound.
• The project is logically organized.
• The project is accompanied with the required letter from the field supervisor.
• The goals of the project are well formulated.
• The argument in support of the proposed course of action is valid, sound, based on data and appropriate research.
• The project includes a fair estimate of resources.
• The discussion of implementation takes into account obstacles and provides suggestions for solutions.
• The outline of the evaluation plan takes into account the canons of sound evaluation practice.
• The project meets appropriate ELCC/NPBEA standards.