Internship Experiences for Aspiring Principals: Student Perceptions and Effectiveness.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate East Tennessee State University graduate student perceptions on the effectiveness of internship experiences as students explored the implementation of ISLLC Standards and the role of mentor support as they prepared for the principalship. The participating university for this study is located in Johnson City, Tennessee. Participants obtained their administrative license from 2005-2010 and worked in one of 19 northeast Tennessee, North Carolina, and southwest Virginia school districts. Specifically, this research assessed the perceived value of the 540 hour internship experience, implementation of ISLLC Standards, and the perceived value of the site based and university based mentors as interns completed their activities in multiple settings.

Research reinforced the view that internship experiences supported through site based and university mentors are necessary components of an effective aspiring principal preparation program. Two data measures were analyzed: 25 survey questions measured on a 4 point Likert scale and 3 open-ended questions. Nine research questions guided this study and quantitative data were analyzed using one-sample t tests. Results indicated that ETSU program completers from 2005-2010 agreed internship experiences and mentor support received through the ETSU Administrative Endorsement Program facilitated real world application of the ISLLC Standards while preparing for the principalship.