Submitted Fall, 2003
(Objectives 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9)
Assessment
All candidates participated in Practicum, a course designed to provide practical learning experiences relevant to elementary and secondary school principals. Experiences included discussion of needs and problems, utilization of resource personnel, development of a portfolio, school visitations and an internship of no less than 60 clock hours.
Visitations were scheduled in metropolitan and rural school districts. Candidates "shadowed" administrators over a two-day period and submitted a narrative summary of the visitations that included information received from the schools visited.
Candidates were required to develop a portfolio, an accumulation of evidence about the candidate's intern experience. The following was included: Internship log, budget procedures, staff development plan, teacher evaluation, parent involvement, book reports, Board of Education meeting reviews, journal reviews, resume/application, book report, class presentations, and school visitations.
Both the site mentor and the faculty member evaluated the internship experience according to specific criteria in the Practicum Internship Assessment.
Recommendations
In the past, funds were provided for visitations with each intern and mentor. A recommendation is to seek funds to reinstate the visitation component of the internship.
A consideration is an electronic portfolio to facilitate the documentation of the internship experience.