Handbook for Educational Leadership Interns: A Rite of Passage

Focused on making the internship experience enlightening, developmental, and enjoyable, Educational Administration Field Experiences is a hands-on guide for all individuals completing internships in both public and private schools. The internship experience is one of the most important parts of an educational administrative program, yet it is one for which there is the least student written support. This handbook is generic enough to fit all internship courses and yet it provides the exact kind of support to students allowing them to successfully plan and conduct a highly effective internship experience. The text includes worksheets, competency guides, surveys, forms, self-reflection tools, internship aids, guided reflections and, most importantly, planning techniques to ensure that students get the most from their internship experiences. It successfully integrates students’ practical experiences, with learning aids, solid research and theory, and suggestions from practitioners related to best practices, making it a crucial tool in preparing for and executing a successful and worthwhile internship.

Cunningham provides the profession with the first true textbook/workbook to anchor leadership courses.  His compendium and guide is filled with research–and wisdom and insights–that bring connectivity and coherence to this critical aspect of clinical work. In his transparent style and by speaking directly to interns he surfaces important questions, reveals critical forks in the road, and makes complex ideas accessible.  And by accomplishing all this he illuminates the pathway of highly productive field-based work for all of us in educational leadership.

Joe Murphy

Professor of Education

Vanderbilt University

This handbook offers valuable and comprehensive guidelines to administrative interns, university supervisors, and administrator mentors to collaboratively establish a high quality intern learning and development experience.  Perhaps most importantly, the handbook carefully aligns recommended intern activities and candidate assessment practices with current national administrator preparation standards to prepare strong instructional leaders who can effectively lead improved K―12 student learning for all children.  In sum, Cunningham’s handbook provides a solid foundation on which to build high quality internship experiences for school leader candidates. 

Diana G. Pounder

Professor and Department Chair, Educational Leadership and Policy 

University of Utah

Professor Cunningham’s handbook provides aspiring educational leaders with a wealth of guidance and ideas that can help them effectively manage the complexities of preparation programs, especially the clinical experiences associated with these programs. It goes even farther, providing them with solid advice about getting through culminating assessment processes and successfully applying for that illusive first leadership position. Best of all, the book is reality-based, replete with meaningful hands-on activities, and the style and language are user friendly.

Mike Milstein

Professor Emeritus, Educational Leadership

University of New Mexico

This book will benefit the field by providing the essential information, processes and tools that universities and districts need to address important internship issues and collaboratively build and provide internships that are the sturdy vessel upon which new practitioners can navigate the swift, unpredictable currents that separate classroom theory and on-the-job reality.

Gene Bottoms

Senior Vice President

 Southern Regional Education Board