A program for principal candidates enrolled in an approved principal preparation program that provides an opportunity to participate in a variety of student-focused leadership experiences led by selected veteran principals prior to the preparation program internship requirement..

Links to Content:
Demonstration Site
Target Population
Need and Intent
Synopsis
Implementation Process
Tips for implementation
Contact for More Information

Demonstration Site: Southern Rhode Island Regional Collaborative (SORICO)

SORICO, created in 1988 by the RI Legislature, is a regional service agency working with 9 school districts in southern Rhode Island. The collaborative includes 8 high schools, 11 middle schools and 33 elementary schools. This represents a total of approximately 23,000 students, of which 25% receive special education services. The nine districts include Block Island, Chariho, East Greenwich, Exeter/West Greenwich, Jamestown, Narragansett, North Kingstown, South Kingstown and Westerly. The stated mission of SORICO is “to develop and offer programs and services that meet the needs of its member districts when such services and programs can more effectively and economically be provided on a collaborative basis.”

Target Population: Graduate students currently enrolled in the Educational Leadership Program at Rhode Island College (RIC) are the target population. The students are working teachers in school districts in the SORICO collaborative and their RIC courses are held at South Kingstown High School during the school year and summer. The degree program is offered over a three year period and follows a cohort model.

Need and Intent: The primary purpose of the pre-internship project was to expose aspiring principals to successful school leaders from schools other than their own, with a focus on leadership skills, knowledge and dispositions, and how these skills contribute to improvement in student achievement. Although logistically and financially necessary, Rhode Island College student interns who are full-time teachers miss out on the opportunity to gain different perspectives because they are limited to their own principal and school for their entire internship. This pre-internship provided a full year of part-time preparation prior to participation in an extended internship that is a final requirement in their final year of the RIC graduate program.

The pre-internship experience actively involved principals who had achieved success as instructional leaders and moved their schools to high performance. Their schools were, therefore, selected demonstration sites where practices that align standards and high expectations to teaching and learning were in evidence.

Synopsis: Through evaluation forms, SORICO gathered the following positive comments from the principal mentors about the mentoring experience:

• “I feel I learned as much as I taught.”
• “I wish I had an experience like this to prepare me for the principal-ship. The exposure to different schools and principals with different leadership styles is very helpful.”
• “I think the experiences laid a good, general foundation for future learning.”

The graduate student interns provided the following positive comments on their experiences with the pre-internship program:

• “I cannot overstate the value of this experience. I worked with three mentors…each with a distinctive style working toward common goals …and each brought different strengths to their position and were very frank and forthcoming…the experience was very purposeful.”
• “An eye-opening experience.”
• “A fantastic opportunity to visit other schools and different principals.”
• “I learned more in the after school sessions than in any classroom instruction.”
• “I learned daily school stuff you can’t get in class.”

Implementation Process:

Foundation: The first three ISLLC Standards were integral to the pre-internship activities and were the thread that ran through the principal mentor training and subsequent principal mentor–intern interactions. All interns completed the ISLLC School Leadership Self-Study and utilized this information when they met with their mentors and designed group work plans for their pre-internship experience.

Process: To start, a training session was held for the principal mentors. Then, each intern was required to job shadow two different principals and attend six after school group sessions. The leadership practices of the principal and the specific teacher skills understood to contribute to achieving student success were the focus of the dialogue in group sessions and intern experiences in visiting their mentors’ schools. Other issues addressed in the group sessions were a result of the specific needs expressed by the interns as gathered from the ISLLC Self-Study and dialogue between interns and their principal mentors.

Evaluation: The project was evaluated in three parts. Evaluation forms were administered to the principals immediately after the mentor training workshop and after the project ended, and forms were completed by the interns after the close of the last after school session.

Tips for Implementation:

“The focus on the instructional leadership of the principal, although overwhelming to a few interns, was an important message communicated to these aspiring principals. The need for further learning and skill development in preparation for the realities of the principal’s role were clearly evident to the interns through this “snapshot” of the real world of today’s principal. Further, as a precursor to an extended internship next year, the pre-internship provided an excellent orientation to interns and will allow them to craft more focused and meaningful intern learning plans in the near future.

Using a regional approach through a collaborative and providing released time for interns to interact with successful principals in high performing schools, “opened my eyes” expressed one intern who is an experienced teacher with experience in only one school during her twelve year tenure.

Finally, this model can also be used as an exploratory program. It does not have to be restricted to educational leadership students in a graduate program preparing for their internship. Many outstanding teachers and potential school leaders may be thinking about preparing to become school principals. They could profit from the experiences designed for this project before making a commitment to pursue a graduate program and/or seek certification.”
- William R. Holland, Ed.D, Project Director

Contact for More Information:
Name: William R. Holland, Ed.D
Title: Educational Consultant; Professor Emeritus, Rhode Island College
Role in Project: Director
Phone: (401) 783-4396
E-mail: wrholl@etal.uri.edu
Address: 646 Camp Avenue, North Kingstown, RI 02852