The principal internship has been recognized as an important component in the preparation of school leaders and received encouragement and financial support from the Danforth Foundation through its Danforth Preparation Program for School Principals. Recently, one of the goals of the newly established National Commission for the Advancement of Educational Leadership Preparation has been to improve the quality of preparation programs in educational leadership, including the quality of the internship experience (Olson, 2000) Furthermore, the importance of improving the preparation of excellent leaders that includes a rigorous field-based experience has been recognized by the U.S. Department of ...