Research Report

The Second Most Important Decision: Protocol for Partnering for Intern Placement

Kimberly Kappler Hewitt and Mark Alvis Rumley
June 2022 | Theory & Practice in Rural Education

This research article from faculty in the University of North Carolina–Greensboro’s Principal Preparation for Excellence and Equity in Rural Schools Program describes a partnership of 12 rural districts and explains the process by which the partnership codesigned their internship placement protocol and the Assignment of Internship Placements tool. The authors introduce the protocol, which involves program leaders traveling to each rural partner district across a wide geographic area to meet with the superintendent and district point person to collaboratively select a mentor principal or internship site for each intern. The authors show how to use their internship tool, which identifies factors to select from and to avoid in internship placement.