Special Issue Providing Authentic Leadership Opportunities through Collaboratively Developed Internships: A University-

Programs designed to develop future educational leaders must include practical learning experiences that connect the theoretical content of university coursework with the realities of the K-12 workplace. Internships, which offer a common method of providing these experiences, have been generally lacking in the degree to which aspiring leaders actually ever have a chance to lead. Wilmore (2002) suggests that internships should provide aspiring administrators the opportunities to do the things that real live administrators do each day. If leaders in real schools actually lead, then internships must provide opportunities for their participants to go beyond traditional observational roles and allow for real leadership experiences. Just as other professions prepare their aspiring professionals to actually do the job they are being prepared to do through intensive, authentic residencies and internships, educational leadership programs must similarly provide candidates those same opportunities. Auburn University, through extensive collaboration with its K-12 partner districts, has designed an internship model that will integrate all learning into a set of practical activities that will allow students the opportunity to practice, through real life leadership, those skills they have developed in their academic studies. The process of preparing leaders for K-12 schools has been the subject of much discussion and scholarly research in recent years. School reforms have focused on improving the quality of teaching and learning, but what takes place in school classrooms is inexorably linked to the quality of leadership in th