FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Faculty in educational administration in the University of Arkansas’s Department of Educational Leadership, Counseling and Foundations have designed an innovative internship program that fulfills new national standards for institutions training educational administrators. Assistant professors Carleton R. Holt and Roland M. Smith have been invited to present "A Plan for Designing and Implementing an Effective Internship Program in Educational Administration to Upgrade Quality and Meet Expanding NCATE Requirements" during the February national conference of the American Association of School Administrators.

"Educational administration faculty have made important contributions in developing top-flight administrators for Arkansas’s schools," said Sharon Hunt, interim dean of the College of Education and Health Professions. "It is gratifying to see their national professional organization recognize their work."

NCATE -- the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education -- is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as the professional accrediting body for schools, departments and colleges of education. Nationally, approximately 500 institutions are accredited by NCATE.

"We’ve experienced some noteworthy success with this internship program and are pleased to have a chance to demonstrate it to our colleagues," Holt said. "Students in the educational administration internships are very positive about the results."

The conference, Holt noted, will also be an opportunity for UA faculty to learn how other programs have met the challenges of the internship requirement.

Earlier this year, Holt and Smith joined Mary Hughes, associate professor in education administration, in Princeton, N.J., for training at the Educational Testing Service. They scored the national School Leadership Licensure for Administrators, a new test for educational administrators. The three faculty will use what they learned at ETS to develop the educational administration program at the University of Arkansas to meet more rigorous state standards, set to take effect in January 2002.

To meet the new state licensure requirements, UA faculty members have developed a performance-based instructional program, which includes an internship and a portfolio reflecting performance in six mandated standards. During spring 2001, the Department of Educational Leadership, Counseling and Foundations is planning to host the Razorback Spring Conference for Educational Administrators to explain the new program to administrators from around the state.