The purpose of this study was to examine the perceived need for, the recommended competencies of, and the delivery systems suggested, for a secondary school principal internship program in the Seventh-day Adventist educational system. This study evolved from the belief that the significant turnover of principals represents a challenge for Adventist education. Because of this, the supply of qualified and experienced candidates is not available in sufficient numbers to meet the current personnel needs for secondary school administrators.

The review of related literature traced the history of principal internship training in the public school system from the early 1800s to the present. A brief report of Adventist internship information was included. An author generated survey was sent to four major stakeholders in the field of Adventist education: Secondary school board chairs, secondary academy principals, conference and union superintendents, and college and university professors of education in Seventh-day Adventist institutions of higher learning. The groups surveyed included the entire population of these educational leaders in the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventist education ( n = 297). The research for this study was divided into three parts: (1) The perceived need for a principal internship program; (2) the curricular components and places where they are best learned; and (3) the delivery systems recommended to make this internship available. ANOVA, Chi-square, and post hoc Student-Newman-Keuls tests were used for data analysis.

Findings indicated that all four groups perceived the inclusion of a principal internship program as very important in the training of new principals. They affirmed the importance of all twenty-two competencies surveyed with the best places for learning most of these competencies to be during an internship or through job experience. They further recommended that the North American Division Office of Education in the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists assume a leading role in the establishment of principal internship programs in cooperation with union and local conferences and Seventh-day Adventist colleges and universities.