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needed teachers. This positive culture in participating schools could partly result
from the school districts’ viewing these interns as a solution to their teacher shortages.

Defining Success of the Program
Two participants acknowledged measurable outcomes to determine the program’s
success. Both participants referenced feedback and observations as measurable.
Mr. Davis, school decision-maker, related this to the evaluation instruments in
specific, measurable ways, such as “when those observations come through, and
they’re mostly threes.” Mr. Davis was referencing threes as positive scores on the
Georgia Teacher Keys Effectiveness System (TKES). Dr. Adams described specific
questions, such as “how are they doing? You know, how, overall dispositionally…
how did they do? How did they perform?”
Other quantitative, measurable components related to the program’s success
included metrics of whether the districts offered the intern a permanent position and
whether they remained in the district. All decision-makers described success when
the intern was offered the job after graduation. P–12 administrators acknowledged
the need for the principal to desire to hire the candidate rather than just feeling they
must hire them because they have no other alternative. Mr. Davis said,
I think success for us comes down to: Is the principal of the school willing
to hire that person?…If that principal feels strongly enough about that intern
that the principal says, ‘I want to hire this person’… and not just, ‘Well, we
might as well hire them. We gotta be here the rest of the year.’
Ms. Franklin from District B partially described success by saying, “Number one,
the main thing is when they want to come back.” Similarly, Dr. Bullard described a
conversation with an intern who said, “I want to stay right here. I don’t want to go to
another school.” To make this metric measurable, one has to consider the number of
interns retained by the district where they completed their internship.
District and university participants discussed how many interns were offered
jobs; others included how many remained in the district. Dr. Berry said, “I think all
of our other teachers have been offered whether they chose to stay. But I think that
speaks volumes, too.” Dr. Berry’s comment may relate to former discussions of a
school with a struggling candidate where the school district and university rallied
around the candidate to support them. Her statement about candidates choosing to
stay or not may relate directly to whether they felt supported.
Qualitative metrics would include the interns’ experiences, how the school
districts perceived the interns’ performance, and whether interns felt prepared to
take on the job later. Dr. Adams referenced communicating specifically with the
school district to determine evaluation methods beyond what a university participant
could observe, such as gaining feedback from the school district beyond teaching
skills. She said:
I also think, seeking feedback from the school system…things like, beyond
just their teaching skills, and their professionalism and their content
knowledge, but more of…how did they fit in with the school system, just
some of those cultural sorts of things, the day to day things that we don’t
necessarily see in any student teaching experience whether that’s the intern
model or just the traditional.
Sarah, from Dr. Adams’ university, alluded to how she felt connected to the school:
I think that’s why I’m such an advocate for the intern as a teacher program,

18 The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin: International Journal for Professional Educators