This essay formulates some recommendations for educational administrator preparation programs and predicts the course of their future development. While the case of medical practice as a paradigm for the practice of educational administration is found only generally useful, the clinical analogy yields the suggestion that educational leader preparation should emphasize a well-focused clinical concern for the effectiveness of educational organizations in the attainment of collective goals and the prevention and treatment of conditions impairing effectiveness. Preparation programs should also be grounded in a holistic conception of practice emphasizing maintenance of systematic essential functions of the administrator, should address the problem of the value system of the school and its implications for the current emphasis on outcomes of education, and should cultivate an understanding of the function of the school in the societal system and its implications for administrative practice. The forecast for preparation programs is that little improvement will be made due to limiting conditions imposed by the complex and unpredictable nature of administrative practice, by the state of knowledge of administrative practice (which does not yet offer tested problem solutions, valid and relevant empirical generalizations, and valid theoretical principles), and by certain characteristics of university departments of educational administration inherent in their resemblance to academic disciplines. (MJL)