The purposes of this project were to chart the processes by which an individual becomes a school administrator, to identify competencies the school administrator needs to perform his role effectively, and to develop a conceptual framework that lends itself to understanding the university's role in the overall process of training school administrators and its quest for a competency based educational administration program with applicability to the everyday administrative process. Interviews and questionnaires were used to gather data regarding formal and informal modes of learning the roles of a school administrator. A pilot study led to the larger research study. It was concluded that university training is embarrassingly deficient and ineffective; that informal models of learning, anticipatory and developmental socialization, are a more puissant manner for competency development; that the best characteristics of formal and informal modes of development must be merged--classroom techniques and theory must be supported by field internship experiences; that more university attention must be given to competency development in areas of individual improvement and human relations; and that more study must be completed for defining administrative competencies as curricula are developed. (Author/IRT)