Brenda Hill, Markey Bee (NNPS Key Contact), Stephanie Graves, Cynthia Bellinger,
Tammy Pawloski (Director), Gretchen Huggins,
Ellen Bateman, and Myra Hendley.
Strengthening Leadership for Partnerships
Francis Marion University Center of Excellence (COE) conducts research and development projects to improve the quality of education for children living in poverty. In its work with NNPS, leaders at COE are assisting school districts and more than twenty schools in rural and low-income communities in South Carolina. The Center’s leader for partnerships has a “big picture” of progress in the region, and aims to scale up the number of districts and schools that COE assists to develop well-organized programs that reach out to families and community partners.
In 2008, COE took steps to strengthen leadership in school districts. The leader encouraged each collaborating district to appoint a facilitator to recruit and support their own schools to establish Action Teams for Partnerships. For example, a newly appointed facilitator in Darlington County recruited five schools through two separate “awareness sessions.” COE leaders encouraged and accompanied three district facilitators to attend the NNPS’ District Leadership Institute in Baltimore in April, where they learned how to take the next steps in building goal-oriented programs of school, family, and community partnerships in their own schools.
Encourage Districts and Schools to Improve their Partnership Programs
Leaders at Francis Marion University began publishing a COE E-Brief on partnership program development to keep district and school members of the local network informed of important partnership activities and events happening throughout the area. The E-Brief, modeled on the monthly e-brief from NNPS Facilitators to all members, includes news, guidelines, upcoming training opportunities, best practices in various schools, funding options, deadlines for evaluations, and other timely information. Traveling distance in South Carolina often keeps district and school leaders from attending meetings across the state. The E-briefs ensure that everyone working with the Center for Excellence and NNPS on partnership program development stays in touch and receives on-going guidance for developing stronger partnership programs.
See one of Frances Marion University’s Center of Excellence activities in the collection of Promising Partnership Practices 2008. Visit COE at http://www.fmarion.edu/academics/centerofexcellence.