Spring, 2001, No. 10 National Network of Partnership Schools
Issues and Insights
State and District Alert! Time to "Scale Up" Partnership Programs
Joyce L. Epstein
DirectorAll states and school districts in the National Network of Partnership Schools agree to a few research-based requirements to ensure successful programs of school, family, and community partnerships. Two major responsibilities must be fulfilled.
State and district leaders are expected to develop and improve their own leadership on partnerships. Policies should show that partnerships are important in mission statements, priorities, and explicit declarations from the superintendent and other leaders. Actions should show that partnerships are supported by an excellent staff, collegial connections, adequate resources, and annual written leadership plans for implementing state-wide or district-wide partnership activities.
All states and large districts are expected to name an office or department for school, family, and community partnerships so that everyone knows where leadership and assistance are located. For example, Connecticut created an active Bureau of School-Family-Community Partnerships. Leadership may include awarding competitive grants, conducting training workshops, spotlighting good partnerships, disseminating newsletters, and other activities, as Wisconsin has done for several years.
State and district leaders are expected to facilitate all schools’ development of effective programs of partnership. State leaders may work with regional staff development offices (as Texas and Louisiana do), collaborate with colleagues across departments (as Utah and Washington do), and assist school district leaders (as Maryland does) to determine the best ways to help all schools organize family and community involvement.
District leaders must plan how they will facilitate the work of each elementary, middle, and high school. This includes helping every school assemble a well-functioning Action Team for Partnerships, and assisting every team to plan, implement, evaluate, and continually improve the quality of its program of partnerships. For example, Saint Paul, MN and Wichita, KS have dramatically scaled up the number of schools that are assisted by district facilitators. Leaders in Taunton, MA; Naperville, IL; Local District B in Los Angeles, CA; Grand Blanc, MI; and other districts are helping all schools improve their partnership programs. When all schools in a district join the National Network together, partnerships come alive as a district priority, and schools gain ideas and support from each other.
Expectations to Scale Up
The National Network of Partnership Schools expects all state and district members to scale up the quantity and quality of programs over time. For example, the next annual, detailed Leadership Plan for Partnerships (LTP) should specify and schedule state or district activities that will be implemented to improve the quality and quantity of partnership programs in the 2001-2001 school year.
In turn, states and districts should expect the National Network to help them scale up successfully. Contact State and District Facilitator, Mary Nesbitt, to discuss your next steps; Middle and High School Facilitator, Natalie Jansorn, for tools to help secondary schools develop better partnership programs; Network Coordinator, Kenyatta Williams, to add your state or district name to the heading of the NNPS membership forms; or visit the Network’s website (www.partnershipschools.org) for many ideas in all issues of Type 2 and in the collections of Promising Partnership Practices. Finally, state, district, and organization leaders should plan to attend the Network’s next Leadership Development Meeting on October 24-25, 2001 to gain more ideas on how to scale up the quantity and quality of their partnership programs for student success.
