Fall, 1999 No. 7  National Network of Partnership Schools

National Network
Presents State and District
Leadership Awards

The National Network of Partnership Schools presented its first annual state and district leadership awards for the 1998-99 school year. The 1999 State Leadership Award was shared by Jane Grinde, Director, Bright Beginnings/Family-School-Community Partnership Team, and Ruth Anne Landsverk, Coordinator of the Family-School-Community Partnership Team in the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI). The 1999 District Leadership Award was presented to Dr. Gary Thrift, Area Executive Officer of the Direct Instruction Area of Baltimore City Public Schools. The awards recognize district and state leaders whose policies and practices not only contribute to the quality and progress of their own programs, but also add knowledge that strengthens and improves the
Network nationwide.

Wisconsin Leadership

For more than five years, Jane Grinde and Ruth Anne Landsverk have helped the Network’s researchers learn how states can support urban, rural, and suburban schools and districts in developing programs of partnership. At the Wisconsin DPI, Grinde and Landsverk used research to create a logo for the six types of involvement, and designed a checklist on partnerships for schools that influenced the Network’s Starting Points inventory. They instituted an on-going small grants program, annual conferences for hundreds of educators and parents from across the state to share ideas and learn about partnerships, and a “Sharesheet” to communicate about partnerships with schools and districts across the state. They have “scaled up” Wisconsin’s work on partnerships by linking small grants to schools’ One-Year Action Plans and helping schools join the National Network of Partnership Schools.

Baltimore Leadership

Dr. Thrift’s leadership in the Southern Area from 1994 to 1998, and his on-going efforts in the Direct Instruction Area, helped define the Network’s guidelines for all school districts. For example, Dr. Thrift discusses partnerships at monthly principal meetings; evaluates principals and teachers on good partnerships; supports schools’ Action Teams; supports the area facilitator, Paula Williams, who guides the school teams; participates in end-of-year celebrations of progress; and uses his “bully pulpit” to make all principals, teachers, parents, and students aware of the importance of partnerships for student success.

We congratulate the recipients of the National Network’s 1999 State and District Leadership Awards, and we thank them for demonstrating how the National Network
assists and learns from its partners in partnership.

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