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Partnerships and the activities they sponsored were most likely to be successful when participants shared expectations and understandings of project goals. In fact, we found that the most successfully implemented partnerships were initiated to address particular problems, where partners shared similar views of that problem. When there was consensus about the nature of the central problem, successful implementation occurred despite disagreements about how best to solve it. In contrast, all partnerships we observed that developed without a common, deeply held concern experienced difficulties early in implementation.
Conducting a needs assessment prior to project development provides a means of establishing consensus around project needs and consequent goals. Needs assessments also help identify the distance between the real and the ideal so that participants have a measure against which to frame appropriate expectations. Expectations are more likely to be shared when built from information available to all participants, even where partners are coming together from different organizations and with different motives for participation. The following describes three needs assessments (educational, community, and participant-based) that successfully generated common expectations and goals among project participants.
Conroe Independent School District (CISD) personnel, researchers from the Houston Advanced Research Center, the South Montgomery County/Woodlands Chamber of Commerce, several area businesses, and community members conducted a collaborative, comprehensive educational needs assessment. The assessment included student and teacher input and a review of district curriculum and library resources. School-community-university relationships built through the process of the needs assessment continued throughout the implementation of the partnership. These relationships, as well as common goals developed as a result of the assessment and continued communication regarding these goals, contributed to early full implementation of all partnership activities.
Participants learned of community needs for promoting science, math, and technology literacies in K-12 education. Increased communication on these issues resulted in development of several new programs and served to shape the eventual partnership proposal. Many of the original participants remained active in implementing the partnership. The collaborative nature of the needs assessment helped build relationships and focus and define a common vision, as well as appropriate participatory roles. The needs assessment contributed to early and complete implementation of all partnership activities.
The Education for Tomorrow Alliance (ETA) was a districtwide project serving students in K-12, but emphasizing activities for middle school and high school levels. The goal of the project was to help local educators promote and reorganize science, mathematics, and technology education to ensure scientific and technological literacy in youth. The partnership sponsored several activities to achieve this goal. For instance, there was a classroom speakers program for middle school students, a summer internship and mentorship program for high school students, and an annual science fair for both middle and high school students.
Several years prior to writing the ETA partnership proposal, the district superintendent initiated a formal assessment of educational needs, drawing on collaborative input from researchers from major and local universities, district administrators, and science and math professionals from local schools and businesses. According to the superintendent, "We evaluated our school system in just about every area, from interviewing students and teachers, looking at the courses offered, the percentage of students taking the premium courses, the quality of our libraries, and their ability to reinforce math, science, and technology." The study resulted in development of the science, math, and technology enrichment goals that guided ETA activities.
The educational needs assessment was undertaken as a collaborative, multisource venture, which served several purposes. First, it identified areas in need of improvement, reform, or enrichment. Second, it built relationships among those who later might be working together to develop programs or implement activities. Third, participants in the study developed a deeper understanding of the issues and the need for innovation. Fourth, through collaboration and representation, the venture built participant commitment and support.
Participants' clear understanding of their own and others' responsibilities, as well as how these are related in achieving overall project goals, are particularly important in complex projects. Also important is establishing a shared or common vision to tie together diverse activities. Given the variety of participants, diversity of activities, and number of target schools and age-groups involved in this project, conducting a needs assessment promoted role clarity and vision-sharing and contributed to successful implementation.
CISD, with 27,000 students, is the largest in the county and is larger than all remaining school districts in the county combined. The district includes both isolated rural and densely populated urban areas. The school board is very important in local politics, and the school district superintendent, at the time of the study, was very active and favored educational reform and innovation. The district has a new superintendent who is similarly active and pro-innovation. The partnership inspired by the study remained a high priority. Strong leadership and support by key members of the education community is necessary in such endeavors. Although other business-education partnerships have undertaken community economics studies or surveys sponsored by the South Montgomery County/Woodlands Chamber of Commerce, those did not involve curriculum review, teacher input, and teacher-professional collaboration in the same ways as this assessment.
Local businesses were surveyed by the Chamber of Commerce to follow up an economic development study of the city. Results of the needs assessment were used to frame a school-to-work transition program for non-college bound graduates to increase their employability and develop college aspirations. Tailoring program elements to develop job skills reported by businesses as lacking in many job applicants contributed to their participation in and support of the program.
The Omaha Job Clearinghouse (OJC) project successfully implemented all partnership activities. Recognition of community needs enabled project personnel to leverage partner participation and support. Two hundred and thirty local businesses participated in the program. Sixty percent of the participating businesses surveyed reported available entry-level positions for participating students, and 27 percent extended offers of employment to them. Further, several businesses created new entry-level positions and college scholarships earmarked for project participants. Student participation, as well as student success, increased as the program progressed; twice as many students were employed or in college during the second year of operations and numbers of students tripled during the third year. In addition, community members and local businesspersons donated $200,000 during the first year of the project.
The OJC project was a school-to-work transition activity involving multiple job shadowing experiences for each participating student, a mentorship program, a summer skills institute, and ongoing job readiness workshops during the school year. Seniors without firm college plans in Omaha public high schools were eligible to participate in the project. Each student was assessed individually and matched with one to four half-day visits to potential career sites tailored to career-ladder strategies. Students were hosted by an employee who explained the entry-level opportunities, as well as training and education needs associated with each career step at that site.
OJC project objectives were to increase the skill level of non-college bound students and to raise their expectations to career-ladder jobs, or jobs requiring additional education and training. These objectives were formulated prior to proposal writing and refined during initial implementation, based on the results of two studies. First, an economic development study was conducted by an outside consultant and indicated that minority and non-college bound high school graduates were leaving the city to find work. Findings from this study indicated: (a) lack of an available labor pool, (b) lack of clear or positive image of the city, and (c) disparity of employment opportunities within the minority community.
Second, the Chamber of Commerce surveyed businesses to determine whether a worker attraction program was needed to help keep young people from leaving the city. The majority of businesses indicated trouble filling one or more job openings, particularly in clerical, service, operator/fabricator/laborer, and sales. Analysis of job titles, conducted as part of the study, showed high school graduation and specific skill competencies were important factors in getting jobs.
The OJC was initiated as a school-to-work program that targeted skills and job-related experiences that local businesses reported important for their job openings in the Chamber of Commerce study. Elements of the program were designed to address specific concerns reported in the needs assessment. For instance, the summer institute offered basic reading and math skills, computer literacy and keyboarding skills, and English language skills. All these were reported as areas in which many entry-level job applicants were deficient. The job shadowing and mentoring elements addressed business concerns regarding applicants' lack of job-specific technical skills.
Community assessments such as this address a larger scope than educational needs. In this case, the interrelationships between community economic needs and educational programs helped shape project objectives and define program elements. Formal research findings also can be used to identify key players, to frame appropriate dialogue, to validate and communicate the need for innovation, and to provide a means of focusing participant efforts.
To encourage economic development and attract new businesses, the city wanted to increase its skilled labor pool as most qualified workers were already employed.
Another important local characteristic is the long history of business involvement with the schools. Many business leaders graduated from the local public schools and have been involved monetarily and otherwise in school projects. For example, before the OJC project, all seven high schools in the district had already been "adopted" by more than one local business. The schools tend to be seen as neighborhood schools as well, with involvement from many community organizations such as the Rotary and the Kiwanis clubs.
The context may increase the willingness of the Chamber of Commerce to fund community assessment research, with an eye to guiding relevant educational innovation. However, the credibility and leverage factors make tying the rationale for innovation to empirical studies of local conditions a promising practice in any context.
Student, parent, and teacher groups assisted in surveying students and their families regarding those areas most in need of improvement to support educational success for students placed at risk and their families. Four noninstructional areas were targeted for services by the partnership project: primary health care, social services and mental health programs, adult education, and safety and reduction of gang violence. Organizations and agencies best able to meet identified needs became partnership members. Project membership and community support increased, as well as the commitment and participation of students, parents, and teachers.
The HSC partnership provided resources and services to meet the needs of students placed at risk and their families to improve students' educational outcomes. The partnership targeted one feeder system of K-12 students, including an elementary, middle, and high school, for a variety of health and social services. The four service components provided were: health services, gang and violence prevention, early childhood services, and mental health services. Each component was configured differently to meet the needs of students and families at individual sites. For instance, health services at the elementary school focused on immunizations and check-ups provided at a nearby children's health center, as well as classroom presentations by nurses. At the middle and high schools, health issues tended to be confidential and student-centered, and nurses' and counselors' offices were rearranged to provide necessary on-site space. At the high school in particular, health consultations tended to address such highly charged issues as sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, and substance abuse.
In establishing the HSC, teacher, student, and parent groups at each participating school developed a survey regarding the needs and concerns of that school. The HSC coordinator led this effort, as well as conducting discussion groups for teacher and staff input. Each survey was tailored to the specific school site. This made uniform scoring difficult, but yielded important school-level information. Involvement of school personnel and community members built a sense of community ownership and participation in the program. All students and their families were surveyed. Those agencies most able to respond to the top-priority, noninstructional needs identified through the surveys and discussion groups were approached to participate in the partnership.
Involvement of the service recipients in the definition of needs helped build commitment and ensure participation of students, parents, and teachers. The participant-based needs assessment was used to establish service delivery priorities, as well as define project goals, prior to proposal writing. The process resulted in effective targeting of partnership services and recruitment of those agencies best able to meet project goals. Both the number of people and agencies involved in the project increased. For example, a private dispute and mediation center was brought on board to address safety and gang violence issues.
The HSC was a complex partnership involving school, university, and social service agencies. Defining a project goal of serving high-priority needs identified by students placed at risk and their families created a common vision for organizing the different activities implemented at school sites by each of these organizations.
The partner public school district serves about 90,000 students at 125 schools. Some schools in the district, including the three schools targeted for services by the HSC, are involved in school-based restructuring through a state-funded program. As a result, the schools and their personnel are somewhat accustomed to changing the educational delivery system. One objective of restructuring was to create new decisionmaking processes within the schools to serve students better.
All three participating schools are located in a predominantly low-income, multicultural, and highly mobile area of a large city. Forty-nine percent of the middle school and 84 percent of the elementary school students participate in the free or reduced price lunch program. When averaged together, these schools consist of approximately 42 percent Hispanic, 34 percent Anglo, 12.3 percent American Indian, 6.2 percent Asian, and 5.2 percent African American students. The average mobility rate of all three schools is reportedly 71 percent. Additionally, the middle school is located near the highest crime area of the city. The collaborative's recognition of these factors in adapting their service delivery to their clients contributed to full implementation and client use of planned services and activities.
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[PartI: Section II: Project Staffing