Leadership Implications for School–Community Partnerships

• In Event: 26.018 - Equity-Focused Family Engagement Strategies and Community–School Partnerships

Abstract

School-community partnerships have shown promise as an educational reform effort. In these partnerships, schools expand the traditional educational mission of the school to include health and social services for children and families and to involve the broader community. Such partnerships have been found to enhance student learning, strengthen schools, and support struggling neighbourhoods. But what are the implications for school and community leadership? From our review of the literature, we developed a typology of four partnership types that enabled us to comparatively analyse the role of leadership in each of the models. We describe the leadership practices that support the success of each model and examine the obstacles to carrying them out.

Authors

• Linda R. Valli, University of Maryland

• Amanda Stefanski, University of Maryland

• Reuben Jacobson, Institute for Educational Leadership