Using Data to Align Program Missions, Strategies, and Outcomes in Cross-Sector Collaborations for Education

• In Event: 34.067 - Organizational Theory and Organizing in Schools

Abstract

Across the United States, there is growing interest and investment in local, place-based, cross-sector collaboration for the improvement of educational outcomes. In an earlier era, several education scholars produced prescient descriptions of potential organizational challenges in coordinating and managing such collaborations. This paper builds on those commentaries by examining one particular aspect of coordination: the use of shared measurements to align, manage, and monitor program missions, strategies, and outcomes. Using web-based information on 182 collaborations around the country and data from three intensive case studies, this paper reports on problems and patterns of data use, and discusses implications for organizational theory and the practice of collaboration.

Authors

• Carolyn J. Riehl, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Melissa A Lyon, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Iris Daruwala, Teachers College, Columbia University