Understanding Professional Learning Partnerships: The Role of the Policy Environment in Shaping Partnership Outcomes and Resilience to Extreme Challenge

• In Event: Implementation and Effects of Curriculum-Aligned Professional Learning: A Study of Professional Learning Partnerships

Abstract

Objectives
Over the past decade, researcher-practitioner partnerships have become an increasingly popular approach to solving problems of practice (Tseng, Easton, Supplee, 2017). Nevertheless, in education, there is a lack of research exploring the effectiveness of these types of collaborative initiatives (Coburn & Penuel, 2016). This study builds on previous work (Desimone, Wolford, & Hill, 2016; Penuel, Allen, Coburn, & Farrell, 2015) using a conceptual model of policy attributes to understand the change efforts of professional learning (PL) partnerships. In particular, we ask: (1) How do partnerships vary on the policy attributes?, (2) What challenges do partnership’s face?, and (3) How have school closures from COVID-19 affected partnership work?

Theoretical Framework
This study is grounded in Desimone’s (2002) adaptation of policy attributes theory which identifies five dimensions through which policies gain influence over practice (Porter, Floden, Freeman, Schmidt, & Schwille, 1988; Porter, 1994). While Porter and colleagues conceptualized the policy attributes to be fixed for any given policy, Desimone (2002) emphasizes that perceptions of the policy attributes are what matter for implementation of reforms. Building on Desimone, Wolford, & Hill’s (2016) previous work applying this theory to partnerships, we test the policy attributes as an organizing framework to better understand the implementation and influence of partnership work in schools.

Data Sources and Methods
This analysis leveraged spring survey responses from the partnership lead survey, representing 12 partnerships. We conducted descriptive analyses to examine patterns in policy attributes and challenges to implementing PL before and after COVID-19. Two partnerships were excluded from the COVID-19 analyses, because their PL intervention had not started. On the survey, partnership leads rated agreement with indicators of the policy attributes on a 0-5 agreement scale (“strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”) and their rating of challenges to implementing PL on a 0-2 scale (“”significant challenge” to “going well”). Partnership leads also reported changes in challenges post-COVID on a 0-2 scale (“more of a challenge” to “has improved”).

Findings
Results show within and across partnership variation on policy attributes. Partnerships tended to score lower on power and higher on authority (See Figure 5). The top five PL challenges faced by partnerships were teacher subject-matter expertise, school-buy-in, time to cover planned content, and teacher attendance and engagement at PL activities. While there was no significant relationship between specificity (degree of detail and clarity) and challenges implementing PL, there was a significant, positive correlation (p=0.009) between specificity and post-COVID challenges—i.e., for partnerships with higher specificity, challenges tended to stay the same or improve. This suggests that partnerships scoring higher on specificity were better able to protect themselves from the effects of the pandemic.

Scholarly Significance
This study contributes to the body of work that examines the development and effectiveness of researcher-practitioner partnerships (Coburn & Penuel, 2016). By applying a framework of policy attributes to classify partnership work, this study examines how features of the partnership itself relate to key partnership functions and outcomes, in particular the implementation of PL intervention during a pandemic, and thus offers implications for both research and practice during challenging times.

Authors

• Kirsten Lee Hill, Kirsten Lee Hill Consulting

• Laura M. Desimone, University of Delaware

• Latrice Marianno, University of Delaware

• Kristina Lail, University of Delaware

• Camila Polanco, University of Delaware