"Something's Got to Give": How Tensions Within School-Community Partnerships Challenge the Sustainability of School-Based Initiatives

• In Event: The Role of School Districts in Shaping Educational Leadership

Abstract

This study shows how tensions within partnerships between K-12 schools and Eat Right Philly, a SNAP-Ed nutrition program, affect the sustainability of community-partner initiated, school-based interventions. Case studies, including 120 interviews and 91 observations, were conducted at 19 schools. It is framed using Proctor et al.’s (2011) taxonomy of implementation outcomes, which account for contextual factors influencing implementation of interventions. This study identifies new facilitators of sustainability: (a) establishing a shared definition for what sustainability means and looks like in the school setting, (b) prioritizing the visibility and presence of the community partner at the school, even as they hand over intervention maintenance, and (c) clearly defining the roles that each partner is expected to fulfill in maintaining the intervention.

Authors

• Elisabeth Fornaro, The School District of Philadelphia

• Erin Cassar, School District of Philadelphia

• Soula Servello, School District of Philadelphia

• Peter Hawes, School District of Philadelphia