Understanding School District Partnerships and Decision Making for Nonacademic Supports During a Public Health Crisis

• In Event: Leading Through Crisis and Responding to COVID-19

Abstract

Education leaders can play critical roles in supporting the social safety net in moments of crisis. This paper draws on interviews with 24 school district leaders to understand how they turned to, pivoted, and activated partnerships to provide non-academic supports amid the Covid-19 pandemic. We find that district leaders viewed partnerships as central to their work. However, districts’ contexts influenced the roles that schools played in their communities, the landscape of partnerships they formed, and how leveraging partners helped meet their community’s non-academic needs during the pandemic. This study’s findings expand the field’s understanding of the role of education leaders as civic leaders who activate partnerships to meet their community’s needs in the face of a prolonged crisis.

Authors

• Ariel H Bierbaum, University of Maryland
  Presenting Author

• Alisha Butler, Wesleyan University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Deb Niemeier, University of Maryland
  Non-Presenting Author

• Maureen Madden, University of Maryland
  Non-Presenting Author