Funding, Policy, Politics, and Community Engagement in School-University Partnerships

• In Event: Surveying the Landscape of Research on School-University Partnerships

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this presentation is to share insights from the editors of two sections of the forthcoming Cambridge Handbook of School-University Partnerships (SUPs).
Perspectives
The perspectives grounding this presentation will be those of the sections’ three-person editorial team, who will present insights into SUPs gleaned from the chapters in two sections. The editorial team members will share different perspectives on the handbook sections. The senior editor will share an overview of sections, and two associate editors will present summaries and insights drawn from the chapters.

Mode of Inquiry
This presentation will be grounded in hermeneutic inquiry (White & Cooper, 2022), appropriate for generating and sharing new understandings through the interpolation of text and lived experience. Through this cycle, inquirers establish pre-understandings of a text or experience, reflect and discuss emerging understandings, and come into new understandings which they share with others. The editors will share how their pre-understandings of the field of SUP research were initially framed, complicated, and re-formed as fresh insights through the editing experience.

Materials
The materials for this presentation consist of chapters from two sections of the handbook, (1) Funding, Policy, and Politics, and (2) Community School Engagement with SUPs.

Findings
The section on funding, policy, and politics includes two chapters, one of which surveys the policy context for Professional Development Schools (PDSs), teacher residency programs (TRPs), and Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAPs) to address teacher shortages. This chapter discusses current federal legislation (e.g., Every Student Succeeds Act, Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) and state-level responses to federal policy, concluding with a series of policy recommendations. Another chapter examines funding for SUPs (surveying the pivotal role of federal grants) and the role of local politics in the governance of SUPs (examining the role of K-12 school boards and leadership). Together, these chapters provide a high-level overview of the complex set of federal and state policy factors that shape the work of local SUPs.

The section on community school engagement with SUPs includes four chapters. The first chapter begins the section by highlighting how, through a community-engaged approach to scholarship and learning, universities can better realize their mission of contributing to an optimally democratic society. The next chapter follows with an overview of community school strategies, outlining opportunities and challenges between universities and community schools. The final two chapters provide examples of how community schools, by partnering with universities, create space for equity centered practices. One examines how the UCLA Community School seeks to create more equitable relationships as a mutualistic SUP, and the other outlines the ways in which a social service agency pioneered community schools work in New York City from 1992-present.

Significance of the Work
This presentation will update the field of SUP research on the status of a significant project (i.e., the publication of the field’s first scholarly handbook in nearly two decades). In doing so, it will contribute an up-to-date perspective on the state of scholarship related to funding, policy, politics, and community engagement in SUPs.

Authors

• JoAnne Ferrara, Manhattanville College

• Kathleen Provinzano, Binghamton University - SUNY

• Logan Rutten, University of North Dakota