How a New York Districts-University Partnership Responds to the Twin Pandemics

• In Event: Better Together: District-University Partnerships Responding to Educational Emergencies

Abstract

This session presentation is to reflect upon evidence about how two districts and one university partner responded to the opportunities and challenges brought about by the pandemic and current civil and economic unrest and the role of improvement science in these responses. It draws on first-person accounts and proposed next steps from the key team members in this partnership.

Through continuous participation in iLEAD, the university and district partners had made great strides in their leadership education and development, both individually and collectively. The university has adopted improvement science-like approaches to developing educational leaders, while its partner adopted improvement science to frame their school improvement work, through direct coaching and structured group learning within networked improvement communities (NIC). Shortly before the COVID-19 crisis, the districts and university showcased their work to the larger iLEAD community, through a series of consultancies, gaining valuable input and suggestions for next steps. The partners ended this three-day experience planning for a local day-long event to replicate this experience for their constitute audiences and outlining how to expand their work’s reach and impact.

As the COVID-19 pandemic roared through the New York region, the partners put these plans on hold while undertaking the huge lift of transferring their educational functions and organizational routines on-line for the foreseeable future. District leaders and university faculty experienced the sharp health, education, economic, and social consequences, cascading over district communities that already faced enormous gaps and challenges. The subsequent racial unrest, protests and demands for structural reforms made substantive change more urgent, and, oddly, more possible. The districts and university, individually and as partners, have not been deterred, but pursue their strategies with more urgency and commitment:

• The Bronx Borough Superintendent’s office (overseeing eight school districts) and Fordham launched an EdD cohort specifically and to address Bronx educational priorities. It will begin August 28th with 15+ Bronx school and district leaders who are highly motivated to make a difference.

• Both the Bronx and Yonkers ended their NIC (assistant principals) and PLC (principals) experiences virtually, with strong interest in continuing in AY 2020-21.

• Fordham University and the Bronx have collaborated on seeking funding to enable our work (one federal and two private foundations in partnership with other iLEAD partnership groups).

• ELAP faculty and students participated in an on-line discussion about the impact of the two crises for their work and next steps for Fordham and our division’s programs.

• The ELAP chair and Bronx superintendent have begun discussions with Fordham’s president to exploring ways to work together to improve student learning and college outcomes.

Taken together, these pandemics and their consequences are challenging us to think more substantively about long-term crisis leadership and intractable problems, and are building on our partnership work, and the broader iLEAD principles to engage in these substantively. We also gain from the broader iLEAD partnership as a means of working together on shared challenges, as evident from our grant pursuits.

Author

• Margaret Terry Orr, Fordham Graduate School of Education