School/Community Partnerships Selected Resources

Source: National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, October 2003

Abravanel, Susan A. Building Community Through Service-Learning: The Role of the Community Partner: ECS Issue Paper. Denver: Education Commission of the States, 2003.
This issue paper has been designed especially with the community partner in mind. From the school perspective, what can be done to encourage and support the emergence of the agency or organization as a partner? From the agency or organization perspective, what are the significant considerations involved in establishing successful service-learning partnerships? This paper highlights effective strategies, using best practice examples to illustrate the potential impact on the service-learning partnership. (ECS) The paper's focus is on school-based, as distinct from community-based, service-learning. A number of the strategic recommendations presented in this paper, however, especially those dealing with changes within the organization or agency itself, may be applicable to both situations.

Bauch, P. "School-Community Partnerships in Rural Schools: Leadership, Renewal, and a Sense of Place." Peabody Journal of Education 76 no. 2, (2001): 204-21.
Part of a special issue on the relations and sense of place between schools and their constituents. A school-community partnership school renewal model that could help rural school communities to enhance their educational processes is presented. This model capitalizes on the sense of place of a community and other distinctive aspects of rural school communities. It relies on the development of six types of family-school-community connections: social capital, sense of place, parental involvement, church ties, social-business-agency relations, and community as a curricular resource. Each of these connections and the implications of this school-community partnership model of school renewal for educational leadership are discussed.

Batenburg, Mark P. Community Agency and School Collaboration: Going in with Your Eyes Open. Paper, annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA, April 18-22, 1995.
Agency school collaborations are examined from the point of view of the agency. The data for the analysis were gathered through interviews with staff people from six different community based organizations in California, all of whom have experience working with schools and youth volunteers. The study found that there often are culture clashes between agencies and schools because they inhabit different worlds. Some obstacles agencies experience in working with schools include the following: inflexibility of school schedules, controlling attitudes of schools bureaucracy, school administrators' attitudes, teachers who fail to listen, internal problems with the agency, and the inability of agencies to work with more than one volunteer at a time. However, agencies often continue to work with schools for several reasons: agency personnel are idealistic and want to enhance learning; they hope that the relationship will help their clients; and that the schools will increase the diversity of volunteers.

Bruner, Charles. Thinking Collaboratively: Ten Questions and Answers to Help Policy Makers Improve Children's Services. Washington, DC: Education And Human Services Consortium, 1991.
Designed to help state and local policy makers consider how best to foster local collaboration that truly benefits children and families. Checklists help policy makers quickly assess key issues in establishing interagency initiatives, demonstration projects, and statewide reforms to foster collaboration.

Cairn, Rich, and Cynthia Scherer. Agencies Plus Schools Equals Service-Learning: A Training Toolbox. Washington, DC: Points of Light Foundation, 1994. 
This guide is a training manual intended to facilitate the development of service-learning opportunities for young people, and the development of agency/school partnerships for service-learning. This is the trainer's manual and is intended to be used in schools or community organizations where adults are interested in implementing service-learning programs.

Cairn, Rich, and Susan Cairn. Collaborators: Schools and Communities Working Together for Youth Service. St. Paul: National Youth Leadership Council, 1990.
Describes the connection between using schools as community resources and communities as resources to schools. Identifies critical roles in developing service-learning programs through collaborative efforts. Fourteen community based agencies offer overviews of their organizations, defining significant organizational and client needs, explaining how young people can meet those needs, and identifying program elements which would ensure successful collaboration. A resource list includes organizations and publications supporting service-learning and volunteering.

Center for Mental Health in Schools. An Introductory Packet on Working Together: From School-Based Collaborative Teams to School-Community-Higher Education Connections. Los Angeles: UCLA, 1997.
This packet outlines models of collaborative school-based teams and interprofessional education programs, as well as family-school-community partnerships. Included are discussions, descriptions of model programs, references to publications, access information to other relevant centers, agencies, organizations, advocacy groups, and Internet links, and a list of consultation cadre members ready to share expertise.
PDF version available at:
http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/worktogether/worktogether.pdf

Cross-City Campaign for Urban School Reform. Building Bridges: Across Schools and Communities; Across Streams of Funding. Chicago: Cross-City Campaign for Urban School Reform, 1998.
This report summarizes a 1997 conference that brought community activists, school reformers and community funders together to talk about how to organize for reform using local resources and strategies, and combining school and community efforts.

Ellis, Debbie, and Kendra Hughes. Partnerships by Design: Cultivating Effective and Meaningful School-Family-Community Partnerships. Portland, OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 2002.
Guide to help schools and programs assess their current approaches to involving families and community members, and to assist them in implementing more effective strategies.

Gretz, P. "School and Community Partnerships: Cultivating Friends." Principal Leadership (High School Ed.) 3 no. 5 (January 2003): 32-4.
Advice on building partnerships between schools and community groups and agencies is provided. During the planning phase--the most important step toward establishing a successful partnership--the school principal and the community need to work together on establishing goals, assessing needs, developing vision, and deciding management issues. Evaluation is also essential if partnerships are to succeed and persevere, and evaluation methods that have been shown to be both innovative and effective include portfolios, murals, and surveys. The benefits of effective school-community partnerships for teachers and principals, students, and communities are considered.

Gulati-Partee, Gita, and William R. Finger, eds. Critical Issues in K-12 Service Learning: Case Studies and Reflections. Alexandria, VA: National Society for Experiential Education, 1996.
Includes: Opening the Dialogue Between Schools and Community - Jennie Niles with William Finger / Defining Community - Barbara Wysocki / Identifying Community Needs and Resources - Najwa Abdul-Tawwab / Designing Meaningful Projects That Meet Community Needs - Johnny Irizarry / Forming Effective Community Advisory Boards - Joyce McSpadden / Training With Community Partners - Patricia M. Barnicle

Hiatt-Michael, Diana B. Promising Practices to Connect Schools With the Community. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing, 2001.
This volume in the Family School Community Partnership Issues series, explores ways in which schools can partner with communities. University, business, and museum partnerships are just a few of the school-community connections discussed in this volume. Contents: "Introduction-The School-Community Connection" by Diana B. Hiatt-Michael, "Educational Reform: The Community School Approach" by Martin J. Blank, "A Full-Service Community School" by Joy G. Dryfoos, "School-Linked Service Programs: Opportunities and Challenges" by Nancy Feyl Chavkin, "Schools and Communities Working Together to Implement Youth Behavioral Health Programs" by Carl I. Fertman, "School-Business Partnerships" by Mary Ann Burke, "Community Museums Support School Curriculum" by Laurie Beaumont, "Improving K-16 Education Through School, Community, University Partnerships" by Barbara Lieb.

Kraft, N. "Building Collaborations to Support Service-Learning." In Building Support for Service-Learning, edited by Shelley H. Billig. Denver: RMC Research Corporation, 1998: 67-88.

Levine, Carole. "School-Community Partnerships: A Lasting Collaboration Is More Than a Two-Step Dance." School Administrator Web Edition (June 1998).
Real collaborations are few and far between. Most of the "dances" we call collaborations are limited in scope and not sustained over time. Yet when school/community relationships are effective, they display some common signs: A broad spectrum of people and organizations share a common vision; their commitment is not short-term; self-interest, while not absent, does not dominate what is being done; and things change for the better.

Loosli, Saren. Building Effective Partnerships. Wellesley, MA: National Institute on Out-of-School Time, 1999.
This guide is comprised of tips, tools, and discussions related to building effective partnerships with young people, families, schools, communities and businesses. Steps for and attributes of effective partnership-building are discussed, and ideas, tips, and sample forms for effectively involving volunteers are also included.

Lyday, W. Jackson, and Larry Winecoff. Connecting Communities through Service Learning. Clemson, SC: National Dropout Prevention Center, 1998.
This primer on service-learning provides a brief overview defining and stating the benefits of service-learning, describes types of partnerships (with human service organizations, business and industry, and school), gives procedures to help nurture partnerships and service-learning programs, defines the roles and responsibilities within partnerships, and provides sample service-learning agreement and evaluation forms.

National Collaboration for Youth. The New Community Collaboration Manual. Washington, DC: The National Assembly of Health and Human Service Organizations, 1997.
This book explains the seven keys to successful collaboration (shared vision, skilled-leadership, process orientation, cultural diversity, member driven agenda, multiple sectors and accountability).Provides skills and concepts needed to build effective collaborations and offers approaches and tools to develop collaboration among community groups.

Pardini, P. "School-Community Partnering." School Administrator 58 no. 7, (August 2001): 6-11.
Despite the daunting task of creating school and community partnerships, the number of such ventures is soaring nationwide, as school leaders capitalize on the possible benefits that can be achieved through combining school, parental, and community agencies to assist student learning. The origins of community schools, various types of community school initiatives, challenges facing school-community partnerships, and school-community partnerships in New York, Montana, Washington, and Rhode Island are described.

Pitkofsky, Jim. Creating and Managing Partnerships for Service Learning Integration: a Guide for Service Learning Coordinators. Alexandria, VA: National Association of Partners in Education, 1994.
Outlines strategies for creating and managing partnerships for integrating service-learning at the K-12 level. Introduces service-learning and lists outcomes. Describes a process referred to as The NAPE 12-Step Partnership Development Process. This process is detailed in sections on awareness, needs assessment, potential resources, goals, program design, recruitment, assignment, orientation, training, recognition, and evaluation. Each section includes worksheets and self assessment questionnaires.

Points of Light Foundation. Building Effective Partnerships in Service-Learning: NSLC Fact Sheet. Scotts Valley, CA: National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, 2002.
PDF version available at:
/filemanager/download/15/EffectivePartnerships2001.pdf

Rigsby, Leo C., and Maynard C. Reynolds. School Community Connections: Exploring Issues for Research and Practice. Indianapolis: Jossey-Bass, 1995.
This book aims to understand school-community connections and the most effective ways to mobilize school and community resources in the service of children and youth; and to understand the complexities of communication and exchange of information, both across disciplines and across professional boundaries of service responsibilities.

Roehlkepartain, Eugene. Everyone Wins When Youth Serve: Building Agency School Partnerships for Service Learning. Washington, DC: Points of Light Foundation, 1995.
Highlights the power of creating service-learning opportunities for youth in agencies. Discusses service-learning basics, benefits of involving youth, common concerns related to creating service-learning opportunities on agencies and first steps agencies can take to develop these kinds of opportunities.

Roehlkepartain , Eugene. Practical Guide for Developing Agency / School Partnerships for Service Learning. Washington, DC: Points of Light Foundation, 1995.
The book is described as a practical manual for creating service learning opportunities from the agency perspective. It defines service learning, presents principles and strategies for agencies to build effective programs, helps agencies establish partnerships with schools for service learning opportunities, gives suggestions and ideas for implementing programs based on others' successful experiences, and provides ready to use worksheets to assist in planning and implementation.

Rubin, Hank. Collaborative Leadership: Developing Effective Partnerships in Communities and Schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2002.
In this book, the author empowers school, community, and government leaders with usable, successful models of collaboration that can boost their performance and capacity to achieve their missions and create positive systemic change. He illustrates how to cultivate mutually beneficial partnerships to ensure the success of both communities and schools. Includes a discussion of 24 specific attributes that foster successful collaboration