Co-construction: A facilitator for school reform in school, community and university partnerships

Journal of Negro Education, The, Winter 2001 by Carroll, Grace, LaPoint, Velma, Tyler, Kenneth

Graduate School of Education, SUNY at Buffalo. Blue and Collins (1998) offer further evidence of a successful school, community, and university partnership among faculty and graduate students from the Graduate School of Education at SUNY at Buffalo, educators from Hamlin Park School, and curriculum specialists from an urban school district in Buffalo. The partnership focused on preparing students for the state's fifth-grade competency test in writing. SUNY graduate students and faculty taught curricula that were developed collaboratively with the fifth-grade teachers. Fifth-grade student writing samples, evaluated several times throughout the year, were found to be successful. Blue and Collins argued that the student success and, hence, the partnership success, was due to the identification and elimination of the traditional top-down model of communication. It was replaced with a democratic model, with equitable voices and control of work during project development and implementation. This successful partnership involved keeping family members informed and involved in school governance. It also included the active participation of educators in curriculum development and measurement decisions. There is further evidence to suggest that collaboration between school and university faculty members contributed to improved professional development (Conley, Bas-Isaac, & Scull, 1995), shared governance and policy development (Hoy & Tarter, 1993), school-based management (Ames & Ames, 1993; Barth, 1990; Barth & Pansegrau, 1994) and, leadership (Fullan, 1991; Fullan & Hargreaves, 1991).

National Network of Partnership Schools (NPS). Further evidence of successful schooluniversity partnerships can be found in the work of Epstein's National Network of Partnership Schools (NPS) at The Johns Hopkins University (Epstein, 1987; Epstein, Coates, Salinas, Sanders, & Simon, 1997). NPS uses the ecological framework of Overlapping Spheres of Influence (OSI) where schools, families, and communities are conceptualized as partners or overlapping spheres of influence in students' learning and success. Using data collected from schools, families, and community members over several decades, Epstein and her colleagues have identified six spheres of school, family, and community involvement:

* Parenting skills development; * Communicating about school programs and students' progress;

* Volunteering as a means of engaging family and community help and support;

* Home-learning opportunities for educational stakeholders;

* Decision-making, wherein family and community members are key players in school planning and policy; and

* Collaborating with communities to identify resources and services that can strengthen school programs, family practices, student learning and development.

CHALLENGES TO PARTNERSHIPS

Public school systems and individual schools have not yet mandated clear policies and practices for developing, sustaining, and evaluating comprehensive school, community, and university partnerships. Davies (1991) argued that many partnerships by school stakeholders trying to enhance student educational outcomes have many ill-defined operational standards despite the reported success of partnerships. Riordan and da Costa (1998) have also identified many barriers to collaboration. One major reason why collaboration and its reported benefits are elusive is because there are many instances where collaboration is established, but result in many negative consequences. For example, while the term collaboration means "working together," the articulation of joint activities in social groups always involves power-sharing issues. Partnerships among school-based educators, family members, and researchers involve power sharing across lines of institutional turf, professional status, and personal identity. When power is unequally distributed, collaboration is likely to result in domination of a particular group (Riordan & da Costa, 1998).