Outlining several recommendations for developing effective collaborations to support young people’s pathways toward adult success.
success for everyone
Collaborations for Success
Today, high schools are no longer an endpoint of formal education. It is essential the local K-12 systems, the institutions of higher education to which the majority of their students flow, and leading local employers collaborate closely to create strong and supported pathways from K-12 schooling into and through postsecondary schooling into a career with family supporting wages. Local high school principals, undergraduates Deans, and local employer hiring managers collectively shape the pathways available to a community’s youth, but all too often they are strangers to each other. To create pathways to adult success for all students local communities need to create seamless transitions from K-12, to higher education, to the workplace.
Student Support Systems
Postsecondary Navigation
Data & Continuous Improvement
recommendations
Collaboration Pathways to Adult Success
Various types of collaborations are useful in different contexts and situations. A one-size-fits-all template for collaborations rarely is successful. In this section, we outline several important stages and recommendations for developing effective collaborations to support young people’s pathways toward adult success.
Recommendation 1: Initial Focus & Priorities
- THE FOUNDATION
- AREAS OF INITIAL FOCUS
- ASSESS EXISTING COLLABORATIONS
- ENGAGE STAKEHOLDERS
- USING DATA TO EVALUATE
Consider the current situation to prioritize local needs and determine the initial focus of collaborations to be developed.
Select areas of initial focus based on the needs identified and the strengths/resources available. Possible focus areas might include
– Strengthening school outcomes as the best precursor to later success
– Supporting students’ transitions and persistence during and following preK-12 education
– Recovering young people in their mid-to-late teens who are disengaged from both school and the workforce (sometimes called “opportunity youth”)
– Improving skills to help youth meet employer workforce needs, leading to strengthened economies that benefit everyone
These are all are worthy goals, but they cannot all be accomplished at once. Careful prioritization is essential.
Identify and assess collaborative relationships already established. For example, these may include
– preK-12 districts and schools
– community and nonprofit service organizations
– local two- and four-year colleges
– businesses and other potential employers
– local government or health and wellness partners
Consider the strength of each collaborative relationship, the ways partner organizations currently contribute to supporting young people’s success, and their potential capacity for additional investment.
Conduct an assessment of needs and strengths that engages multiple stakeholders.
~ This should include all current collaborative partners as well as parents, community members, and current and/or recently graduated students.
~ Also reach out to those with whom you would like to develop a stronger relationship (for example, this might include local employers or colleges).
~ Give particular attention to outcomes for subgroups of students who face greater challenges (for example, English language learners, foster youth, students with disabilities, etc.).
Recommendation 2: Identifying Areas for Collaborative Development
The process of assessing needs and strengths and selecting focus areas will bring awareness of collaborative efforts that must be strengthened or developed in order to achieve the goals envisioned. These collaborations will usually include both information sharing and working together practically to support young people. Developing organizational collaborations is an organic process that requires time and effort, and usually encounters bumps along the way.
– While short-term partnerships for specific events and services may come about fairly quickly, long-term collaborations with higher impact are usually developed over a period of years.
– Initially, many collaborations will involve just one sector other than districts and schools, to keep the project manageable and experience early success.
– Communities where productive partnerships in support of children already exist may be able to start more ambitiously and draw in additional sectors.
– Document actions and outcomes, reflect on and learn from them, and modify as appropriate. Some learning will focus on the process: decision points, timetables, and unanticipated hurdles and opportunities.
Begin with examining existing collaborations.
– Correlate school data and that of existing partners to refine understanding of students’ outcomes, particularly in identified focus areas.
– Based on mutual goals and interests, consider additional ways for partners to work together to support students.
– Determine whether (and which) additional partnerships are needed, or whether strengthening and adapting existing relationships would produce faster results; consider decision points and timetables for developing those relationships.
Seek creative ways to incorporate student voice as you develop collaborative plans.
Examples include: focus groups, surveys, and/or student representation in planning groups or steering committees.
Recommendation 3: Collaboration & Communication
For collaboration to thrive and remain effective over time, it is important to clarify objectives, expectations, roles, and responsibilities, and to document these agreements in appropriate ways. This is also crucial considering the likelihood that key personnel changes may occur during the lifetime of the collaboration. How the respective organizations will share, use, and safeguard data is of particular importance. Stakeholders must share data transparently, discuss it frequently, look for strengths and weak points, and devise strategies for improvement and incentives for success for everyone.
Work with partners to establish appropriate structures for collaboration and communication.
– Articulate the common goals, objectives, and purpose of the collaboration.
– Develop protocols and MOUs as needed to clarify roles and responsibilities of each organization.
– Determine communication norms (e.g., frequency of reports and meetings; individual as well as organizational expectations and responsibilities).
– Establish a consensus on how to measure progress toward mutual goals, and what indicators are most relevant to the focus areas selected.
Prioritize data-sharing agreements (DSAs) that enhance each organization’s capacity to work effectively.
– Data-sharing is essential to carrying out effective cycles of inquiry: monitoring and analysis of outcomes to improve planning and subsequent interventions.
– Data-sharing with higher education and employment partners helps schools understand students’ current outcomes and improve the preparation provided in middle and high school. Data-sharing also helps partners understand how to support incoming students’ and employees’ chances for postsecondary success.
– Data-sharing with service and health/wellness organizations helps both schools and partners understand the life situation and academic challenges that students face, and the kinds of supports they need to succeed.
– Make sure you know, understand, and fulfill the responsibilities outlined in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
– Many organizations have standard DSA templates. These provide a good starting point, but should be reviewed by legal counsel for each of the organizations involved.
Recommendation 4: Persistence
Collaboration among local organizations and entities is an effective way to improve local postsecondary outcomes, for the benefit of the young people involved, their families, and the entire community.
Collaboration at the reginal or state level is crucial to support, spark, or enhance local initiatives.
– State-level databases and longitudinal data are crucial to assess and support students’ postsecondary success as well as high school graduation, and are especially helpful if in-state college data is incorporated.
– State-level or regional collaborations with preK-12 school districts can help two- and four-year institutions develop strategies to support incoming students’ transition to college, particularly for first-generation students and those at greatest risk.
– Regional business councils can provide coordinated guidance to help schools improve CTE and linked learning opportunities.
HOW
DEVELOPING COLLABORATIONS
Schools and community partners collaborate with families in meaningful ways to support and provide the necessary tools for a child’s school experience, and families actively support their child’s development and learning.
Here we’ve curated useful resources aimed specifically at how to develop collaborations across a variety of entities.
impact
PAS in Action!
Helping Students Help Students: A Collaborative Mentoring Model
Collaborative High School Redesign
Partner Initiatives
Check out the collaboration initiatives the PAS Partners have implemented in their schools or districts. Learn about PAS partner initiatives.
Iowa BIG Podcast
Listen to the interview with Iowa BIG Strategic Partner Developer Laura Seyfer about her experiments, failures, innovations and progress at Iowa BIG.
Partners for Education at Berea College
For more than 23 years, the Partners for Education at Berea College have mobilized funding and worked with nonprofit and government agencies to raise rural Appalachian youths’ educational aspirations and attainment, becoming a national leader in improving outcomes among rural youth.
Check out the work being done a Partners for Education at Berea College
Nashville’s Community Achieves Program
Description of Nashville’s Community Achieves program
Awarded the Community Schools’ 2015 Award for Excellence, which grew from one high school in 2009 to include 23 schools and 17,000 students by 2015. With active support from the Chamber of Commerce, the program connects schools to businesses to foster career pathways, addresses personal and family barriers, and has doubled scholarship money available within the district.
Iowa BIG Podcast
Interview with Iowa BIG Strategic Partnership Developer teacher Amanda Zhorne about her experiments, failures, innovations and progress at Iowa BIG.
Working Together for Healthier Communities
Community Toolbox has created an outline a modest proposal for how three key groups — community partnerships, support and intermediary organizations, and grantmakers — might work together to make the most of everyone’s investments in the work. Contains toolkits, resrouces, checklists and more.
Community of Practice 2025 Learning Series
Ready to transform your approach to improvement work in your school? Our partners at the GRAD Partnership is offering a four-part interactive learning series is designed to help you harness the power of data, elevate student voices, and implement meaningful, student-centered strategies to improve student success in your school. This isn’t just another workshop series—it’s a transformative journey designed to elevate your improvement work, empower your team, and drive better student outcomes. Learn more about the Learning Series
Designing Education
A podcast hosted by Robert Balfanz, director of the Everyone Graduates Center.
Conversations with leaders in education from around the country on bold new ideas and research-based strategies for redesigning American education to more effectively engage all students and equip them for the challenges of today’s workplace and world.