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School-community partnership structures and program success
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between the structure of school-community partnership programs and indicators of partnership program success. Indicators were identified by the National Association of Partners in Education (McDonald, 1993), by a qualitative study and by a review of selected references. The population was all identifiable partnership program directors (1,875) for K-12 public schools in the United States. The response rate was 72%. The findings were as follows: (1) Performance was affected significantly when coalitions were not built with students (.05), teachers (.04), parents (.02), school administrators (.01), and community members (.000001). Business people were highly represented in the coalitions. (2) The dominant organizational model was collaborative (54%). There was no statistically significant difference between the three organizational models and performance. (3) Links to top level managers and superintendents were strong and were identified as extremely important. No significant difference in performance was identified between directors who reported to top managers and directors who reported to middle managers. (4) The indicators of success survey items had a reliability of higher than.96 and were identified as uni-dimensional. Items added to the NAPE instrument were identified as very important. (5) The overall mean score on the importance survey was 4.0 ("very important"). (6) The overall mean score on the performance survey instrument was 3.4 ("very good"). (7) Partnership programs have existed an average of 7 years. Funding is secure for the long term (7 years) for about one-fourth of the programs. Most programs have a full-time, paid director (61%) and secretary (54%). (8) Partnership directors have held that position for an average of 4.7 years. The average background experiences included: 15 years in education, 70 years as a volunteer, 4 years in for-profit, and 4 years in human services. Sixty-seven percent of the directors have completed a masters degree or higher. (9) Seventy-five percent of the directors are females. Earnings for the male directors (25%) are significantly higher (.0001).
Subject Area
School administration|Management|Business community
Recommended Citation
Hopkins, Barbara Jo Glass, "School-community partnership structures and program success" (1995). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9538620.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9538620