Building Collaborative Community Relationships

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Building Collaborative Community Relationships

• A collaborative project created by Kathryn Berry,
  Mary Caviness,
• Joanie Dubose, Jamin Ellis, Robert Pickard, and
  Pam Williamson

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What goes into a Collaborative Community
Relationship?
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What goes into a Collaborative Community
Relationship?

• Merriam-Websters Dictionary defines the term
• collaboration as working jointly with others or
• together, especially in an intellectual endeavor,
• and to cooperate with an agency or
• instrumentality with which one is not
• immediately connected.

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What goes into a Collaborative Community
Relationship?

• As teachers face decreasing test scores,
• establishing reform programs in the schools,
• meeting objectives for lesson plans, and
• dealing with all of the other jobs thrown into
• their daily lives, their job as teacher can be
• very overwhelming.

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What goes into a Collaborative Community
Relationship?

• One collaborative relationship has been proven
• by research to very beneficial to not only the
• teacher, but the learning community as well
• is the collaborative relationship between a
• teacher and a certified media specialist.

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What goes into a Collaborative Community
Relationship?

• In a collaborative partnership, the teacher and
  the
• library media specialist work together to create
  a plan
• that will benefit everyone involved.
• The teacher provides knowledge about the
  strengths,
• weaknesses, and interests of the students
• The library media specialist brings to the
  collaborative
• partnership his or her knowledge of resources
• outside the four walls of the classroom,
  familiarity
• with teaching information skills, and an
  understanding
• of objectives.

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What goes into a Collaborative Community
Relationship?

• The teacher-media specialist is just one of
• many collaborative relationships that can be
• built or strengthened within a schools
• community of learners.
• By building or strengthening collaborative
• relationships, a teacher can provide his or her
• students with a more valuable learning
• experience while having his or her workload
• lessened.

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Strengths and Weaknesses of a Collaborative
Community Relationship
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Strengths and Weaknesses of a Collaborative
Community Relationship

• Not only are there collaborative communities
  within
• schools, there are community-school collaborative
  
• relationships. These relationships between
  community
• and schools have been around since 1956 and can
  be
• found in all grade levels and all types of
  schools and
• communities.

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Strengths and Weaknesses of a Collaborative
Community Relationship

• Project Teach of the Kanawha County Schools in
  West Virginia shows
• the strengths of a collaborative relationship
  between community and
• school.
• The School Need New computers, software,
  teacher training
• A shortage in funds
  and possible cutbacks.
• Community Help Community volunteers to help out
  with school needs.
• Parents helped supervise the students while
  the teachers rotated
• times to go to the computer training
  sessions.
• School Help In-service lesson prepared the
  volunteers for the classroom
• Results With the help of the community
  volunteers the teachers were
• able to be trained without having
  to spend extra money

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Strengths and Weaknesses of a Collaborative
Community Relationship

• Even with successes like Project Teach, building
  collaborative
• relationships do have weaknesses that need to be
  addressed for them
• to be successful.
• Research has found the following weaknesses
• (1) Organizing the relationships and making them
  stable.
• (2) Leaders feel there is only one way to lead
  and are not open to new
• pathways.
• (3) Leaders struggle to share authority with
  others. In some instances the
• leaders involved may find the challenges
  to play a full part may be
• too great where personal and corporate
  ambitions override the
• stated aims of the group

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Strengths and Weaknesses of a Collaborative
Community Relationship

• There are difficulties in building and
  maintaining
• collaborative community relationships but, if
  the climate
• is right, the benefits of collaborative learning
  groups can
• significantly outweigh the challenges they
  generate in
• terms of real school improvement gains

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• Collaborative Community Relationship
• Home, School, and Community Roles

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Collaborative Community RelationshipHome,
School, and Community Roles

• With the changing of our country, we have
  realized that we
• must make changes in our education system. The
  task of
• educating all children well has become too
  difficult for educators
• or parents to do alone.
• Home, school, and community must work together to
  offer our
• children the education they will need to be this
  countrys leaders
• of tomorrow.
• The first step in moving to become a
  collaborative community is
• to identify what our children need. After the
  needs have been
• identified, then a common goal can be established
  for the three
• groups to work together to achieve.

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Collaborative Community RelationshipHome,
School, and Community Roles

• Home/Parent Roles
• (1) A liaison between the educators and the
  community.
• (2) Actively involved in school functions,
  athletics, extra-curricular
• activities, and adult educational
  opportunities offered by the
• school.
• (3) A participant on decision-making or
  problem-solving teams and
• active in volunteer programs.

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Collaborative Community RelationshipHome,
School, and Community Roles

• School Roles
• (1) Develop a framework for communication with
  parents and
• community
• (2) Support and work with families from diverse
  backgrounds
• (3) Be a welcoming and positive environment to
  all families
• (4) Be supportive of the efforts of the family
  and community
• (5) Promote the idea of education as a
  shared-responsibility
• (6) Be the hub for community activity

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Collaborative Community RelationshipHome,
School, and Community Roles

• Community Roles
• (1) Become a students curriculum by allowing the
  student to
• engage in real-life experiences in the
  community
• (2) Provide resources expertise, volunteers,
  educator roles
• (3) Be an advocate for educational needs on
  local, state, and
• national level
• (4) Be a sustaining partner by offering a strong
  base of support
• for the school

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Collaborative Community RelationshipHome,
School, and Community Roles

• A collaborative relationship involving all three
  partners, home,
• school, and community, who are successfully
  fulfilling their
• roles, should be a positive, beneficial
  arrangement that serves a
• specific purpose which is to elevate all who have
  a stake in
• making this a successful relationship.
• A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats

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• Collaborative Community Relationship
• Assessment and Evaluation

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Collaborative Community RelationshipAssessment
and Evaluation

• As schools develop collaborative relationships
  with their
• surrounding communities, it becomes necessary to
  evaluate these
• relationships to determine whether they are a
  benefit to the school,
• the community, and more importantly to the
  students and their
• families. If a relationship is not meeting these
  criteria, the
• relationship needs to either be changed to become
  beneficial, or
• dissolved if it is determined that nothing can be
  done to make the
• relationship work.

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Collaborative Community RelationshipAssessment
and Evaluation

• Key elements in building a successful
  full-service community school
• (1) committed
  people
• (2) open
  communication
• (3) careful
  planning
• (4) access to
  technical assistance
• (5) integration of
  education and support components
• (6) strong initial
  financial support.

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Collaborative Community RelationshipAssessment
and Evaluation

• The Six Elements of General Evaluation Criteria
  for a Successful
• School-Community partnership
• (1) A majority of the people involved are
  committed
• (2) There is open communication among the
  involved parties
• (3) Parties involved are adhering to the
  originally agreed upon plans for
• the partnership
• (4) There is sufficient access to the technical
  assistance required to run
• the program
• (5) Education and support components are built in
  to the program and
• functioning as required
• (6) The partnership is receiving adequate
  financial support.

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Collaborative Community RelationshipAssessment
and Evaluation

• One of the main things that will keep a
  partnership between a school and
• a community in focus are clearly stated goals for
  that partnership.
• Having clearly stated goals also helps in terms
  of evaluation. It is easy to
• tell if a goal is not being met, especially a
  quantitative goal. If the goals
• of a partnership are not being met, it may be due
  to lack of benefit
• gained from the partnership for the parties
  involved.
• As previously stated, the main area of
  consideration in evaluating a
• collaborative relationship between a school and a
  community is whether
• the students are benefiting from the
  relationship. This should also be a
• main consideration when evaluating the
  relationship. As schools are
• required to be advocates for children and
  students, the relationships
• they enter into with community partners have
  higher stakes. The ability
• to give quality educational benefits to students
  should be the main
• purpose of this collaborative relationship.

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• Strong Collaborative Communities are the Missing
  Piece of the Puzzle in Achieving the Learning
  Goals and Activities of Your Community of
  Learners