Back
Catherine Jordan
Amy Averett
Jerry Elder
Evangelina Orozco
Zena Rudo
Back
Creating Collaborative Action Teams
Working Together for Student Success
Guide
Catherine Jordan
Amy Averett
Jerry Elder
Evangelina Orozco
Zena Rudo
Back
Copyright © 2000 Southwest Educational Development Laboratory
All rights reserved.
Not to be reproduced without permission of the publisher.
Southwest Educational
Development Laboratory
211 E. Seventh Street
Austin, TX 78701
voice: 512/476-6861
fax: 512/476-2286
www.sedl.org
Editorial services by
Castle Communications
Austin, Texas
512/346-2375
Design by
Janice McLemore Graphic Design Inc.
Austin, Texas
512/327-7977
© Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. This publication was produced in whole or
in part with funds from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of
Education, under contract #RJ96006801. The content herein does not necessarily reflect the views
of the Department of Education, any other agency of the U.S. Government or any other source.
Back
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
How to Use These Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Stage 1: Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1
Steps:
● Introduce the Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3
● Gather School Community Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5
● Plan the First Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-9
Stage 2: Mobilizing the Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1
Steps:
● Establish Representative Membership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3
● Determine Communication Ground Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-7
● Build Common Understanding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-11
● Support Consensus Decision Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-15
● Identify Shared Leadership Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-19
Stage 3: Setting Direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1
Steps:
● Agree on a Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3
● Identify and Prioritize Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-5
● Develop a Mission Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-9
● Set Team Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-11
● Communicate Your Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-15
Stage 4: Taking Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1
Steps:
● Develop Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3
● Determine Necessary Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-7
● Establish Evaluation Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-11
● Monitor Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-17
● Expand Network Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-21
Stage 5: Reviewing and Refining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-1
Steps:
● Assess Team Effectiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3
● Celebrate Your Successes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-7
● Increase Effectiveness and Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-11
Appendixes:
A – Working in Youth–Adult Partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-1
B – Engaging Business in Collaboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-2
C – Working with the Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-3
D – Conducting Effective Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-4
E – Collaborative Action Team Project Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-7
F – Issues in Collaborative Work: A Review of the Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-10
iii
Back
Acknowledgments
The Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) exists to
challenge, support and enrich educational systems in providing quality
education for all learners, enabling them to lead productive and fulfilling
lives in an ever-changing, increasingly connected world.
SEDL’s mission is to find, share and sustain effective solutions for the most
urgent problems facing educational systems, practitioners and decision makers
in the southwestern United States. The primary strategies are those of development, dissemination, training and technical assistance, supported by evaluation
and applied research. These materials were developed by SEDL’s Program for
Refining Educational Partnerships (PREP) and are a continuation of the work
started by SEDL’s Home, School and Community Partnerships Project.
Our deepest appreciation goes to our many partners in the twenty-three
demonstration sites. Together, we learned and grew in our understanding and
practice of collaboration. The partners gave generously of their time and
expertise, and demonstrated their strong commitment to students and their
families throughout the project. The sites are as follows:
Albuquerque High School Cluster (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Balmorhea Independent School District (Balmorhea, Texas)
P.G.T. Beauregard Middle School (St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana)
Clayton Independent School District (Clayton, Oklahoma)
Clinton Independent School District (Clinton, Oklahoma)
Del Valle High School (Del Valle, Texas)
Dollarway School District (Pine Bluff, Arkansas)
Fabens Independent School District (Fabens, Texas)
Highland High School Cluster (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
L. R. Jackson Elementary School (West Memphis, Arkansas)
Jackson Middle School (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)
Barbara Jordan Elementary School (New Orleans, Louisiana)
Lee County School District (Marianna, Arkansas)
Little Rock School District (Little Rock, Arkansas)
Marshall School District (Marshall, Arkansas)
Mora Independent Schools (Mora, New Mexico)
Geraldine Palmer Elementary/César Chávez Elementary Schools (Pharr, Texas)
Ann Parish Elementary School (Los Lunas, New Mexico)
Polk Elementary School (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)
Ponca City East Middle School (Ponca City, Oklahoma)
Rio Grande High School Cluster (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Rio Hondo Independent School District (Rio Hondo, Texas)
Terrell Independent School District (Terrell, Texas)
v
Back
We especially acknowledge the SEDL staff who contributed their dedication
and expertise to the development of this project: Joan Buttram, Catherine
Jordan, Amy Averett, Jerry Elder, Evangelina Orozco and Zena Rudo.
Special thanks go to David L. Williams, Jr., who initially led the work on this
project and to Grace Fleming, José Velazquez, Beverly Tucker and Patricia Deloney
for their contributions.
Special thanks go to Artie Stockton at SEDL for her editorial and production
assistance throughout the project and to Amy Averett for coordinating the final
production of this publication.
vi
Back
Introduction
T
he gardening symbols that you’ll see throughout these materials will
help you understand how the materials fit together to support your
efforts. The gardening metaphor is fitting for a guide on collaboration,
since collaborations “grow” gradually, much like gardens do. Gardeners must
be patient as seeds sprout slowly and mature over an entire growing season.
First, gardeners must do “groundwork”—preparing the soil and planning their
garden. All along the way, they must decide what work needs to be done and
who will do it, to help plants thrive. Gardeners must constantly monitor and
adjust their care to fit the needs of different plants. They must also deal with
problems, such as weeds and insects, that might weaken the plants. Gardeners
know that the most healthy, vibrant gardens include a rich variety of plants
and flowers. Finally, gardeners enjoy seeing visible changes as their garden
grows and flourishes and when they harvest the fruits of their labor at the end
of the season.
Stories about positive change in schools and communities are beginning to
have a familiar ring. People are taking brave steps to make real changes and
improvements. These steps enhance student outcomes and raise expectations
for life-long learning. They mobilize people to reclaim their schools and
neighborhoods.
In recent years, educators have recognized the need to look beyond academics
to help students succeed in school. As Thomas Payzant, superintendent of
the Boston Public Schools observes, “The days are past when schools could
concentrate simply on basic education and leave a child’s social, physical,
psychological and economic needs to others.”1 However, many schools lack
the resources, authority, networks and knowledge to address all relevant aspects
of students’ lives alone. A complicated system of interrelated, interdependent
parts affects each student’s development. Schools are just one part of the
system. Home and family life, and the community and society in which the
student lives make up other parts. Yet, schools play a particularly crucial role
for several reasons:
The amount of time students spend at school
● The school’s explicit mission to guide student development
● The significant relationships developed between students and their peers,
their teachers and other adults in the school environment
●
1
Payzant, T. W. “New beginning in San Diego: Developing a strategy for interagency
collaboration.” Phi Delta Kappan, October 1992: 139–146.
1
Back
Introduction
Guide
Researchers have also come to understand that schools don’t operate in isolation.
Instead, there is an entire school community made up of all the people and
organizations that either affect or are affected by the school. A school community goes beyond those who work and study inside the school. School communities include families, businesses, agencies, organizations and individuals in the
immediate neighborhood. A school community might include residents who
have no children attending the school but whose property values are affected by
the quality of education the school provides. A social service or health agency
that serves students’ families may be part of a school community even if it’s not
located near the school. The school board and district or state administrators
that affect a school’s work could also be part of the school community.
School Community
Seeing schools as part of a larger system highlights the importance of their
interaction with the other parts: home, family, community and society. This
shift in thinking leads to an increased focus on schools working together with
other entities in the community. Researchers, educators and service providers
now recognize that collaboration can and should be a vehicle for change in the
education system.
You may have read stories about such collaboration efforts in newspapers and
magazines. You may have heard about them on the radio. You may have even
watched them on the nightly news. Still, you may consider them exceptions
rather than the rule. But somewhere inside, you may wish the same things were
happening where you live.
So why don’t these things happen in every community? Why doesn’t someone
take those bold steps in your community? The answer is probably along the
lines of, “We’re not real sure how to, and it’s kinda scary if we don’t get it right.”
People hesitate because they’re not sure how to initiate positive change. Students
and their families settle for less than their ideal. As a result, very little improves.
What Helps Make These Positive Shifts?
SEDL’s research supports the idea that collaboration, local control and
self-reliance are keys to achieving successful results in school communities.
Collaboration happens when people and organizations come together to
achieve common goals. The result is that they often accomplish more together
than they would working separately. Local control and self-reliance occur
when local people determine how to make things happen in their own communities. As people begin to work together, they realize the many strengths
and resources that exist in their own backyard. They also take responsibility
for making things happen, instead of waiting for someone else to provide
solutions. Building local leadership and increasing community capacity help
sustain change efforts over a long period of time.
2
Back
Guide
Introduction
What Do We Mean By Collaboration?
Collaboration is not the same as networking, cooperation and coordination.
It differs in the extent to which people share resources and use power and
authority to achieve goals they can’t achieve independently.2
Networking
Networking involves interacting with others and sharing information for
mutual benefit. It doesn’t necessarily involve taking action together to achieve
a shared vision. Example: Getting acquainted and sharing information about
programs being offered.
Cooperation
Cooperation is a short-term, informal relationship that exists without a clearly
defined mission or structure. Each organization keeps its own authority and
resources separate. Example: Sharing materials or supplies between two
organizations.
Coordination
Coordination is a somewhat formal relationship that involves longer-term
interaction around a specific effort. It requires some planning and division
of roles, but authority still rests with individual organizations. Resources may
be shared to a small degree. Example: Planning a joint field trip or sharing
office space.
Collaboration
Collaboration describes a more formal and long-term arrangement. It brings
separate organizations or individuals into a new relationship with a joint
commitment to a common purpose. Such a relationship requires comprehensive planning and well-defined communication. Risk is greater because team
members’ reputations are at stake. They pool their resources and share the
products of their work.
Here’s another common definition of collaboration:
Collaboration is a mutually beneficial and well-defined relationship entered into by two or more organizations to achieve common
goals. The relationship includes a commitment to: a definition of
mutual relationships and goals, mutual authority and accountability for success and sharing of resources and rewards.3
2
Kagan, S. L. United We Stand: Collaboration for child care and early education. New York:
Teachers College Press, 1991.
3
Mattesich, P. W., & Monsey, B. R. Collaboration: What makes it work: A review of research
literature on factors influencing successful collaboration. St. Paul, MN: Amherst H. Wilder
Foundation, 1992.
3
Back
Introduction
Guide
Collaboration has also been called “a process by which several agencies, organizations, or individuals make a formal, long-term commitment to work together
to accomplish a common mission related to critical and complex social issues
of wide concern.”4
Those in collaborative relationships view each other as partners. Each partner
enhances the other’s capacity to define excellence, set mutual goals and use
their own personal and institutional power to achieve them.5 Collaboration also
implies a style of work and a sense of community in which members deliberately decide to do things as a whole. They see themselves as complementary
and mutually supportive contributors to the entire community.
In other words, collaboration involves the following:
Developing win–win situations
● Creating a total greater than the sum of its parts
● Sharing responsibility
● Sharing success
●
SEDL’s research shows that collaboration helps school communities address
pressing issues and bring about positive change.
What is the Collaborative Action Team Process?
Recognizing the benefits and challenges of addressing school issues through
collaboration, SEDL began to develop a process that school communities could
use to build collaborations at the local level. Based on the information learned
during its previous Home, School, and Community Partnerships Project
(1990–1995), SEDL set out to accomplish the following objectives over a
five-year period:
Develop a process that school communities could use to build local
partnerships.
● Implement and test the process in local school communities throughout the
Southwestern United States.
● Refine the process based on experiences and lessons learned from local teams.
● Produce materials that other school communities could use to implement
the process.
●
4
4
The National Assembly of National Voluntary Health and Social Welfare Organizations. The
New Community Collaboration Manual. Washington, DC, 1997.
5
Himmelman, A. T. Communities Working Collaboratively for a Change. Minneapolis, MN:
Himmelman Consulting Group, 1992.
Back
Guide
Introduction
In 1995, SEDL invited five school communities to become partners in testing
the Collaborative Action Team process in local school settings. As the teams
implemented the process, SEDL provided training, ongoing consultation and
evaluation of their efforts. In 1998, ten more school sites joined as partners,
and SEDL continued to refine the process. In 1999, an additional eight sites
brought the total to 23 Collaborative Action Team sites.
Working with SEDL to test the process, these local partners formed teams of
school, home, community and student representatives. The teams began to
change the way schools and communities worked together. They helped define
a common vision for their community’s students and their families. They
agreed to share responsibility for achieving self-defined missions. They learned
to work together as team members, sharing programs and resources. Rather
than competing, they collaborated to improve results for their community’s
schools, students and families. Over the years, SEDL’s local partners have had
extensive input in the development and refinement of the process and this
Guide. The result is:
The Collaborative Action Team Process
A set of concepts, activities and resources that individuals, school districts and
other organizations can use to develop a partnership between school, home,
community and students at the local level. These teams identify pressing issues
in the school community and take action to address those issues.
How Does the Collaborative Action Team Process Work?
The Collaborative Action Team process is designed to help school communities
succeed with school improvement efforts. The process brings people together
and helps them learn how to work collaboratively. It guides the development of
teams composed of family members, community representatives, school personnel and students. These team members make plans and take action together
as a team to address pressing issues their school community faces.
SEDL’s Collaborative Action Team process combines team building and action
planning to mobilize local teams.
5
Back
Introduction
Team building
Guide
Team building focuses on how team members work together while respecting
each member’s unique strengths. Mutual respect and trust grow as relationships
and shared experiences develop. It builds trust as you solve problems and
create new opportunities. Teams build relationships several ways:
By getting to know each other
● By talking constructively from differing viewpoints
● By undertaking projects together
●
Action planning
Action planning helps a team develop its vision, mission and goals. The team
prioritizes, strategizes, assigns tasks and evaluates progress. Action planning also
helps produce fast visible results. The team takes easy, achievable steps that help
it move forward.
Teams create momentum by working on manageable-size projects. For
instance, in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, a team started by obtaining funds to
remodel a much-needed sign to announce school activities. Completing this
simple project together built the team’s sense of accomplishment. Other
projects, such as a family fair attended by 300 people, were more complex. So
were efforts to increase parents’ involvement in their children’s education. Early
success creates the energy and enthusiasm needed for long-term development
and more complicated projects.
Who Can Use the Collaborative Action Team Process?
All sorts of teams can use these materials. Your team may be just beginning. It
may be quite experienced. Or it may be anywhere in between. Because the
Collaborative Action Team process can be adapted to a variety of situations,
any combination of people can use the process:
A small group that includes only a handful of people from a school and
the community
● An existing group in a school or school district that already has many
representatives from different school community sectors
● A group of people who have been trying to work together for a while to
improve a school community but have not had much success
● An individual, perhaps a principal or an assistant superintendent, who
wants to establish a partnership to address key issues in a school or a group
of schools
●
You don’t have to develop an entirely new team to use this process or achieve
its goals. In many school communities, existing partnerships can use the
Collaborative Action Team process to strengthen their teams.
6
Back
Guide
Introduction
What Results Will the Collaborative Action Team
Process Produce?
A Collaborative Action Team can help school communities:
Promote and foster student achievement,
● Increase parent and community involvement in schools,
● Use resources efficiently,
● Locate new resources to address school community issues,
● Expand the local leadership pool,
● Create a new sense of togetherness in the school community,
● Generate momentum to accomplish school and community goals,
● Support a self-reliant team of local partners with local interests and
● Build hope about the future among students and families.
●
SEDL has collected many examples of Collaborative Action Team successes. In
some places, successes came from carefully laid plans. In others, results were
more spontaneous. The ones described here have encouraged members to stay
with the process.
Parent and Community Involvement
A more open relationship between parents, schools and the community
naturally emerges as a Collaborative Action Team develops. The Rio Grande
High School Cluster Collaborative Action Team in Albuquerque, New Mexico,
decided to hold a family conference. The theme was “Opening Doors.” Parents
helped plan the conference, attended workshops and visited information booths.
Session topics included learning styles, homework tips, parenting ideas and
gang prevention. The school cafeteria served as an exhibit hall where health
and social service agencies provided information. Child care was provided to
encourage parents to attend. Americorps volunteers arranged for a magician,
games, videos, a clown and pizza. The keynote speaker, a native of the
community and now a professor in another state, spoke passionately about the
importance of parents staying connected with what goes on inside classroom
walls: “We have to organize ourselves to work for the benefit of our children.”
Result: About 250 parents got involved and learned valuable parenting skills.
7
Back
Introduction
Guide
Community Mentoring Program
A majority of students at the Jackson Middle School in Oklahoma City were
demonstrating low academic achievement. Their low test scores were a cause
for alarm among school administrators and teachers. The Collaborative Action
Team discussed the issue and subsequently implemented a mentoring program.
School, parent and community members on the team recruited employees
from the Federal Bureau of Investigation regional office, Lucent Technologies
and the Federal Aviation Administration. During the 1999–2000 school
year, 20 mentors from these organizations provided a minimum of one hour
each week to come to the school and work with low-achieving students in
mathematics. A total of 1,508 mentor hours were volunteered for a total of
40 low-achieving seventh grade students (20 each semester).
Result: Students showed increases ranging from three to nine percentage
points between the pre-test and post-test math scores with the average being
six percentage points. Ninety percent of the students assigned to a mentor
made an extra effort to be in class regularly.
Homework Assignment Book
The members of the Beauregard Middle School Collaborative Action Team in
St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, were concerned about low student test scores.
They determined that part of the problem was students not getting their
homework completed. The team, composed of parents, teachers, school
administrators and students discussed this problem and reached consensus
on a two-dimensional approach. First, they initiated a telephone homework
hotline so parents could call each night and listen to a recorded message to
find out what homework was assigned for that day. Second, the team ordered
assignment books that the students were required to carry with them at all
times. Students wrote homework assignments in their books each day and
parents then signed the book to indicate that the student had completed the
homework. Teachers also used the assignment book to write notes home to
parents concerning the student’s work or behavior that the parent also had to
sign. Students who had their assignment books complete and up-to-date were
rewarded every nine-week grading period with a drawing for a prize. The
books were also used as hall passes during school hours.
Result: Both of these ideas helped students at Beauregard Middle School
become more disciplined and improve their academic achievement. This
resulted in higher test scores and improved grades. Communication between
the school and parents also improved.
8
Back
Guide
Introduction
What Core Concepts Guide the Process?
The Collaborative Action Team process brings the characteristics of true
collaboration to the school environment by developing a partnership between
a school and its community. Then it helps the team develop and follow an
action plan and use local resources to resolve problems. During this process,
you develop a sense of momentum that helps your team move forward.
Four core concepts form the foundation of the Collaborative Action Team
process:
Representative Membership—Each team contains a cross section of the
school community that is consistently represented at meetings and actively
involved in making decisions. This includes family members, community
representatives, school personnel and students. Representative membership
enhances collaboration by helping the team develop a more comprehensive
response to school community needs. This concept reinforces local control
and self-reliance.
Shared Leadership—Each team equally distributes leadership roles and
responsibilities among all team members. Team members see themselves as
a group of leaders working to benefit students and their families. All team
members are equally included in representing the team, making decisions,
carrying responsibilities and sharing success. Shared leadership builds true
collaboration because it enhances commitment and willingness to work as a
team. It also sustains individual energy, minimizes “burnout” and expands the
school community’s leadership pool.
Consensus Decision Making—Each team makes decisions that best reflect
the viewpoints of all involved and that all members agree to support. This
requires that team members develop the ability to discuss issues, listen to each
other, address their differences, work to resolve them and reach decisions based
on general agreement. Consensus decision making might take more time and
effort than other forms of group decision making, such as voting. However, it
minimizes conflict and maximizes commitment and willingness to take action
together in the long run.
Action Focus—The underlying purpose of a Collaborative Action Team is to
take action to improve the school community, in the short run and in the long
run. Describing a team vision and mission, setting goals and forming strategies
prepares a team for action. As members take on roles and responsibilities and
follow up on mutual decisions, they generate momentum for action, which
leads to success.
9
Back
How to Use These Materials
Guide
How to Use These Materials
The Collaborative Action Team process materials include this Guide, a “Toolkit”
and a CD-ROM. These materials will guide you through the entire process.
Although the process has a suggested order, you need not always follow it. The
materials are designed for flexibility, so follow the order that meets your needs.
The materials are meant to be used by local team members. Stage 1: Getting
Started helps you plan more specifically how to facilitate and coordinate your
team. As your team goes through the process, many different team members
will help lead the team by coordinating work, facilitating meetings and discussions and recording information. Although all team members should have access
to these materials, the people who are coordinating, facilitating and recording
will be the ones who use them the most.
What’s In the Guide?
The introduction to this Guide explains the Collaborative Action Team
process, as well as the core concepts and terms used in the process. Your facilitator, or even your whole team, should read the introduction to get a sense of
the entire process. The remainder of the Guide is organized into five parts.
Each part corresponds to one of the five stages in the process and provides a
quick reference to what you will do during that stage. The following figure
illustrates the Collaborative Action Team process.
10
Back
Guide
How to Use These Materials
G E T T I N G S TA R T E D
REVIEWING
& REFINING
➢
Introduce the Process
➢
Gather School Community Information
➢
Plan the First Steps
MOBILIZING
THE TEAM
➢
Assess Team Effectiveness
➢
Establish Representative Membership
➢
Celebrate Your Successes
➢
➢
Increase Effectiveness and Impact
Determine Communication
Ground Rules
➢
Build Common Understanding
➢
Support Consensus Decision Making
➢
Identify Shared Leadership
Opportunities
TA K I N G
ACTION
SETTING
DIRECTION
➢
Develop Strategies
➢
Agree on a Vision
➢
Determine Necessary Tasks
➢
Identify and Prioritize Issues
➢
Establish Evaluation Methods
➢
Develop a Mission Statement
➢
Monitor Progress
➢
Set Team Goals
➢
Expand Network Opportunities
➢
Communicate Your Message
The gardening icon for each stage will help you keep track of where you are in
the Collaborative Action Team process.
11
Back
How to Use These Materials
Guide
Stages and Steps in the Process
Each stage of the Collaborative Action Team process includes a series of steps.
Some steps focus more on team building. Others focus more on action planning. However, successful teams do both throughout the entire process.
The information for each stage includes the following:
Background information about the stage
● A brief description of the steps that the stage includes
● An explanation about how the steps relate to one another
●
Each step begins with a “quick-reference” page that addresses the following:
A brief definition of the step
● A checklist with the action components and team-building components the
step requires
● References to relevant Toolkit items
●
Background information about the topic follows. Examples from various
Collaborative Action Teams are also supplied.
Stage 1: Getting Started
A Collaborative Action Team must take time to do some “groundwork” to get
the team started on the right foot. Assessing the school community environment to ensure that conditions are right to start a team is one preliminary step.
Another is to make certain all the right elements are present to support a
healthy collaboration.
This stage involves learning about the Collaborative Action Team process,
getting your team organized and building a working team. Sometimes the
people on your team will be meeting for the first time. Other times, you may
already be working together and want to learn the process before taking action.
Stage 1 steps include the following:
Introduce the Process
● Gather School Community Information
● Plan the First Steps
●
This stage provides the foundation for success. Complete this stage before you
move on to any other.
12
Back
Guide
How to Use These Materials
Stage 2: Mobilizing the Team
Your Collaborative Action Team must now decide how to operate—including
how the team will communicate and make decisions. You must begin to think
about individual people to include on the team to ensure that the team is representative and diverse.
This stage involves deciding who should be part of the team and how the team
will operate. Stage 2 steps include the following:
Establish Representative Membership
● Determine Communication Ground Rules
● Build Common Understanding
● Support Consensus Decision Making
● Identify Shared Leadership Opportunities
●
Stage 3: Setting Direction
A Collaborative Action Team must have a vision for what the team wants to
produce. This vision will guide team members as they move into action. As
your team develops a team mission and goals, the members begin getting a
clearer picture of the potential results they might achieve.
This stage involves creating a team identity and purpose, and agreeing on goals.
Stage 3 steps include the following:
Agree on a Vision
● Identify and Prioritize Issues
● Develop a Mission Statement
● Set Team Goals
● Communicate Your Message
●
Stage 4: Taking Action
As your Collaborative Action Team implements the action plan, the team will
also require monitoring and maintenance. Team members will find that some
projects fall into place easily, while others require hard work and constant
attention. The team may also find barriers that need to be addressed in order
to continue to flourish. At the same time, however, team members will begin
to see positive results as the team progresses and change starts to happen.
13
Back
How to Use These Materials
Guide
This stage involves getting more specific about how you will achieve goals, share
responsibilities and monitor your progress. Stage 4 steps include the following:
●
●
●
●
●
Develop Strategies
Determine Necessary Tasks
Establish Evaluation Methods
Monitor Progress
Expand Network Opportunities
Stage 5: Reviewing and Refining
As the team goes through the process, members need to take time to reflect on
the team’s challenges and to consider what changes to make in the future. This
helps the team become stronger and more effective over time. Your Collaborative
Action Team will also have many successes to celebrate. Team members should
be recognized for their contributions.
This stage involves celebrating achievements, reviewing what has worked and
what has not and making adjustments for the next steps. Stage 5 steps include
the following:
●
●
●
Assess Team Effectiveness
Celebrate Your Successes
Increase Effectiveness and Impact
Guide Appendixes
The Guide also includes five appendixes that give more information about
particular topics, which are as follows:
●
●
●
●
●
●
Appendix A: Youth–Adult Partnerships
Appendix B: Engaging Business in Collaboration
Appendix C: Working with the Media
Appendix D: Conducting Effective Meetings
Appendix E: Collaborative Action Team Project Sites
Appendix F: Issues in Collaborative Work: A Review of the Literature
What’s in the Toolkit?
The Toolkit serves as a companion to the Guide. It provides a variety of
“tools”—activities, resources and information—that you can use during each
stage of the process. The Guide references those Toolkit items that can help at
each point in the process. You may not need everything in the Toolkit to develop a Collaborative Action Team and reach your goals. You can pick and choose
14
Back
Guide
How to Use These Materials
Toolkit items depending on your needs and situation. You will, however, most
likely find the Toolkit items very useful. Many of the items will help local team
members organize and facilitate team meetings and plan the work that needs to
happen between meetings. They are also helpful for retreats, educational and
family events, and/or conferences. You can also use the Toolkit items with
smaller groups or committees, instead of the whole team.
Every step in the Collaborative Action Team process has at least one corresponding Toolkit Activity. A Toolkit Activity is a suggested group activity that will
help your team build specific skills. Each Toolkit Activity contains ready-to-use
instructions and materials the facilitator can use. It identifies goals for meetings
and suggests timeframes and formats for activities. Facilitators may tailor the
activity to meet the team’s needs. The facilitator can decide whether to copy the
appropriate background information from the Guide to use along with a
Toolkit Activity.
Specifically, each Toolkit Activity includes the following:
Preparation and room set-up instructions
● Goals and key introductory points for the session
● Step-by-step instructions and estimated time
● Wrap-up points
● Follow-up reminders
●
Most of the materials in the Toolkit follow the same order as the Guide. The
last part of the Toolkit includes additional resources that are not specific to any
particular stage or activity. You can use the materials in this part throughout the
process or at specific times of need:
Troubleshooting Guide
● Team Icebreakers and Energizers
●
The Troubleshooting Guide will help you select the most appropriate Toolkit
Activity to address a specific problem. The Team Icebreakers and Energizers
help team members get to know each other better and encourage active
participation in team meetings.
15
Back
How to Use These Materials
Guide
The Toolkit Masters consist of transparency and/or handout masters for each
Toolkit Activity. They also include a set of Action Planning masters you will
use throughout the Collaborative Action Team process.
What’s on the CD-ROM?
All materials included in the Guide and Toolkit are also available in electronic
form on the enclosed CD-ROM. You will find transparency and handout masters that you can print directly. You will also find an electronic Troubleshooting
Guide that will link you to the resources you need most. Finally, you will find
resources such as an Action Planning Packet that you can customize with your
own information.
SEDL’s research and field experience suggest that true collaboration to bring
positive change requires investing time and effort to develop team skills and
relationships. These materials are designed to guide the process of building
collaborative teams that work, have solid plans for action and can implement
their plans.
16
Back
Stage 1: GETTING STARTED
A
s gardeners begin planting, they must do some preliminary work to
prepare the soil. They must loosen hard-packed dirt and add fertilizer
or compost to ensure that plants have the rich nutrients they need to
grow. They must make certain the soil is well drained, so plants receive the
right amount of water to grow. Taking time to prepare the soil helps ensure the
right conditions for plants to thrive.
Definition and Background Information
Now that you’ve decided to implement the Collaborative Action Team process,
it’s time for Getting Started. During this first stage, you will do the following:
Get familiar with the Collaborative Action Team process.
● Define your school community.
● Identify factors that may affect the development of your team.
● Start to get your team organized.
●
At this point, you may be working alone, with only a few other people or with
an existing team. If you are just starting out, you can start gathering potential
team members and involving them in this initial stage. Or, you may decide to
keep the group small as you do the preliminary work of getting organized. The
team will focus specifically on building membership in Stage 2.
Steps in this Stage
Introduce the Process
● Gather School Community Information
● Plan the First Steps
●
The first step in Stage 1: Getting Started is to Introduce the Process. This step
will overview the Collaborative Action Team process and its core concepts,
stages and activities. If you’re using the process with an existing collaborative
group, this step will also help you see whether or not your team has already
accomplished some parts of the process.
1-1
Back
Stage 1
GETTING STARTED
Guide
The next step is to Gather School Community Information. We defined
the term school community in the Guide Introduction as “all the people and
organizations that either affect or are affected by the school.” However,
different teams work at different levels. They may involve just one school
campus or be district-wide, depending on the issues in the particular school
community. This step will help you focus your team’s work at a particular level
(campus, cluster or district-wide) and begin to gather information about the
school community. It also provides an opportunity to identify some of the
factors in the school community that will affect the development of your
collaborative team, either positively or negatively.
The last step in this stage, Plan the First Steps, helps you get organized to
start building a Collaborative Action Team. This step describes the logistics of
building and sustaining such a team. You’ll plan specifically how to coordinate
your own team. You’ll also choose specific team members to take lead responsibility for facilitating, coordinating and recording information for the team.
Finally, you’ll develop a format for your team meetings and continue the
Collaborative Action Team process.
1-2
Back
Guide
Stage 1
GETTING STARTED
Step: Introduce the Process
Stage 1: GETTING STARTED
Step: Introduce the Process
Definition
As you start to develop a Collaborative Action Team, you need a clear understanding of the process and its core concepts, stages and steps. By first
overviewing the process, you can determine whether or not your team has
already completed some of these steps. This helps you use your time wisely and
focus on the most useful activities.
Action Components
Introduce your team or team organizers to the core concepts, stages and steps
of the Collaborative Action Team process.
■ Determine which steps you have already completed.
■ Introduce and build your understanding of the core concept of action focus,
which helps the team take action.
■
Team-Building Component
■
Introduce and build your understanding of core concepts that relate to team
building: representative membership, shared leadership and consensus
decision making.
Toolkit Reference
Toolkit Activity: Introduce the Process, p. 1-1
1-3
Back
Stage 1
GETTING STARTED
Step: Introduce the Process
Guide
Background Information
To get started, team organizers (or your whole team, if you already have one)
need a clear understanding of the overall Collaborative Action Team process.
This step overviews the core concepts, stages and steps your team will deal with
as the team moves through the process. The Toolkit Activity: Introduce the
Process, p. 1-1 contains a presentation that you can use to walk your team
through an overview of the process.
The Core Concepts of the Collaborative Action Team process are:
Representative Membership
● Shared Leadership
● Consensus Decision Making
● Action Focus
●
The Stages of the Collaborative Action Team process are:
Stage 1: Getting Started
Stage 2: Mobilizing the Team
Stage 3: Setting Direction
Stage 4: Taking Action
Stage 5: Reviewing and Refining
The Steps of the Collaborative Action Team process appear on a checklist
in the Toolkit Activity: Introduce the Process, p.1-1. If you’re using the
Collaborative Action Team process with an existing team, this checklist can
help you identify any steps you’ve already completed. If you’re starting a brand
new team, the checklist can help you track your progress as you go.
As a team develops over time, it’s common for membership to change. Some
people will leave the team and new people will join. Make certain you orient
newcomers to the overall process so they’ll understand how your team operates.
You can also use the materials for this step to introduce other school community members (such as PTA members or a new superintendent) to your team.
1-4
Back
Guide
Stage 1
GETTING STARTED
Step: Gather School Community Information
Stage 1: GETTING STARTED
Step: Gather School Community
Information
Definition
School community is generally defined as all the people and organizations that
either affect or are affected by the school. To be effective, Collaborative Action
Teams must define their own school community. Team members must determine who in their community they hope to include on their team. Then they
must decide who they want to impact as a result of their work. They must also
gather information about the school community. This information will help
them decide how to build the team and what action to take.
Action Components
Define your local school community. This helps clarify who you should
include on your Collaborative Action Team and who the team’s efforts
should impact.
■ Assess factors in your school community that will affect the team’s
development.
■ Gather information about the school community to help make future
decisions.
■
Team-Building Component
■
Gather information to better understand your school community. This will
help your team be aware of local assets and be responsive to local needs.
Toolkit References
Toolkit Activity: Define Your School Community, p. 1-9
Toolkit Activity: Examine Your School Community, p. 1-13
1-5
Back
Stage 1
GETTING STARTED
Step: Gather School Community Information
Guide
Background Information
A school community goes beyond people who work and study inside the
school. School communities include families, businesses, agencies, organizations
and individuals in the immediate neighborhood. People who pay taxes to
support the schools are members of the school community. So are social service
agencies that provide services to students and their families.
For the purposes of your Collaborative Action Team, however, it’s important
to define what school community means for your team (see Toolkit Activity:
Define Your School Community, p. 1-9). Your definition of school community
will affect who you include on your team and what action you decide to take.
Some teams have defined their school community as one school campus and
its stakeholders. Others have targeted a “cluster” or feeder pattern of schools—
a high school and all of the middle and elementary schools that feed into it.
Still others have developed a district-wide collaboration to meet the needs of
students throughout the school district.
How you define your school community will depend on your particular
circumstances. Here are some factors to consider:
●
History—How have schools in your community related to each other in the
past? Do the schools share a common history or have they each had unique
experiences?
Example: In Pharr, Texas, two elementary schools received a grant and
started a joint Collaborative Action Team. However, they quickly decided to
form two teams (one for each school) instead of one because of the schools’
different histories. One school is brand new and is still defining itself. The
other school has a long history of parent involvement and existing programs
that they would like to maintain.
●
Geography—How is the community organized physically? Are there natural
or man-made boundaries that people recognize (rivers, hills, highways, etc.)?
Are certain neighborhoods closely affiliated with certain schools?
Example: In Los Lunas, New Mexico, one elementary school is located
several miles away from the town center. This elementary school serves two
colonias—low income, unincorporated communities that are also physically
isolated from the rest of the community. The Collaborative Action Team
decided to focus efforts on this school because these students’ needs differed
from those of the overall community.
1-6
Back
Guide
Stage 1
GETTING STARTED
Step: Gather School Community Information
●
Administrative Organization—How is the school administration organized?
Is there one administrative structure for the whole district, or is it broken
down into smaller parts?
Example: In Albuquerque, New Mexico, there is an assistant superintendent for each cluster of elementary and middle schools that feed into a high
school. All district programs and funding are administered by cluster. The
Collaborative Action Team decided it made sense to align the team with the
overall district structure. The team defined the school community as all of
the schools within the feeder pattern.
●
Needs—Does some group within the school district need more services or
perform less well than others?
Example: In Del Valle, Texas, a team decided to define the school community as the local high school and its stakeholders. There were many activities
already in place for elementary and middle school students, but not as much
for high school students. By limiting its school community to the high
school, the team could focus on meeting the specific needs of high school
students and their families.
●
Opportunities—Are there opportunities the team could pursue that would
be affected by the team’s definition of school community? Are there funding
criteria to be met?
Example: In Rio Hondo, Texas, the school district received funding to
establish an after-school learning center. One of the requirements of the grant
was a collaborative advisory committee. The school district developed a
Collaborative Action Team to serve as an advisory committee for the project.
●
Common Interests—Do several schools have issues in common? Do people
from different schools have overlapping interests?
Example: In Mora, New Mexico, the elementary, middle and high schools
are all located on the same campus. Most parents have students at more than
one school, and teachers at the different schools work closely together. The
administrative staff is somewhat small, and most school staff take responsibility
for numerous projects. It was clear to team organizers that a district-wide
Collaborative Action Team would work well in their community.
1-7
Back
Stage 1
GETTING STARTED
Step: Gather School Community Information
Guide
Once you’ve defined your school community, you’ll be ready to gather information about it (see Toolkit Activity: Examine Your School Community, p 1-13 ).
As you begin to develop your Collaborative Action Team, you’ll assess its
strengths and needs. This includes gathering the following information:
Issues in the school community that need to be addressed
● Resources in the community—people and organizations that might be able
to help you address issues
● Factors in the community that might affect the development of your
Collaborative Action Team
●
Depending on what your team hopes to accomplish, you also might want to
collect information on:
Student enrollment (gender, ethnicity, etc.)
● Student behavior (drug use, juvenile crime, etc.)
● Student achievement (grades, test scores, graduation rates, etc.)
● School district policies and plans (school improvement plan, student
handbook, etc.)
● Services available to students and their families in the school and community
● General community information (businesses in the community, colleges and
universities, etc.)
●
The information you gather at this point will help you understand what kinds
of opportunities exist in your school community. It will also help you understand some of the challenges that you’ll need to address as you build your team.
You’ll use this information in Stage 3 of the Collaborative Action Team process,
in the Toolkit Activity: Identify School Community Issues, p. 3-9.
1-8
Back
Guide
Stage 1
GETTING STARTED
Step: Plan the First Steps
Stage 1: GETTING STARTED
Step: Plan the First Steps
Definition
Before you start building a Collaborative Action Team, take time to plan and
organize how you will coordinate the team. Taking time to deal with logistics
helps teams operate more effectively and keeps key members from “burning
out.” Your team’s meetings also require careful planning, to ensure that the
team starts on the right foot. Advance preparation will make team meetings
productive and welcoming to all participants.
Action Components
Choose people to take lead responsibility for facilitating the team, coordinating the team and recording team business.
■ Address logistics like meeting preparation and communications to ensure
that your team runs smoothly and effectively.
■ Plan a team meeting.
■
Team-Building Components
Promote shared leadership by sharing responsibility for keeping the team
organized.
■ Develop meeting procedures that create a welcoming, productive environment that encourages active participation by team members.
■
Toolkit References
Toolkit Activity: Plan the First Steps, p. 1-17
Toolkit: Team Icebreakers and Energizers, p. 7-1
Also see Guide Appendix D: Conducting Effective Meetings.
1-9
Back
GETTING STARTED
Stage 1
Step: Plan the First Steps
Guide
Background Information
Collaborative work requires a lot of coordination to ensure that things run
smoothly. Team members usually see each other infrequently, work in different
organizations and have different schedules. It takes extra effort to ensure that
people follow through on decisions and that everybody stays informed. Dealing
with team logistics may not be the most glamorous part of collaboration, but it
can make the difference between a team that makes progress and one with
good intentions that never gets going.
Good organization can also keep key people from “burning out” from trying
to take on more responsibility than they can reasonably handle. By carefully
planning and dividing responsibility among several team members, you create
opportunities for people to share leadership for the team. The more people
take responsibility for keeping the team on track, the more they take ownership
and stay committed to the team.
While overall shared leadership is one of the goals of the Collaborative Action
Team process, it’s helpful to designate a small number of people to take lead
responsibility for getting the team organized in the beginning. You need to ask
at least one person to take on each key responsibility:
Team Coordinator—takes care of logistics and organizational aspects of a
Collaborative Action Team.
Makes logistical arrangements for meetings, events and activities.
● Organizes team communications and information sharing.
● Distributes necessary documents before meetings (agenda, minutes, etc.).
● Ensures follow-up on team decisions.
● Monitors the team’s progress through the Collaborative Action Team process.
● Monitors the development and use of the team’s action plan.
● Makes team materials and resources available to other team members
as necessary.
●
Team Facilitator—supports the Collaborative Action Team process during
team meetings and in other group settings.
Leads meetings and helps the team stick to the agenda (keeping time, staying
focused on agenda topics).
● Facilitates team discussions and activities.
● Ensures that all team members have the opportunity to be heard.
● Helps the team build consensus.
●
1-10
Back
Guide
Stage 1
GETTING STARTED
Step: Plan the First Steps
Suggests alternative procedures and methods when the team gets stuck.
● Summarizes decisions made in meetings.
● Deals with conflicts constructively.
● Evaluates how well the team functions collaboratively.
● Remains neutral during team discussions.
●
Team Recorder—makes sure the decisions and activities of the team are documented and all members remain well informed.
Creates a record of team activities and decisions.
● Checks with members for accuracy of those records.
● Communicates ideas and information using a variety of techniques (video,
audio, written).
● Prepares meeting minutes.
● Takes notes of team discussions on a flipchart.
●
The volunteers who agree to take lead responsibility for these key areas don’t
necessarily do all of the work. They simply take responsibility for making sure
the team stays organized and on track in that area. Each volunteer should be
asked for a commitment of at least six months. Your team will take a closer
look at each of these key responsibilities in Stage 2, during Toolkit Activity:
Share Leadership Responsibilities, p. 2-29. For now, you can refer to Toolkit
Activity: Plan the First Steps, p. 1-17.
Planning Team Meetings
Your team can build momentum by carefully planning team meetings. Most
team members are very busy. They may quickly lose interest if meetings ramble, run late and are disorganized. By contrast, meetings that have a welcoming
atmosphere, encourage participation and produce results keep team members
coming back. For information on how to plan successful meetings, see Toolkit:
Team Icebreakers and Energizers, p. 7-1 and Guide Appendix D: Conducting
Effective Meetings.
As you start your team, take the time to plan how you will stay organized and
how you will run team meetings. You’ll probably need to make adjustments
as your team develops, but having an initial plan will get you started on the
right foot.
1-11
Back
Stage 2: MOBILIZING THE TEAM
O
nce gardeners have prepared the soil, they’re ready to make some
decisions about their garden. They must think about what kinds of
seeds to plant to produce a garden rich in variety. The types of seeds
they choose depend on many factors, including the amount of light and water
available in the garden. Gardeners must also plan how the garden will be maintained—how often to water and fertilize, and when to prune. Finally, everyone
must understand their role in making the garden a success.
Definition and Background Information
Mobilizing the Team is the next stage in building a successful Collaborative
Action Team. During this stage, your team will define who this team is and
how the team will operate. This stage focuses on three core concepts of the
Collaborative Action Team process—representative membership, consensus
decision making and shared leadership. These core concepts help hold the team
together over time. Stressing them early in your team’s development builds a
strong foundation for long-term success.
You may be anxious for your team to accomplish some action right away.
However, remember that the Collaborative Action Team process balances team
building with taking action. Teams that focus only on results (action) and
ignore the process for achieving them (team building) end up making age-old
mistakes. While they may accomplish many tasks at first, they probably won’t
survive in the long term. They won’t have built support for their efforts,
because they tend to “steamroll” people instead of listening to their input. They
often rely on a small group of team members who “burn out” over time.
Making conscious decisions about how your team will operate provides an
opportunity to make real, systemic change. Systemic changes affect an entire
system or organization. By concentrating on team building early in the process,
you gain a chance to involve stakeholders who have historically been left
behind and to build connections with others in your school community.
Steps in This Stage
Establish Representative Membership
● Determine Communication Ground Rules
● Build Common Understanding
●
2-1
Back
Stage 2
MOBILIZING
THE
TEAM
Guide
Support Consensus Decision Making
● Identify Shared Leadership Opportunities
●
The first step after your team has completed Stage 1 is to Establish
Representative Membership. Your team will begin to identify who should
be on the team to ensure that it’s representative of all the different people
and organizations connected to your school community. Your team will also
develop strategies for recruiting new members to join the team. During this
process, you have a real opportunity to involve new people in your school
community in meaningful ways.
After you have begun to establish team membership, it’s time to Determine
Communication Ground Rules. With participation of all the members, your
team will set guidelines for communicating and interacting, both during and
outside of meetings. Establishing these rules helps set a tone of respect and
consideration for all voices and opinions. It also helps team members to begin
to take ownership of the team. It helps your team operate more effectively to
achieve team goals as well.
Your team will then be ready to discuss issues facing the school community
and to begin Building Common Understanding. Exploring why people hold
different beliefs and viewpoints is the first step to understanding that team
members share common interests and have similar priorities for the school
community. Discussing issues with respect for everyone’s perspective also begins
to develop an atmosphere of trust and respect. This provides an important
foundation for all future team activities.
After your team has begun to develop an atmosphere of respect, team members
will be ready to Support Consensus Decision Making. Consensus decision
making gives all team members an opportunity to voice their opinions on a
topic. It also helps ensure that individuals are committed to support team decisions. Consensus decision making encourages a team to keep its action focus,
as team members look for solutions everyone can live with instead of arguing
for their own position.
Finally, your team will Identify Shared Leadership Opportunities and learn
more about team members’ skills and strengths. As a Collaborative Action
Team, it’s important to take advantage of your team’s most important resource—
the team’s members. Team members must be prepared to actively help accomplish the team’s goals. Individuals often don’t recognize their own potential or
the important contributions others on the team can make. Identifying shared
leadership opportunities helps your team understand that everyone can and
must contribute to improve results for students and their families.
2-2
Back
Guide
Stage 2
MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Establish Representative Membership
Stage 2: MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Establish Representative
Membership
Definition
You achieve representative membership when a diverse cross section of all the
different people and organizations in your school community are active members of your team. Team members should be representative of school, home,
community and students. They should also vary in age, ethnicity, language
and income level. Your Collaborative Action Team must establish and maintain a broad, well-balanced membership to ensure a far-reaching response to
school and community needs.
Action Components
As a team, define representative membership for your school community.
Then find the current gaps in team membership. Create a well-defined list of
people to recruit for your Collaborative Action Team.
■ Develop a strategy for recruiting new members during the following month.
■ Continue to review progress in building a representative membership at
each meeting.
■
Team-Building Components
Use consensus decision making when defining representative membership
and finding a strategy for recruiting new members.
■ Welcome new members as they join the team and recognize those who have
recruited them.
■
Toolkit References
Toolkit Activity: Define Your Representative Membership, p. 2-1
Toolkit Activity: Build Your Representative Membership, p. 2-7
2-3
Back
Stage 2
MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Establish Representative Membership
Guide
Background Information
Achieving and maintaining representative team membership helps you build team
effectiveness. A representative team brings together a diversity of school, home,
community and student representatives to communicate and share knowledge
and experience in a personal, constructive manner. Such a team reflects the wide
range of strengths, abilities, experience and resources found within your school
community.
Representative membership means diversity in each of four areas:
School—principals, teachers, counselors, support staff, district staff
administrators
● Home—parents, grandparents, legal guardians
● Community—health and social service providers, colleges and universities,
community/civic organizations, businesses, faith-based organizations, senior
citizens, concerned citizens/taxpayers
● Student—class officers, community service club, nontraditional leaders
●
But it also includes other kinds of diversity:
● Age
● Ethnicity
● Language
● Income level
A key feature of the Collaborative Action Team process is the inclusion of
students as active team members. By planning and working on school
community projects, students on the team acquire leadership skills. Adults
learn to listen productively while students voice opinions and share ideas for
meeting school community needs. The whole community benefits as the
emerging collaboration of all community organizations solves problems, fosters
understanding and builds trust.
Representative membership is important in several ways:
● It helps identify community-wide concerns,
● It increases creative and comprehensive approaches to school community
issues and
● It provides a pool of leaders to share responsibility for action.
To establish representative membership, your team must define what it means for
your school community. Your team must identify the gaps in team membership.
2-4
Back
Guide
Stage 2
MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Establish Representative Membership
Then you must recruit new members to become active in the Collaborative
Action Team. During Stage 1 your team began to define what people and
organizations are part of your school community. This information will help
you find the gaps in your current membership. It will also help you decide who
your team needs to make it truly representative of your school community.
You should develop a campaign to recruit new members, with input from
your whole team. Use team members’ connections to involve home, school,
community and student representatives. Refer to Toolkit Activities: Define
Representative Membership, p. 2-1 and Build Your Representative Membership,
p. 2-7 for activities that will help your team develop recruitment strategies.
You can approach recruitment efforts in a variety of ways. Some strategies are
general, while some are targeted. General strategies attempt to recruit members
by reaching a broad audience that probably includes all or many of the different membership categories. These strategies don’t target any specific person or
organization. Some examples of general recruitment strategies follow:
Getting news media coverage of team activities to increase visibility in
the community
● Sending press releases to community newspapers or newsletters, such as
electric utility newsletters
● Sponsoring or participating as a team in cultural, social and other activities
in the community to increase visibility and identity
● Talking to people at local restaurants, bakeries and cafes and other places
people gather
● Posting flyers or setting up information booths at local shopping centers,
grocery stores, churches, schools and other organizations
● Giving quick presentations on your Collaborative Action Team and the team’s
purpose at community and school events
●
Targeted strategies are directed to specific individuals or to specific membership
categories or organizations your team wants to involve. Often, targeted
strategies are more successful when you’re trying to achieve representative
membership quickly. Some examples of targeted recruitment strategies follow:
Making personalized invitations, phone calls or home visits
● Tapping into individual team members’ existing networks
● Recruiting parents, students and school staff at school events
● Recruiting parents by going places they tend to gather, such as grocery stores,
laundromats, shopping centers, etc.
● Offering rides to team meetings
●
2-5
Back
Stage 2
MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Establish Representative Membership
Guide
Addressing letters to target organizations
● Using a phone list to invite a group of people to a team meeting
● Working out agreements between school parent-involvement programs or
student programs so parent volunteers and students can attend team meetings
● Working in partnership with local chapters of organizations such as NAACP
or La Raza to develop culturally appropriate strategies to reach members of
specific racial or ethnic groups
●
In both general and targeted strategies, it matters who makes the invitation.
Particularly with targeted strategies, involving recognized leaders or people with
similar backgrounds increases a team’s success.
Building representative membership is an ongoing process because teams
naturally lose people periodically. Once you’ve conducted an initial recruiting
campaign and filled gaps on your team, you’ll still need to keep an eye on
representative membership. Your team should also review this activity after
developing an action plan. This ensures that representative membership
remains a priority as your team begins to implement the action plan.
Finally, remember that the physical presence of representatives from different
groups doesn’t always mean a team is truly representative. All members must
equally share leadership, make decisions and carry out responsibilities if the
team is to become truly representative of your school community.
Example
To recruit new members and to gain visibility and community support, the
Dollarway, Arkansas, Collaborative Action Team sponsored a “Meet Your
Superintendent” event. The team used letters and flyers to invite parents
and many community members across the district. During the event, the
superintendent, who is also an active member of the Collaborative Action
Team, discussed his goals for school district improvement. He also mentioned
his support for the Collaborative Action Team. As a result, the team is
supporting many of the superintendent’s goals and he is supporting theirs.
Subcommittees were created to work on achieving their shared goals. The
people who were present and volunteered to be part of subcommittees have
continued to be active members of the Collaborative Action Team.
2-6
Back
Guide
Stage 2
MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Determine Communication Ground Rules
Stage 2: MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Determine Communication
Ground Rules
Definition
Communication ground rules help guide team members’ interactions and
behavior when they work together during and outside of team meetings.
Setting these ground rules early on makes it possible for team members to work
together productively. You should use your ground rules to conduct meetings,
manage discussions, share ideas and reach consensus.
Action Components
Develop ground rules for communication among team members by using
consensus decision making.
■ Ensure that all members are aware of the ground rules by making a master
list and giving copies to members or displaying them on a poster at
team meetings.
■ Review the communications ground rules in the future as needed.
■
Team-Building Components
Create a comfortable environment for building team relationships and trust
by agreeing on communication and behavior ground rules.
■ Set up positive ways to handle problems or differing opinions among team
members.
■
Toolkit Reference
Toolkit Activity: Determine Communication Ground Rules, p. 2-11
2-7
Back
Stage 2
MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Determine Communication Ground Rules
Guide
Background Information
Special ways of communicating emerge naturally in teams that have worked
together for a while. For example, consider how athletes interact in the dressing
room after a big game. How do these interactions differ from what happens
among teachers in the staff lounge? Both cases have a long history of
established behavior. New team members quickly learn and adapt to these
established communication styles. However, in new teams with members from
diverse backgrounds, no established rules for communication and behavior
exist. They must be created. Such is the case with a typical Collaborative
Action Team.
Agreeing to communication and behavior ground rules creates a comfortable
climate for building team relationships and trust. Ground rules for
Collaborative Action Team communications help encourage a positive atmosphere that welcomes dialogue and debate. Ground rules also foster respect for
diverse viewpoints and opinions. However, problems and differing opinions are
normal for teams that aren’t used to working together. How a team handles
controversies and disagreements can make or break the team. Teams that accept
differing viewpoints as a healthy part of the process use these opportunities to
learn and grow. Communication ground rules help establish positive ways of
handling problems and disagreements.
Ground rules should guide interactions among team members as they work
together during and outside of meetings. When developing these rules, everyone on your team should contribute to the discussion. This way, all members
“own” the process. Remember that some members of your Collaborative
Action Team may not have had an opportunity to publicly voice their opinion
or viewpoint in this type of forum before. They may therefore feel a bit intimidated at first. Team members who are experienced public speakers, especially
those in positions of power or authority, can help others become comfortable
by actively listening and encouraging other team members to participate.
When your team has discussions, the facilitator plays a key role in ensuring
that everyone contributes to that discussion.
By working together to develop communication ground rules, your team
begins to practice the art of team negotiation with a fairly nonthreatening
topic. Having the team identify, negotiate and adopt communication ground
rules provides ownership and a feeling of success. Also, team members are
more likely to respect and follow their own ground rules than those from an
outside source.
2-8
Back
Guide
Stage 2
MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Determine Communication Ground Rules
Collaborative Action Teams often have ground rules like the following:
Be respectful of and open to others’ ideas.
● Avoid interrupting others while they’re voicing their opinions.
● Encourage diversity of expression by not dominating the discussion.
● Share responsibilities for communicating information by alternating roles
of taking minutes, reporting to the team, distributing flyers, etc.
● Don’t personalize issues and point fingers—the team is here to seek
collaborative solutions.
● Provide translation whenever possible to increase opportunities for informed
participation and decision making.
● Recognize individual and team contributions and accomplishments with
positive feedback.
● Help keep discussions on track.
●
Toolkit Activity: Determine Communication Ground Rules, p. 2-11 helps you lead
your team through this process. If your team is struggling to identify communication ground rules, it’s helpful to provide some of these examples. However,
be careful not to encourage the team to depend on you for all of the ideas.
Once communication ground rules have been developed and agreed to by all
members, ensure that your whole team receives a copy in writing. It’s also
helpful to display the rules on a poster when meetings are being held.
Example
The Polk Elementary Collaborative Action Team in East Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, reached consensus at their second meeting on six ground rules that
encouraged good communication and reinforced the core concept of shared
leadership. Two of their six ground rules were “Everyone will share in the jobs
and responsibilities” and “Everyone is equal on the team.”
2-9
Back
Guide
Stage 2
MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Build Common Understanding
Stage 2: MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Build Common Understanding
Definition
Your Collaborative Action Team will start to build common understanding
when team members begin to explore each others’ diverse experiences and
perspectives. Building common understanding begins the process of developing
an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect and developing a shared identity.
It also lays a foundation for a consensus decision-making approach for
team decisions.
Action Component
■
Introduce a process for structured discussion sessions that your team can use
to build common understanding of school community issues.
Team-Building Components
Create an atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding as a prerequisite
to consensus decision making and shared leadership.
■ Build team members’ dialogue and listening skills.
■ Find areas of interest and concern that different team members share.
■
Toolkit Reference
Toolkit Activity: Build Common Understanding, p. 2-15
2-11
Back
Stage 2
MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Build Common Understanding
Guide
Background Information
When you work to develop a team that is representative of your entire school
community, you may find that team members come from very different
backgrounds and have diverse points of view. Exploring all of these points of
view gives the team a clearer overall picture of the assets and challenges in the
community. Organizing a structured team discussion of school community
issues can be a great strategy for exploring and understanding these issues.
Discussion is also a crucial part of team development because it sets the stage
for shared leadership and consensus decision making. Whether your team is
just getting to know each other or is made up of people who have worked
together for years, structured (rather than informal) discussion is an effective
team builder.
This type of discussion moves your team beyond superficial opinions and helps
team members explore why people hold the beliefs they do. In the course of
such discussions, team members begin to find the common ground within
their diverse experiences and opinions. As team members begin to build trust
and understand each other, a true team is born.
The Importance of Discussion
According to the Study Circles Resource Center, “the community can truly
address its concerns only when community members from all walks of life have
real opportunities to hear each other and to work together democratically.”1
Such dialogue benefits groups on three different levels:2
Personal
●
●
●
●
1
2
2-12
Participants have opportunities to “take ownership” of an issue as they
develop their own views and connect their experiences to public issues.
Participants explore beliefs that others hold and learn they can disagree
without being disagreeable or feeling threatened.
Participants form new friendships and new community connections.
Participants learn that they share common interests in addressing issues,
and they often “partner up” to make a difference.
Planning Community-Wide Study Circle Programs., Study Circles Resource Center, Topsfield
Foundation, Inc., 1996.
Ibid.
Back
Guide
Stage 2
MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Build Common Understanding
Organizational
●
●
Participating organizations develop a broader connection to the community.
They thereby increase opportunities to incorporate historically underrepresented segments of the community as supportive links to their efforts.
Participating organizations identify common ground on which to build
collaborative efforts.
Community
●
●
●
New approaches to solving community problems emerge.
Strong, interracial networks for community problem solving are established.
New relationships among individuals, organizations and community
institutions enhance community strength and vitality.
As your team goes through the Collaborative Action Team process, team members will face many situations where structured discussion can be important.
Structured discussion is especially useful when your team needs to know where
individual members stand on controversial issues. Frequent discussions that
respect diverse viewpoints also help address potential conflicts before they reach
a boiling point. During this step in the process, you should organize a structured discussion to help the team build common understanding of school
community issues (see Toolkit Activity: Build Common Understanding, p. 2-15).
Later, as part of your action plan, you may want to consider organizing a series
of discussions based on your team’s priorities (see Toolkit Activity: Identify
School Community Issues, p. 3-9) or topics such as:
How to define and increase student achievement
● How to improve school safety
● How to define the role of parents in your schools
● How school performance relates to overall community improvement
● How to address issues to meet the needs of all students
● How to best distribute resources within your schools
●
You can also adapt the format for structured discussions for use with the general community. Organizing a series of discussions about a school-related topic
could be a significant part of your team’s overall action plan. Community-wide
discussions increase understanding of school community issues and are a great
starting place to encourage others to get involved in your efforts.
2-13
Back
Stage 2
MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Build Common Understanding
Guide
Example
At SEDL’s Collaborative Action Team Institute in Little Rock, Arkansas,
teams used a structured discussion format to talk about shared leadership in
school communities. Over 200 Collaborative Action Team members from
communities across the Southwest broke into small groups to discuss their
viewpoints regarding who should be involved in making decisions that affect
schools and students. Each discussion group included parents, school representatives, community representatives and students. Team members left with a
better understanding of how decisions are made in school districts. They also
gained new ideas about ways to include the public in school decisions.
2-14
Back
Guide
Stage 2
MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Support Consensus Decision Making
Stage 2: MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Support Consensus
Decision Making
Definition
Consensus decision making happens when your whole team arrives at a
decision that best reflects the viewpoints of all involved. All members must be
willing to accept the decision and agree to support it. This requires that you
discuss issues, listen to each other, address differences and conflicts, work to
resolve them and reach decisions based on general agreement. Consensus
decision making might take more time and effort than other forms of decision
making, but in the long run it minimizes conflict and maximizes members’
commitment and willingness to act.
Action Components
Assess how your team has been making decisions up to this point in the
Collaborative Action Team process.
■ If consensus decision making hasn’t been the norm, determine what barriers
prevent its effective application.
■ Take some concrete steps to ensure that your team uses consensus decision
making in the future. If necessary, ask for volunteers to monitor the use of
these steps.
■ Take time to do an activity at a meeting where consensus decision making
can be practiced. See the Toolkit References below for some activities.
■
Team-Building Component
Build team members’ listening, decision making and negotiating skills.
■ Ensure that all team members take ownership of the team and
team decisions.
■
Toolkit References
Toolkit Activity: Examine Team Decisions, p. 2-21
Toolkit Activity: Use Consensus Decision Making, p. 2-25
2-15
Back
Stage 2
MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Support Consensus Decision Making
Guide
Background Information
Consensus decision making is one of the most effective methods of group decision making. It requires that all members discuss the issue and express their
point of view. The team’s decision should be one all team members can accept
and support, even if it’s not an individual team member’s preferred choice.
You’ll use consensus decision making throughout the Collaborative Action
Team process. Ensure that all team members feel comfortable with it early on
(see Toolkit Activity: Examine Team Decisions, p. 2-21). As your team develops,
it’s important to examine the various ways decisions are being made in and
outside of meetings to assess whether your team is using consensus decision
making appropriately. Spend some time practicing the mechanics of consensus
decision making if your team members are having difficulty with the approach
(see Toolkit Activity: Use Consensus Decision Making, p. 2-25).
Consensus decision making is based on the following three principles:
● Each person has a piece of the truth, but no one has it all.
● All persons are equal and everyone’s contributions are important.
● Willingness to compromise comes from incorporating various pieces
of the truth.
Consensus decision making need not be unanimous, nor does everyone need
to fully agree with the decision. There may be conflict or frustration, but your
team should discuss an issue until it reaches a decision everyone can live with.
A decision should not result from any team member’s preference. Rather, it
should come from everybody’s input.
The consensus decision-making process has four key ingredients3:
● A group of people willing to work together
● A problem or issue that requires a group decision
● Trust that there is a solution
● Perseverance to find that solution
Some discussion skills are necessary to successfully practice decision making
by consensus:
● Discussing issues openly
● Listening to each other
● Addressing differences and conflicts
● Working to resolve them
● Reaching decisions based on general agreement
3
2-16
Estes, C. Consensus and Community. Paper presented at the International Association of
Humanista/IAF98/estes.html.
Back
Guide
Stage 2
MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Support Consensus Decision Making
These skills are very important because once people have built trust through
discussion, they’re more inclined to fully engage in consensus decision making.
“An environment in which all can feel safe is essential to good discussion and
decision making. All need to know they will be listened to respectfully and
attentively.”4 In this setting, team members establish a sense of ownership for all
efforts undertaken. They take on responsibility and become accountable for the
team’s success. Focusing on a Collaborative Action Team’s primary purpose—
to improve results for students and their families—supports consensus decision
making as well.
How Consensus Decision Making Works
1. A member of the team shares a proposed decision.
2. Someone writes the proposal on a flipchart or board so everyone can see it
and check its accuracy and completeness.
3. The facilitator asks each member in turn whether he or she supports the
decision and why or why not.
4. Team members opposed to the decision can suggest modifications or
alternative decisions.
5. If all team members agree to support a proposed decision, then consensus
exists. No decision is made until every member indicates that they can live
with it.
Some critics complain that consensus decision making takes too much time
and is too difficult. In the long run, however, team members will have more
ownership in decisions they reach by consensus. They won’t need to invest as
much time in rehashing, complaining about or failing to carry out decisions.
Example
The Collaborative Action Team in Lee County, Arkansas, wanted to select
three goals for the team to focus on. Each team member suggested potential
goals, based on the issues the team had identified in the school community.
The facilitator led the discussion and then asked everyone to vote on their top
three choices. As the team reviewed the top choices, it became clear that two
team members were uncomfortable with one of the goals. However, the majority of the team supported it. The team waited to adopt the last goal until the
next meeting, to allow more time for everyone to think about and discuss it.
Team members agreed to think about ways to modify the goal so it would
reflect everybody’s interests.
4
Working Towards Consensus. The Active Learner: A Foxfire Journal for Teachers (1998).
3(2), 7.
2-17
Back
Guide
Stage 2
MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Identify Shared Leadership Opportunities
Stage 2: MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Identify Shared Leadership
Opportunities
Definition
With shared leadership, Collaborative Action Team members equally distribute
power and leadership roles and responsibilities. They see themselves as a group
of leaders working together to benefit students and their families. Each team
member is equally included in making decisions, representing the team, carrying out responsibilities and sharing in success. Shared leadership leads to true
collaboration because it enhances commitment and willingness to work as a
team. It also sustains individual energy, minimizes “burnout” and expands the
school community’s leadership pool.
Action Components
Identify the personal strengths, skills, abilities and experiences team members
can use in different leadership roles and responsibilities.
■ Determine how your team will make shared leadership work. How will the
team distribute leadership responsibilities among team members?
■ Consider mentoring within your Collaborative Action Team to help team
members develop strengths for new leadership roles.
■
Team-Building Components
Enhance team members’ commitment and willingness to work together.
■ Sustain energy, minimize “burnout” and expand the school community’s
leadership pool by sharing leadership among all members.
■ Share leadership responsibilities to help all groups represented on the team to
overcome differences, clear away “old thinking” and become open to new
points of view.
■
Toolkit References
●
●
●
Toolkit Activity: Share Leadership Responsibilities, p. 2-29
Toolkit Activity: Take on Leadership Roles, p.2-33
Toolkit Activity: Develop Leadership through Mentoring, p. 2-39
2-19
Back
Stage 2
MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Identify Shared Leadership Opportunities
Guide
Background Information
By using shared leadership, your team members will begin to see themselves as
a group of leaders working together to benefit the students and their families.
When you “balance power” among school, home, community and student
representatives, you promote equal partnership among all groups.
Shared leadership teams have the following characteristics:
Investment—Team members participate actively and are committed to the
team mission.
● Decentralized power—No one person or group holds all the power.
● Horizontal relationships—All team members have equal opportunity to
participate.
● Interdependency—All team members trust that they’re all in this together.
● Democratic decision making—All voices are heard and influence decisions.
● Creativity—No one individual is as clever as the team as a whole.
● Flexibility—Team members are group oriented and sensitive to the
particular situation.
●
Spreading the responsibility for your team’s success fosters a spirit of shared
ownership by all team members. Ownership, in turn, empowers everyone.
Shared leadership doesn’t mean never having a leader; it means leadership
functions are distributed among the whole team. Some situations call for
an individual leader to act as a spokesperson or to remind members of the
team’s mission.
Shared leadership also helps dissolve traditional behavior and roles. Rolling up
your sleeves, rubbing elbows with team members from other parts of the school
community and taking concrete action are powerful ways to gain the whole
school community’s respect. Sharing leadership responsibilities helps all groups
represented on the team overcome differences and avoid stereotypes.
Despite how much or how little leadership experience team members have,
each of you has unique knowledge, abilities and personal strengths. Each team
member becomes a leader by assuming responsibility for his or her own contribution toward achieving the team’s mission. Collaborative Action Teams with
shared leadership value each member’s distinctiveness. They use everyone’s
unique strengths to help the team find new ways to solve the complex issues
schools face. Members whose talents, abilities and perspectives aren’t used
become disillusioned and stop participating.
2-20
Back
Guide
Stage 2
MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Identify Shared Leadership Opportunities
Strengths-Based Leadership Roles
In any successful, effective, well-balanced team, members use their personal
strengths to play important and necessary roles. These roles reflect the leadership qualities that different members bring to your team. Some strengths-based
leadership roles we have seen in Collaborative Action Teams follow:
Communicator—Helps everyone understand the message
Consensus Builder—Helps people talk with one another so they can make a
decision all members can support
Evaluator—Pays attention to detail and helps your team evaluate decisions
and activities
Implementer—Follows through on decisions and gets things done
Mediator—Helps people understand each other
Mentor—Helps people lead activities and advises them how to improve
Planner—Thinks about what’s needed to make things happen
Resource Developer—Finds what’s needed to make things happen
Risk Taker—Tries new ideas and approaches
Team Builder—Helps people feel like they’re part of the team
Visionary— Shares dreams about making things better and leads people to
make these dreams come true
This is not a complete list of strengths-based leadership roles. Some people
on your team may have strengths that can be used in additional roles. It’s
important for your Collaborative Action Team to identify all team members’
strengths and skills, so they’ll feel comfortable taking on a related leadership
role (see Toolkit Activity: Take on Leadership Roles, p. 2-33). More than one
person may assume a leadership role in the same area of strength. Likewise,
a person may have strengths in more than one area. This depends on the
combination of people on your team. The important point is, all members
should use their strengths in the appropriate leadership roles.
If a role isn’t being fulfilled because no one on the team has strengths in that
area, think of ways that somebody might be trained or mentored to assume that
role. Mentoring is a powerful way for members to develop confidence and build
new leadership strengths (see Toolkit Activity: Develop Leadership through
Mentoring, p. 2-39).
Leadership Responsibilities
Opportunities for shared leadership also exist in sharing responsibilities that
make the Collaborative Action Team process work. Some of these responsibilities happen during meetings. Others happen in between. Every leadership
2-21
Back
Stage 2
MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Identify Shared Leadership Opportunities
Guide
responsibility should be assigned to someone at all times to ensure that it gets
done. This doesn’t mean the same person must be responsible for the same
thing all the time. Nor does it mean the same person can’t fill more than one
responsibility at once. Sometimes it makes sense for the same person to take on
two or more responsibilities because they overlap. It doesn’t matter how your
team shares responsibilities. Choose the process that works for you (see Toolkit
Activity: Share Leadership Responsibilities, p. 2-29).
The responsibilities in a Collaborative Action Team fall under four major
categories:
Mutual Member Responsibilities—responsibilities that all Collaborative
Action Team members have at all times
Coordinating Responsibilities—responsibilities for handling logistics and
organizational aspects of a Collaborative Action Team
Facilitating Responsibilities—responsibilities that support the Collaborative
Action Team process when the team is in meetings or in other group settings
Recording Responsibilities—responsibilities that ensure that Collaborative
Action Team decisions and activities are documented and that all members
remain well informed
All members should fulfill mutual member responsibilities at all times. The
other three responsibilities—coordinating, facilitating and recording—should
be shared and rotated among team members. Many successful Collaborative
Action Teams have had one person responsible for each category: a lead coordinator, a lead facilitator and a lead recorder. These lead people don’t do it all.
They just ensure that people are assigned to each responsibility, according to
the team’s process for shared leadership. The persons taking on lead roles
shouldn’t see themselves as the team’s sole leaders. Rather, they are facilitators
for the process, ensuring that all members take on leadership opportunities.
2-22
Back
Guide
Stage 2
MOBILIZING THE TEAM
Step: Identify Shared Leadership Opportunities
Examples
In Clayton, Oklahoma, the Collaborative Action Team operates on a firstname basis—from superintendent to students—to reinforce that all are equal
partners. When the discussion facilitator was called away during one meeting,
a student volunteered to facilitate the continuing discussion. The rest of the
team followed his lead and accomplished what they needed to do. They
showed him the same respect as they would an adult.
In Fabens, Texas, each membership group takes turns coordinating, facilitating
and recording a meeting. For instance, when it’s the community’s turn, all
members representing the community share responsibilities for that meeting.
In Balmorhea, Texas, the Collaborative Action Team has worked hard to
share leadership. At the end of each meeting, the team asks for volunteers to
coordinate and facilitate the next meeting. Also, the team has broken work
into committees headed by different committee leaders, including one headed
by a student. This team has also learned the importance of having methods of
accountability, since responsibilities are spread among so many people.
2-23
Back
Stage 3: SETTING DIRECTION
G
ardeners are now ready to plant their seeds in the garden. They have
come together with a “vision” of the results they want and have
planned accordingly. They understand that establishing a garden is a
slow process and that careful planning will produce good results. As everyone
plants their seeds, they start getting a picture of the overall garden that will
bloom from their efforts.
Definition and Background Information
Setting Direction is the third stage in building a successful Collaborative
Action Team. Up to this point, your team has focused on defining who the
team is and how the team will operate. Now you’re ready to decide what you
want to accomplish more specifically. Your team will continue to use consensus
decision making as the team decides on a clear focus and direction in which to
go. This stage also supports the core concept of action focus, as your team
begins to develop an action plan.
Steps in this Stage
Agree on a Vision
● Identify and Prioritize Issues
● Develop a Mission Statement
● Set Team Goals
● Communicate Your Message
●
The first step in Stage 3 is to Agree on a Vision. Your team’s vision refers to
the ideal state for your school community—your team’s “dream.” Establishing
a vision helps you stay focused on the result you want as you develop and use
your action plan.
The next step is to Identify and Prioritize Issues that your school community
needs to address. Before you begin to take action, team members should examine information about school community needs and locate available resources.
Your team may see many issues that need to be addressed to achieve the team’s
vision for the school community. However, it’s probably unrealistic to address
all of them at once. Therefore, you must reach consensus and prioritize the
issues that team members feel are most important.
3-1
Back
Stage 3
SETTING DIRECTION
Guide
After identifying these issues, your team will be ready to Develop a Mission
Statement. The mission statement explains who the team is and what the team
will achieve. The mission statement also describes the team’s purpose. It helps
team members and the overall school community understand why the team
exists and what the team hopes to achieve. The mission sets the team’s general
direction.
The next step for developing your team’s action plan is to Set Team Goals.
Goal statements identify more specifically what you hope to accomplish
through your team’s action plan. They connect directly to priority issues your
team has identified for the school community. Specific goals keep you focused
on the results you want to achieve.
Once you have established your team’s identity and have defined what the
team wants to achieve, it’s time to plan how to Communicate Your Message.
Communicating information about your team to the overall school community and to stakeholders beyond is important for the team’s long-term success.
Informing others about your team helps establish the team’s credibility and
gives others an opportunity to support your efforts.
As you leave Stage 3, your team will have set a clear direction and established
an identity. You’ll be ready to address specifically how you will achieve team
goals and sustain momentum over time. As you continue to develop your
action plan, look for opportunities to share leadership among team members.
The entire team must actively participate to help achieve results in order to
sustain the team over time.
Note: Your team will begin to develop an action plan during Stage 3. Please
refer to the Action Planning Packet in the Toolkit Masters for a sample action
plan and blank action plan. The materials are also available on the CD-ROM.
You will use these materials throughout Stages 3 and 4.
3-2
Back
Guide
Stage 3
SETTING DIRECTION
Step: Agree on a Vision
Stage 3: SETTING DIRECTION
Step: Agree on a Vision
Definition
A shared vision is a “dream” for what your school community can ideally be in
the future. A vision provides a great way for team members to develop team
commitment. A clear vision will help team members know what actions to take
to move toward the dream.
Action Components
Develop a shared vision statement about where your Collaborative Action
Team is headed. This gives you and your team members a star to steer by—
a way to know when you’ve achieved your dreams for students and their
families in your school community.
■ Present the vision to your school board, city council and other groups
interested in school issues and seek their support for it.
■ Begin to develop an action plan for your team.
■
Team-Building Components
Create energy and motivate members by working together to write a vision
statement.
■ Keep your team focused on why the team exists by agreeing on what you
want for students and their families.
■
Toolkit Reference
Toolkit Activity: Agree on a Vision, p. 3-1
3-3
Back
Stage 3
SETTING DIRECTION
Step: Agree on a Vision
Guide
Background Information
To reach a specific goal, it helps to have an idea of where you’re going. If you
don’t, how will you know when you get there? In effect, you need a vision or
“dream.” A clear picture of the end result helps turn your vision into reality.
This is true for both individuals and communities.
Start creating your vision by imagining what you want your school or community to be like five years from now. (Some teams imagine as far out as 10 or 20
years.) Think about what would be different and what would be the same.
A shared vision also enhances trust among team members. By working together
to develop a vision statement, everyone will know where they’re headed. This
step enables team members to visualize the future and to agree on a common
vision for students and their families in your school community.
It’s also important to share your vision with others. The vision statement
informs everyone in your school community about what your team is doing
and creates excitement about your efforts. This can strengthen the support
for your team. It’s a good idea to seek such support by presenting your vision
statement to the school board for their approval. If your team feels it’s important, you might also present the vision statement to your city council for their
support. The more individuals and organizations that understand and agree
with your vision, the easier it will be to carry out your ideas.
Developing a vision statement marks the beginning of the action planning
process for your team. The Action Planning Packet materials in the Toolkit
Masters suggest a simple format for keeping a written action plan. You will
use your action plan to record the vision statement you have developed in this
step and will add to it as you go through Stages 3 and 4. The action plan will
provide focus and direction for your team.
Example
The Collaborative Action Team in Ponca City, Oklahoma, agreed that their
vision was to create “a safe environment where all students have access to
exemplary educational opportunities and healthcare, where students are prepared for the 21st century with a firm sense of community.” Based on this
vision, the team collaborated with community-based service providers and
business leaders to tackle the issue of substance abuse among young people.
They also supported a school-based mentoring program that links students
with adult mentors to improve student outcomes.
3-4
Back
Guide
Stage 3
SETTING DIRECTION
Step: Identify and Prioritize Issues
Stage 3: SETTING DIRECTION
Step: Identify and Prioritize Issues
Definition
Collaborative Action Teams address issues directly related to major areas that
affect the well-being and education of students and their families. These issues
may involve academic, economic, political, social, cultural or historical factors.
Developing a common understanding of school community issues builds your
team’s knowledge base. This knowledge captures the differences and similarities
in your team members’ viewpoints.
Action Components
Create a list of your school community’s strengths.
■ Create a list of issues that your school community needs to address.
■ Collect student data needed to understand your school community’s
major issues.
■ Prioritize a list of issues your team needs to address to improve results for
students and their families.
■
Team-Building Components
Develop an understanding of the issues that affect your school community.
■ Reach consensus on the concerns and issues your team needs to address.
■
Toolkit References
Toolkit Activity: Assess Your School Community, p. 3-5
Toolkit Activity: Identify School Community Issues, p. 3-9
Toolkit Masters: Action Planning Packet
3-5
Back
Stage 3
SETTING DIRECTION
Step: Identify and Prioritize Issues
Guide
Background Information
The primary focus of a Collaborative Action Team is to improve results for
students and their families in school and in life. Your team’s diverse membership brings a broad range of abilities, experience and skills to the issues your
school community faces. Your Collaborative Action Team can be a powerful
voice for such issues.
An early step in planning for action and developing a team is to identify issues
the whole school community shares. Encourage all team members to freely
voice their ideas. Keep in mind that discussing these issues can bring frustrations to the surface. This is especially true if some members feel they’ve rarely
had a voice in community decisions or if factions exist in your community.
The idea that conflict may arise can be uncomfortable, but open discussion
offers a way for your team to grow together. Toolkit Activity: Identify School
Community Issues, p. 3-9 suggests a structure for discussing issues and
determining which are most important.
In Stage 1, your team began gathering information about the needs and
strengths of your school community. You will now use this information to
make informed decisions about what issues are most urgent. It’s important to
analyze the information now, before you develop your action plan. This helps
ensure that the team is addressing the most important issues affecting your
school community. By examining the data now, you can establish a baseline.
A baseline shows what things were like before you made any changes. It helps
you determine the impact of your actions.
Your team may have questions that can’t be answered by the information
you’ve gathered so far. If that’s the case, you may need to assess the school community’s needs and strengths on your own. Toolkit Activity: Assess Your School
Community, p. 3-5 helps your team assess school community issues in order
to make informed decisions. A community or school assessment provides an
excellent opportunity to actively involve team members. They can develop
materials for gathering information, go into the school community to collect
information and analyze the results. A school community assessment helps
others learn about your team and get involved in the team’s efforts.
By identifying school community issues, team members are in a position to
decide what action they need to take to improve results for students and their
families. Regardless of how issues are identified, it’s difficult to address everything at once. This is why your team should develop action plans for the top
three issues, at most. Take a focused approach and concentrate on a few manageable projects at a time. The development of goals and strategies to address
many different issues at once often isn’t practical.
3-6
Back
Guide
Stage 3
SETTING DIRECTION
Step: Identify and Prioritize Issues
To identify which issues to address first, a priority ranking process is helpful.
Several different methods can be used. Some methods are short and informal;
others are more structured. Once you identify team priorities, you can begin
developing specific action plans that describe the goals and strategies your team
will follow to address these priority issues. After actions are underway on the
first priority, your team can begin to take action on others. In your team’s early
life, you should avoid taking on too many projects at once. Success on one
project will demonstrate achievement to your school community and make it
easier for you to tackle additional priorities and further action plans.
Examples
The members of the L.R. Jackson Elementary Collaborative Action Team
in West Memphis, Arkansas, identified the need to improve student achievement and parent involvement. After analyzing the results from a survey that
was completed by over 100 parents, the team decided that these needs could
be best met by establishing a family resource center in the school community.
The team made arrangements with the city to use a vacant branch library that
was close to the school as a resource center for students and their families.
The Collaborative Action Team in Terrell, Texas, identified and prioritized
a list of school community issues during a brainstorming session at a team
meeting. The team selected two priority issues to address. The first priority
was a lack of communication about healthcare issues among all segments of
the community. The second priority was the lack of a central place where
youth and other community members could gather after school to receive
social, health and educational services. The team focused on these two issues as
they developed team goals and the rest of their action plan.
3-7
Back
Guide
Stage 3
SETTING DIRECTION
Step: Develop a Mission Statement
Stage 3: SETTING DIRECTION
Step: Develop a Mission Statement
Definition
A mission statement is a clear description of who you are and what your team
is all about. It is a concise declaration of the team’s purpose or function. A
mission statement explains how you will work to achieve your common
purpose by answering what, for whom and how. Your mission statement
will provide a basis for future direction and decision making.
Action Components
Review the priority issues for your school community that will provide
direction for your team.
■ Develop a mission statement that describes your team’s purpose and provides
the team with a general sense of direction.
■
Team-Building Components
Your Collaborative Action Team can experience a sense of accomplishment
by presenting the team’s completed mission statement to the school superintendent and school board. Have as many team members as possible present
to show their support.
■ By working together to create a mission, your team will develop a shared
sense of purpose. This will help you further understand and build trust with
one another.
■
Toolkit Reference
Toolkit Activity: Develop a Mission Statement, p. 3-15
Toolkit Masters: Action Planning Packet
3-9
Back
Stage 3
SETTING DIRECTION
Step: Develop a Mission Statement
Guide
Background Information
A Collaborative Action Team’s mission statement is not the same as the team’s
vision. The vision describes your dream of what the school community can be.
A mission brings your team out of a dream world and provides a more realistic
and immediate purpose for existing. Your team’s mission statement should
indicate who you are (your identity) and what you are about (your purpose).
In a Collaborative Action Team, a clear direction guided by a mission helps
focus activities. All team members need to be involved in developing the
mission statement. In the process, you and your team will reach a common
understanding of school community issues. This helps ensure that present and
future team members know up front what you’re all about. A clear team
mission also helps individuals and organizations decide whether to participate
on the team. The mission statement explains how you will work to achieve
your common purpose by answering: what your team does, for whom, and
how. For an example of a Collaborative Action Team mission statement, go to
Toolkit Activity: Develop a Mission Statement, p. 3-15. This activity can help
your team develop its own mission statement.
Examples
The Marshall Collaborative Action Team in Marshall, Arkansas, developed
a mission statement that emphasized building strong connections among
the various segments of their rural community. Based on this mission, they
developed goals in four categories: academics, vocational, extended time programs and family and community. The success of many rural school districts is
directly connected to the success of the overall community. The team’s mission
statement helped keep them focused on the important connection between
school improvement and community development.
In Clinton, Oklahoma, the Collaborative Action Team members developed
a mission statement that focused on the need for more meaningful activities
for both students and adults in the community. Their first step towards
accomplishing their mission was to develop an extensive resource directory of
all the services that were currently available in the community. They also
helped write a grant proposal to develop a community learning center to
provide after-school and evening programs for the Clinton community.
3-10
Back
Guide
Stage 3
SETTING DIRECTION
Step: Set Team Goals
Stage 3: SETTING DIRECTION
Step: Set Team Goals
Definition
Goals document the big things your Collaborative Action Team wants to
accomplish regarding the priority issues the team has identified. Goals state
more specifically what you will do to accomplish your team’s mission. A clear
relationship between priority issues and team goals is vital. Your team should
write at least one goal for each priority issue.
Action Components
■ Translate
the top-priority issue into a goal statement.
■ Write one or more goals that will help your team address each priority issue.
Team-Building Component
■
Reach consensus on team goals.
Toolkit Reference
Toolkit Activity: Set Team Goals, p. 3-21
Toolkit Masters: Action Planning Packet
3-11
Back
Stage 3
SETTING DIRECTION
Step: Set Team Goals
Guide
Background Information
Previously, your Collaborative Action Team established a team mission. A
mission gives team members a common purpose for active involvement on the
team. The mission focuses on the team’s reason for existing and what it’s going
to do. You’ve already identified your priority issues. Now it’s time to turn your
top priority into one or more action-oriented goals. Eventually, you’ll develop
goals for all of your priority issues. If your team tries to develop goals for every
issue at once, the task might be overwhelming. The number of goals will
depend on the scope of each particular issue. Simple issues may require only
one goal. Complex issues may require two or more.
You need goal statements to narrow your efforts to a manageable size for
two reasons:
1. The underlying purpose of “improving results for students and their
families” is too broad to manage effectively.
2. Your team’s mission may be too long-term for you to feel any real
achievement.
Goal statements help define what you hope to accomplish for each priority
issue. It’s relatively easy to translate issues of concern into goal statements.
Simply turn them around to become statements of what you will accomplish.
Here’s an example:
Issue: Many students are getting into trouble after school because they don’t
have things to do. These students also have low academic achievement.
Goal: Enhance and increase after-school activities for students in collaboration
with local agencies and organizations.
Such a goal provides a general direction for your team and a basis for developing an action plan. It’s also helpful to write goals in terms of benefits for
students and families. In this example, the obvious benefit is improved access
and availability of after-school student activities and programs. By stating the
goal in terms of how it will benefit students, you will be better able to measure
the results. You need only look at how many additional students were helped
and the impact that these activities and programs had on their academic performance to judge the impact of your team’s work. For more examples of goal
statements, see the sample action plan in the Toolkit Masters: Action Planning
Packet. Also, see the Toolkit Activity: Set Team Goals, p. 3-21 to help you
determine your team’s goals.
3-12
Back
Guide
Stage 3
SETTING DIRECTION
Activity: Set Team Goals
Example
The Rio Grande Collaborative Action Team in Albuquerque, New
Mexico, wanted to address the negative stereotypes about the school
community that often ran on the local news. They developed a goal of
improving the school community image as part of their action plan. The
team set up a committee to build relationships with local reporters and
sought media coverage of the schools and students’ positive accomplishments. The team also discussed plans to create and distribute bumper
stickers to encourage pride and involvement in the school community.
3-13
Back
Guide
Stage 3
SETTING DIRECTION
Step: Communicate Your Message
Stage 3: SETTING DIRECTION
Step: Communicate Your Message
Definition
Informing people about your efforts is a key to your team’s long-term success.
In many school communities, collaboration is a new way of “doing business.”
You must clearly communicate who your team is and what you’re trying to
accomplish to prevent confusion and to establish credibility. To communicate
effectively, you must also identify who the team wants to reach and for what
purpose. You will then be able to plan strategies to communicate that message
to your audience.
Action Components
Identify your target audience—the people you’d like to inform about your
Collaborative Action Team.
■ Decide what information your team needs to communicate and develop a
clear message to do so.
■ Create a plan for reaching your defined audience with your team’s message.
■
Team-Building Components
Continue to establish team identity by creating materials and strategies that
tell your team’s “story” to the school community.
■ Support shared leadership by using team members’ diverse skills to communicate your team’s message.
■
Toolkit References
Toolkit Activity: Define the Audience and the Message, p. 3-25
Toolkit Activity: Create a Communications Plan, p. 3-31
Also see Guide Appendix C: Working with the Media
3-15
Back
Stage 3
SETTING DIRECTION
Step: Communicate Your Message
Guide
Background Information
As you’ve moved through Stage 3, your team has prioritized issues to address.
You also defined a vision and mission, and set goals you want to accomplish.
Most of the work so far has been internal. In other words, you have accomplished results through discussion and action within your team. To accomplish
your larger goals, however, you must begin looking to the larger school
community. Your team doesn’t operate in isolation—you need the support
of parents, community members and your school district. Reaching out and
informing others of your efforts can make the difference between a project
that’s here to stay and one that simply fades away.
Communicating your message effectively can help your team:
Establish team identity through slogans and visual images,
● Gain credibility and demonstrate that it’s a legitimate team doing
positive work,
● Build positive impressions about the overall school community and
● Invite others to support the team’s efforts and share in your success.
●
The first step in communicating your message effectively is considering your
“target audience.” In other words, who do you want to inform about your
efforts? It’s important to take the time to define your audience, since strategies
that may reach one group or individual may not reach another. For example,
if you are trying to keep families informed about the team’s efforts, using a
website alone may not be successful. Many families may not have computers
in their homes.
After you’ve defined your audience, you must develop the message your team
wants to communicate. Since many people have limited time and may not
have a high level of interest (yet!), it’s crucial to decide what information is
most important. Also, your message may vary depending on what your team is
trying to accomplish through these communications. For instance, you might
have a different message if you’re trying to recruit volunteers for a particular
project than if you’re asking the school board for support to start a new program. Toolkit Activity: Define the Audience and the Message, p. 3-25 provides an
opportunity for your team to create a “Report Card” that you can use to tell
others about your team. In any communications materials or strategy, your
team might want to include the following:
Vision and mission
● Goals
● Accomplishments
●
3-16
Back
Guide
Stage 3
SETTING DIRECTION
Step: Communicate Your Message
Team logo or slogan
● Team membership
● Specific volunteer opportunities or team events
● History of the team and how it was formed
● Contact information, so people can get involved
●
Once you’ve defined your audience and decided what you want to communicate, you’re ready to develop your strategy for getting the word out. Again, it’s
important to remember who you want to reach, why you want to reach them
and what you want to say. You can get your message out to your target audience in many different ways:
Press releases
● Brochures
● Video
● Website
● Articles or op-ed pieces in the newspaper
● Announcements in church bulletins
● Restaurant placemats
● Bumper stickers
● School newspaper
● School marquee sign
● Direct mail to school community residents
● Inserts in utility bills
● Banners and signs
● T-shirts
● Radio and TV public service announcements
●
Toolkit Activity: Create a Communications Plan, p. 3-31 will help your team plan
strategies for communicating your message to others.
A Note on Shared Leadership
Communications provide a great opportunity for encouraging shared leadership within your team. The story of Dora Martínez (see Toolkit Activity: Take
on Leadership Roles, p. 2-33) illustrates how different team members can be
included in your team’s communications strategy. Communications is also an
area where students can often serve as a resource. Many students are interested
in using technology and artistic skills to create websites, T-shirts, posters and
other materials.
3-17
Back
Stage 3
SETTING DIRECTION
Step: Communicate Your Message
Guide
Example
One of the team members on the Ann Parish Collaborative Action Team in
Los Lunas, New Mexico, created a video presentation. The video explained
how and why the team was formed, highlighted some of the team’s early
successes and described the team’s goals and their plans to accomplish them.
It also included information about the Los Lunas community. The team first
developed the video to give the school board a progress report, but they’ve also
used it to orient new team members and to approach potential funders.
3-18
Back
Stage 4: TAKING ACTION
O
nce the seeds are planted, the hard work of maintaining the garden
begins. Gardeners must pay careful attention to ensure that plants
grow up healthy and hardy. Gardeners must deal with weeds and
insects that threaten the health of plants. They must also pay close attention to
growing conditions and adjust the amount of water and fertilizer accordingly.
Gardeners usually find that some plant varieties grow easily, with very little
care, while others require constant attention. This careful monitoring and
maintenance will be worth the effort, though, as the gardeners begin seeing the
results of their efforts.
Definition and Background Information
Taking Action is the fourth stage in the Collaborative Action Team process.
During this stage, your team will define the specific actions it will take to
achieve its goals. After teams have set their goals, they’re often eager to quit
planning and “do something.” It’s important to take short-term actions to keep
team momentum strong, but it’s also crucial to take time to plan your next steps.
Your team is more likely to accomplish its goals and build long-term success
when tasks and responsibilities are clearly defined. The team needs to set up
mechanisms to monitor progress and evaluate how well it’s meeting team goals.
Clearly defining tasks and responsibilities also supports consensus decision
making and shared leadership. Every team member is responsible for the
action plan’s success. All team members should therefore take an active role
in accomplishing the tasks the team defines. It’s also important to continue
communicating with others outside the team. Your contacts can provide a
strong network of support for your team’s efforts and help you acquire the
resources your team needs.
Steps in this Stage
Develop Strategies
● Determine Necessary Tasks
● Establish Evaluation Methods
● Monitor Progress
● Expand Network Opportunities
●
The first step in this stage is to Develop Strategies—to define how you will
accomplish team goals. Many problems can be solved in more than one way.
Therefore, it’s important to reach consensus on the approaches you will take to
get the results you want. Moving from general ideas to specific strategies makes
a team’s work much more concrete.
4-1
Back
Stage 4
TAKING ACTION
Guide
The next step is also the final step in completing your team’s action plan. You
must Determine Necessary Tasks in order to break your team’s action plan
down into manageable steps. For instance, one of the team’s strategies may be
to start a service learning program that links classroom curriculum with real-life
experiences in the community. Many steps are involved in such a program. A
team must define each step and decide who will be responsible for it. Clearly
defining specific tasks and responsibilities also helps individual team members
accept responsibility and leadership more easily. Individuals will be more
accountable for following through on commitments they make themselves. In
this step you determine who will be responsible for doing what and when.
After your team has defined its goals and strategies, and the tasks and timelines
for carrying out action plans, it must Establish Evaluation Methods.
Evaluations help your team monitor progress and see the impact of results.
You must establish evaluation methods up front so you can take appropriate
measures as you carry out your plan. Stakeholders and leaders in the school
community must have evidence of the team’s accomplishments if they’re to
continue supporting your efforts. Evaluations also help your team gather needed resources and funding, as they show the team’s capacity for achieving results.
Once you’ve established evaluation methods, you are ready to begin putting
your strategies into action and completing agreed-upon tasks. All team members should know what they are responsible for and can begin working on to
get tasks accomplished. Remember, it is not always necessary to work on all
strategies and goals in your action plan at once. Begin with one strategy at a
time, and as you get something done, move on to the next.
As you implement your action plan, your team must Monitor Progress to
keep team momentum going. Team members should continually confirm that
the action plan is being carried out the way it was planned. They must also
ensure that team members follow through on their commitments. It’s important to review and refine your action plan regularly once you’ve put it in action.
Finally, you should Expand Network Opportunities to build support for your
team’s efforts. You should build connections with people and organizations in
the school community and beyond. This can help your team obtain necessary
resources for taking action and build long-term support. A strong, broadbased network of support will help your team become a fixture in the school
community. The team will then be better able to weather changes in school
administration, funding and so on.
In Stage 4, your team moves strongly into action to make positive changes for
students and their families. The time spent in planning and team building will
pay off as all team members take responsibility for a successful action plan.
4-2
Back
Guide
Stage 4
TAKING ACTION
Step: Develop Strategies
Stage 4: TAKING ACTION
Step: Develop Strategies
Definition
Strategies identify specifically how your Collaborative Action Team will
successfully achieve team goals. Strategies spell out who will do what, for what
purpose and when. It’s important to write down your strategies as you work on
your team’s action plan.
Action Components
Write specific strategies that address how your team will accomplish
each goal.
■ Include a target date for completing each strategy.
■
Team-Building Components
Reach consensus on the strategies your Collaborative Action Team will use to
achieve team goals.
■ Develop an understanding of the issues involved in achieving team strategies.
■
Toolkit References
Toolkit Activity: Develop Strategies, p. 4-1
Toolkit Masters: Action Planning Packet
4-3
Back
Guide
TAKING ACTION
Stage 4
Step: Develop Strategies
Background Information
After your Collaborative Action Team has written a team vision, mission and
goals, it’s time to develop specific strategies to meet those goals. Strategies help
change ideas into actions. While goals provide general direction, strategies
provide the means for getting there. Strategies should be realistic and achievable
with the resources you already have available or can easily obtain. It does little
good to adopt a strategy that requires resources not available to you.
There are usually many ways to reach a goal. Some goals may require the
development and implementation of a longer-term project or a program.
Other times a one-time event can address a need. Sometimes it will be most
productive to cooperate with what other groups and organizations in the
school community are already doing. You will need to consider your team’s
options and decide which strategies are most effective, keeping in mind the
people, resources and time that you have. The number of strategies you have
for each goal will depend on that goal’s level of complexity and on how much
work your team can do in the allotted time period.
Once you’ve decided on your strategies, you should clearly state each one so
that everyone in your team and in your school community can understand it.
Some people don’t see the value of developing an action plan with written
strategies, or see it as boring. However, it’s been demonstrated over and over
that teams that take time to write down strategies find it much easier to achieve
their goals. Without clear, specific strategies, team members won’t know where
they are headed or if they’ve reached their destination. Your strategies should
provide a clear direction for achieving the goal they support. The Toolkit
Activity: Develop Strategies, p. 4-1 will help your team write clear and focused
strategy statements. The Toolkit Masters: Action Planning Packet provides
examples of strategies for Collaborative Action Team goals.
It’s important to keep your team focused at this point in the process, since this
step is often more difficult to complete than others. Sometimes it’s harder to
reach consensus when you’re moving from the general to the specific. It’s a
good idea to keep your team vision posted to remind team members why
they’re there. It will also help to give team members copies of the team’s action
plan with the information it includes up to this point—the vision, mission,
priority issues and goals.
4-4
Back
Guide
Stage 4
TAKING ACTION
Step: Develop Strategies
Example
The Collaborative Action Team in Mora, New Mexico wanted to increase
parent and community involvement in the schools. They developed two strategies—one short-term and the other long-term. As a short-term strategy, they
helped host a parent involvement training with parents and teachers, so that
everyone could better understand the challenges of parent involvement from
both perspectives. They followed this up with a parent/teacher potluck lunch
during the teachers’ in-service days at the beginning of the school year. Their
long-term strategy was to develop a parent resource center. When space on the
school campus fell through because of construction taking place, the team
immediately started looking for community space to house the resource center
temporarily. Having both a short and long-term goal helped keep the team
moving forward, despite setbacks.
4-5
Back
Guide
Stage 4
TAKING ACTION
Step: Determine Necessary Tasks
Stage 4: TAKING ACTION
Step: Determine Necessary Tasks
Definition
The next step of action planning consists of determining the tasks involved
to carry out your strategies. For each task, you’ll also determine the resources
needed, who will be responsible and a timeline for completion. It’s important
that you write down the tasks that team members will do to meet each goal
and carry out each strategy. In this step you determine who on the team will
be responsible for doing what and when.
Action Components
Determine the specific tasks you must complete for each written strategy.
Record a date for completing each task.
■ Identify the resources required to implement each strategy as you list
each task.
■ Identify the individuals responsible for completing each task.
■ Document the tasks, timelines, resources and responsibilities in a written
action plan.
■
Team-Building Component
■
Support shared leadership by encouraging team members to take on specific
responsibilities to achieve team goals.
Toolkit References
Toolkit Activity: Define Tasks and Resources, p. 4-5
Toolkit Activity: Determine Responsibilities and Timelines, p. 4-9
Toolkit Masters: Action Planning Packet
4-7
Back
TAKING ACTION
Stage 4
Step: Determine Necessary Tasks
Guide
Background Information
As you continue through the action planning process, you are ready to take
three additional steps to complete action planning for each strategy:
1. Determine tasks and resources needed to achieve each strategy.
2. Identify the person or persons responsible for carrying out each task.
3. Determine the date by which each task will be completed.
These action planning steps provide your team a detailed plan and a list
of the resources and “tools” needed to achieve your goals.
The first step is to identify and list the specific tasks required to implement
each strategy. Breaking tasks down into smaller pieces makes it easy to see what
needs to happen to complete them. Your list of tasks should include a realistic
list of resources needed to complete each task:
Availability of member time
● In-kind contributions
● Buildings and equipment
● Financial and other resources
●
If everyone involved understands what they need to do to implement each
strategy, they’ll find it much easier to accomplish.
Next, you need to identify which members will be responsible for each task.
This responsibility should not be shouldered by just a few members. It
should be shared among all team members. This prevents individuals from
“burning out.”
The final step to complete your action plan is to set a date for completing
each task. Many factors will influence the completion date. You must be
realistic about these dates and consider team members’ other responsibilities.
One technique for keeping members clear about their tasks is to use the 3W
rule. Always determine Who will do What and When. An action plan puts
this rule into practice. Use Toolkit Activities: Define Tasks and Resources, p. 4-5
and Determine Responsibilities and Timelines, p. 4-9 to guide your team through
this final step in the action planning process. Also, remember to use Toolkit
Masters: Action Planning Packet to record tasks responsibilities and timelines.
4-8
Back
Guide
Stage 4
TAKING ACTION
Step: Determine Necessary Tasks
Example
The Collaborative Action Team at Palmer Elementary in Pharr, Texas, had
developed their goals and strategies and begun to feel very overwhelmed about
getting them all done. One strategy was to conduct a Parent Academy to help
parents become more involved in their children’s education and in school decision-making by understanding the school system and what their children were
learning in school. They wrote down two tasks for this strategy. The first task
was to lead the team in planning and coordinating the logistics. The second
task was to determine topics for the sessions and decide who would coordinate
them. At that point, each committee developed their own list of tasks, responsibilities and deadlines. This proved to be an effective way to get this strategy
implemented. The Parent Academy was a complete success, with every session
attended by more than 35 parents and one session attended by 57 parents.
4-9
Back
Guide
Stage 4
TAKING ACTION
Step: Establish Evaluation Methods
Stage 4: TAKING ACTION
Step: Establish Evaluation Methods
Definition
Evaluation is the process of collecting and analyzing information about the
strategies your team is using. Evaluation helps you find out how well you have
carried out your action plan. It also reveals the impact that your efforts have
had in the school community and what results the team has achieved.
Action Components
Develop methods for evaluating team projects and strategies before you
implement your action plan.
■ Define performance standards for strategies in your action plan. Performance
standards state what your team reasonably hopes to achieve and when.
■ Record your evaluation methods and attach this information to your
action plan.
■
Team-Building Components
Encourage shared responsibility for developing evaluation methods and
conducting evaluations. Involve team members representing all school community groups to ensure that information comes from a variety of sources.
■ Ensure that all team members fully understand the evaluation process so the
whole team can help accomplish goals and track your team’s successes.
■
Toolkit Reference
Toolkit Activity: Establish Evaluation Methods, p. 4-13
4-11
Back
TAKING ACTION
Stage 4
Step: Establish Evaluation Methods
Guide
Background Information
Evaluation is an important part of any project or program because it helps you
make changes and improvements along the way. Above all else, evaluation helps
you answer the key question, “Are we making a difference?”
People conduct evaluations for many reasons:
To establish the need for a new project
● To choose among possible projects
● To assist in making decisions about a project
● To learn if a project is doing what it’s designed to do
● To determine if a project is useful to the people it’s meant to serve
● To see what impact the project is having
● To record the project’s history
● To meet funding and school district requirements for documentation
●
There are three different types of evaluation:
●
●
●
Needs Evaluation—Needs evaluations look at “what is” versus “what should
be” in terms of actual versus needed services. Needs evaluations help justify
the need to change existing programs or start new ones.
Process Evaluation—Process evaluations ask, “Are we taking the steps we
need to take to meet our goals?” and “Are we following our plan?” Process
evaluations help teams make adjustments and changes to carry out projects
more effectively. Gardeners who continually monitor their plants as they
grow are conducting process evaluations. They’re checking to see if anything
needs to be adjusted to get the desired results.
Outcome Evaluation—Outcome evaluations measure the impact or effect
of a strategy, program or project. For example, an outcome evaluation of a
school science program might measure whether or not students had more
interest and achieved more in science as a result of participating in the program. Outcome evaluation can also show how program costs compare with
program benefits.
Toolkit Activity: Assess Your School Community, p. 3-5 addressed needs evaluation.
Two other Toolkit Activities: Report Progress and Review Responsibilities, p. 4-19
and Assess Team Effectiveness, p. 5-1 help teams conduct process evaluations.
Toolkit Activity: Establish Evaluation Methods, p. 4-13 will help your team
develop an outcome evaluation process for your action plan.
4-12
Back
Guide
Stage 4
TAKING ACTION
Step: Establish Evaluation Methods
The outcome evaluation process involves six steps:
1. Develop the questions—Decide what you want to know about the project.
2. Determine desired outcomes—Decide what results you want or what
performance standards you hope to meet.
3. Choose or design evaluation instruments and set collection
procedures—Decide how you can best measure the impact of a project.
4. Collect the data—consider:
– What information you’ll collect
– What you’ll use to collect it
– When you’ll collect it
– Who you’ll collect it from
– How you’ll collect it
5. Analyze the data—Compare actual results to desired outcomes.
6. Report your findings—Keep the school community and your funding
sources informed.
What Information You’ll Collect
The information you need will vary with each project. The following are some
common types of information your team may need:
Test scores, grades, academic information
● People’s satisfaction with the project
● Amount of knowledge gained as a result of the project
● Behavioral or emotional changes that resulted from the project
●
What to Use to Collect the Information
You can use a variety of methods or “instruments” to collect information:
Standardized tests
● Questionnaires or surveys
● Formal or informal interviews
● School or program records (number of students attending, etc.)
● Focus groups
● Observations
●
4-13
Back
TAKING ACTION
Stage 4
Step: Establish Evaluation Methods
Guide
When to Collect Information
You need to collect information at several points along the way so you can
document the results of a project. Some commonly collected information
follows:
Baseline Information—collected at the very beginning of the project so you
know where things were when you started
● Pre-test/Post-test Information—collected before services begin and again
after they end
● Data Points—collected several times throughout a project (i.e., every three
months) so you can compare results at various points along the way
● Exit—collected when the project is completed or services have ended
●
Who to Collect Information From
It’s important to consider who you should collect information from. For each
project, you may need information from a variety of people—students who
participated in the program, their teachers, their parents, etc. Think about ways
to get a good sample. You probably don’t need information from every student
in the school district, but you’ll want to ensure that your sample group represents your overall target population. Here are some factors to consider:
Age
● Gender
● Ethnicity
● Language
● Socioeconomic status
● Geographic location (all areas of your school community, etc.)
●
How You Will Collect the Information
You can use a variety of methods to collect information. Think about how
you can best reach your sample population. Some information-collection
methods follow:
Personal contact
● Telephone
● Forms to fill out
● Home visits
● Mail
● Fax
● Internet
●
4-14
Back
Guide
Stage 4
TAKING ACTION
Step: Establish Evaluation Methods
Although evaluation can seem somewhat intimidating if you haven’t done it
before, it’s a key to developing support and getting funding for team projects.
A number of people can help your team develop an evaluation plan. Consider
asking someone from your school district’s data division, a researcher from a
local college or the staff at your local United Way to help you start your
evaluation.
Example
The Little Rock, Arkansas, Collaborative Action Team responded to student
members’ concerns about the physical conditions of their schools by using
needs evaluation. The team developed a survey to get input from all students
at the school. They also developed a checklist that volunteers from the team
used to evaluate the physical conditions of all school campuses during site visits.
The team will use the results from the student surveys and evaluations to make
recommendations to the school board about improving school conditions.
4-15
Back
Guide
Stage 4
TAKING ACTION
Step: Monitor Progress
Stage 4: TAKING ACTION
Step: Monitor Progress
Definition
At this point, you have started to implement your action plan. Monitoring
your progress helps team members determine how far they have come toward
meeting a goal and how much farther they have to go. If your team encounters
problems, you can then make changes to make the goal easier to accomplish.
Action Components
Get reports on the progress you’re making toward meeting your goals.
■ Record the information you need to evaluate your progress.
■ Review your action plan and adjust tasks, responsibilities and timelines, if
necessary.
■
Team-Building Components
Monitoring progress on the action plan empowers team members and
provides a sense of accomplishment.
■ Brainstorming about issues or stumbling blocks in the action plan strengthens the sense of shared leadership and responsibility among team members.
■
Toolkit References
Toolkit Activity: Report Progress and Review Responsibilities, p. 4-19
Toolkit Activity: Recognize Member Contributions, p. 4-23
4-17
Back
Guide
TAKING ACTION
Stage 4
Step: Monitor Progress
Background Information
Carrying out an action plan is the high point of action planning. Action
planning begins in general terms when you create a vision and mission. The
process gets more specific when you set goals, develop strategies and assign
responsibilities and timelines. Carrying out the tasks you planned moves you
beyond planning to acting to achieving results for students and their families.
The action plan is carried out by the 3W rule of Who, What and When. Your
Collaborative Action Team Action Worksheets serve as a “road map” for your
team to monitor tasks and keep them on schedule. You may need to clarify
who is doing what and when on an ongoing basis. Collaborative Action Team
meeting agendas may include a progress report from the person or task force
responsible for a task. However, if you encounter roadblocks, you’ll need to
resolve them. Monitoring your action plan should become a regular meeting
agenda item until you meet your goals and you’re ready to set more.
At this point in the Collaborative Action Team process, some teams may
experience frustration. You may hear complaints such as, “Nobody’s doing
what they said they would” or “This is taking too long.” Monitoring your
progress can help prevent some of these complaints. It can take a long time to
obtain evidence that your team’s work is impacting students and their families
in lasting, positive ways. Team members may have difficulty seeing the results
of their efforts.
Your team facilitator needs to know that complaints often signal that it’s time
to examine the team’s progress and recognize the contributions members have
made. Individual and group commitments are the cornerstones of strong,
effective partnerships. Keeping members involved and motivated is a major
consideration for most teams. You can help maintain members’ involvement
by recognizing each individual’s contributions to the team. This helps build
momentum at the personal and team level and helps head off potential
complaints. Feeling valued by peers helps everyone feel part of the team.
Mutual respect and support grows as members engage in planning and
working together. Each team member’s contributions help the team’s efforts.
Celebrating individual and group successes along the way encourages everyone.
By contrast, ignoring individual contributions can lead to a gradual loss of
momentum that may eventually affect the whole team. For this reason, no
success is too small to celebrate. Let people know their efforts are appreciated!
4-18
Back
Guide
Stage 4
TAKING ACTION
Step: Monitor Progress
Examples
The Collaborative Action Team at Beauregard Middle School in St.
Bernard Parish, Louisiana, routinely reviews progress on projects through a
small group of volunteers specifically assigned to do so. The team facilitators,
principal and school district representative who serve in this group bring any
problems or concerns to all members at the next team meeting.
The Jackson Middle School Collaborative Action Team in Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma, recognizes team members who contribute their time and talents
by posting their names and accomplishments on the school’s web page.
4-19
Back
Guide
Stage 4
TAKING ACTION
Step: Expand Network Opportunities
Stage 4: TAKING ACTION
Step: Expand Network Opportunities
Definition
Networking is the ongoing process of developing contacts and relationships
with key people and organizations, both in the school community and beyond.
Networking builds a team’s effectiveness by increasing the expertise and
resources available to the team. It also helps a team build support for their
efforts and avoid duplicating what already exists.
Action Components
Assess the current network the team has developed.
■ Identify key partners for the Collaborative Action Team.
■ Develop strategies for expanding the team’s network.
■
Team-Building Components
Build representative membership by recruiting new team members from
your school community.
■ Support shared leadership as team members draw on their individual
contacts and connections to increase the team’s success.
■
Toolkit Reference
Toolkit Activity: Expand Network Opportunities, p. 4-27
4-21
Back
TAKING ACTION
Stage 4
Step: Expand Network Opportunities
Guide
Background Information
Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines network as “a fabric or structure
of cords that cross at regular intervals and are knotted or secured at the
crossings” and networking as “the exchange of information or services among
individuals, organizations or institutions.” Both of these definitions emphasize
connections. As you continue to carry out your team’s action plan, it’s crucial
to make connections in the school community and beyond to ensure the
team’s long-term success.
Increasing your team’s connection to other people and organizations helps
the team:
Recruit people to become long-term members of the team,
● Obtain assistance or support for a one-time or short-term project,
● Avoid duplicating existing programs or projects,
● Identify new opportunities and resources for the team and
● Learn from others’ experiences in order to be more effective.
●
While networking may support your efforts to recruit long-term team members,
you should also connect with people and organizations who might not want
or need to be ongoing team members. These people and organizations could
be crucial partners for one-time projects. Developing a strong, broad-based
network of support can help your team survive transitions in staff, school
leadership and programs that school districts often experience.
As you begin to network with others, remember that people have different
reasons for supporting your efforts. As you develop strategies for approaching
potential partners, try to create “win–win” situations in which you both can
meet your goals. Remember that networking is not a one-time event. Team
members should get in the habit of constantly recruiting new partners to the
team. Toolkit Activity: Expand Network Opportunities, p. 4-27 will help you
identify and build on the connections that team members have in the school
community.
4-22
Back
Guide
Stage 4
TAKING ACTION
Step: Expand Network Opportunities
Examples
Representatives from the Mora Independent Schools Collaborative Action
Team in Mora, New Mexico, joined the “Sangre de Cristo Communities and
Schools Consortium.” This consortium is a group of ten small school districts
in rural New Mexico. Where these school districts once competed with each
other for resources, they now share information. They have received grants that
benefit the students in all ten communities.
The Ann Parish Collaborative Action Team in Los Lunas, New Mexico,
was concerned about the condition of roads that school buses traveled to pick
up elementary school students. They recruited a county commissioner to
become an active team member through face-to-face meetings with team
members who lived and worked in her district.
4-23
Back
Stage 5: REVIEWING AND REFINING
A
s a result of their hard work, the gardeners have created a healthy and
diverse, fruitful garden. They can now enjoy their harvest. At the same
time, they will reflect back on the season and ask themselves, “What
plants did particularly well?” and “What plants failed to thrive, despite our
efforts?” This reflection helps gardeners learn from their experiences and plan
for the next season, so that their garden grows more vibrant every year.
Definition and Background Information
Reviewing and Refining is the final stage of the Collaborative Action Team
process. At this point, your team has applied the core concepts of representative
membership, shared leadership and consensus decision making to build a cohesive team of diverse school community members. The team has made plans
necessary for taking concrete action to improve results for students and their
families. You should be seeing some results from the team’s work.
However, a Collaborative Action Team is a dynamic group of people that goes
through many changes and transitions over time. At times, the team will have
lots of momentum. Everyone will be energized, they’ll see the positive results of
their efforts, and consensus will come easily. At other times, progress may be
very slow, and team members may be frustrated or confused. These are natural
changes that occur in any collaborative team. The steps in Stage 5 help the
team stay on track, acknowledge milestones, celebrate successes and make
adjustments to evolve and grow stronger. The steps can be helpful at many
stages in the process, and can help link your team back to other steps and
activities that you might want to complete.
Steps in this Stage
Assess Team Effectiveness
● Celebrate Your Successes
● Increase Effectiveness and Impact
●
5-1
Back
Stage 5
REVIEWING AND REFINING
Guide
The first step, Assess Team Effectiveness, gives team members an opportunity
to provide feedback about the team’s communications, leadership, decision
making, etc. This process evaluation encourages team members to take ownership and responsibility for the team. Team members evaluate how well the
team is functioning and how it can improve in the future.
As you implement your team’s action plan, remember to Celebrate Your
Successes. Celebrating both short-term successes (we have a written action
plan!) and long-term successes (test scores went up because of our tutoring
program!) help maintain team momentum. Also remember to recognize the
contributions of individual team members. These enhance the success of the
team as a whole. Team members are more motivated to actively participate
when they know that the team recognizes and appreciates their help.
Finally, as your team continues to develop, re-evaluate periodically to Increase
Effectiveness and Impact. This may include identifying key areas your team
needs to revisit to continue functioning effectively and collaboratively. You
might, for instance, re-address building common understanding and determining communication ground rules. The team may also need to assess how it
integrates new members, partners and programs into the existing team. Finally,
the team should periodically assess itself in relation to the school community.
This helps ensure that the team continues to meet the changing needs of
students and their families.
5-2
Back
Guide
Stage 5
REVIEWING AND REFINING
Step: Assess Team Effectiveness
Stage 5: REVIEWING AND REFINING
Step: Assess Team Effectiveness
Definition
As your team continues to develop, it’s important to assess your progress
periodically. How well have you addressed the core concepts of representative
membership, shared leadership and consensus decision making? Regular
evaluation will help you document your team’s efforts over time. Your team can
use feedback about team building to make refinements or modifications for
continuous improvement. Such evaluations also provide an opportunity for
team members to share their opinions about how well the team is functioning.
Action Components
Gather feedback from team members about how well the team is functioning.
■ Use feedback from evaluations to adjust team policies and procedures.
■
Team-Building Components
Encourage shared leadership by asking team members to give feedback about
team effectiveness.
■ Use feedback to improve team practices and support the core concepts of
shared leadership, consensus decision making and representative membership.
■
Toolkit References
Toolkit Activity: Assess Team Effectiveness, p. 5-1
5-3
Back
Stage 5
REVIEWING AND REFINING
Step: Assess Team Effectiveness
Guide
Background Information
The purpose of many evaluations is to see how well you are achieving your
team’s mission and meeting team goals. The team has done this through other
activities along the way (see Toolkit Activities: Establish Evaluation Methods,
p. 4-13 and Report Progress and Review Responsibilities, p. 4-19). However, it’s
important to remember that the Collaborative Action Team process has two
major dimensions: team building and action planning. Many of the changes
that occur during collaboration are people-oriented rather than task-oriented.
People learn to see each other in new ways and work together differently than
they have in the past. If team members measured progress only on the goals in
the action plan, they would miss half of what makes a Collaborative Action
Team so unique.
This type of assessment, called process evaluation, does not focus on whether
goals have been achieved. It looks at how you have attempted to achieve team
goals. Process evaluation focuses on ongoing activities and provides feedback
you can use to refine or modify the process to develop an effective team. It also
gives team members an opportunity to have a voice in how the team conducts
business—an important tool to support shared leadership.
When gathering information about people’s attitudes toward an issue, these
strategies can help the evaluator get accurate and honest responses:
Check for understanding —Ensure that everyone understands the purpose
of the evaluation, the format of the questionnaire, how to record their
answers, etc. This helps ensure accuracy of responses.
● Use a representative sample —Make sure that members from each
representative group participate. One group’s perception of how the team
is functioning may differ significantly from another’s.
● Ask for anonymous responses —This will encourage people to provide
more honest and open answers, since specific responses can’t be tracked back
to individual team members.
● Use the feedback —Let team members know how their feedback will be
used and follow through on the responses you obtain.
●
There’s no set rule for how often you should conduct evaluations. The timing
depends on what type of evaluation you’re conducting and the progress the
team is making. At a minimum, you should conduct an evaluation at the end
of the first year of your team’s work and once a year after that. However, you
may want to develop quicker, more informal evaluation methods to use more
frequently. Toolkit Activity: Assess Team Effectiveness, p. 5-1 provides a tool you
can use for a process evaluation of your team.
5-4
Back
Guide
Stage 5
REVIEWING AND REFINING
Step: Assess Team Effectiveness
A Note on Facilitation
Evaluation is a crucial area for your team facilitators’ leadership. While most
facilitators recognize the importance of honest evaluation from the team, it’s
also natural to be frustrated by negative feedback. It’s important to be open and
receptive to feedback from team members, while keeping conversations constructive and focused on improvement. If the team facilitators are defensive and
resist feedback, team members will feel “shut out” and shared leadership will be
weakened. It’s important for at least one person to take the role of neutral
facilitator during team discussions. Some tips for setting a positive tone for
evaluations follow:
Listen to feedback without trying to respond immediately. While you may
feel a need to correct misinformation right away, instant responses often come
across as defensive. Try not to take negative feedback too personally.
● Understand that people sometimes need to “vent.” Many team members
may have been excluded from decision making in the past. They may need
to vent frustrations before they’re ready to move on. Your validation of their
concerns is an important first step. It can be as simple as using phrases like
the following:
—I can see how concerned you are about this.
—I’m glad you let us know how you feel.
—Getting this out in the open is the first step toward improvement.
—Thanks for your honesty.
● Redirect the group if the evaluation simply becomes a “gripe” session. Use
phrases like the following:
—How can we ensure that we do better in the future?
—What can we learn from this? What could we have done differently?
—How does this relate to our mission and goals?
—What do we want to accomplish or change as a result of this information?
● Ensure that everyone has an opportunity to speak. Avoid letting one
perspective dominate the conversation. In most cases, a wide variety of
opinions will exist. It’s important to get a balanced perspective on the issue.
●
Leadership from the facilitators can ensure that a team moves forward as a
result of an evaluation. When handled positively, evaluation reinforces shared
leadership.
5-5
Back
Stage 5
REVIEWING AND REFINING
Step: Assess Team Effectiveness
Guide
Example
At the end of their first year, the Dollarway Collaborative Action Team in
Pine Bluff, Arkansas, conducted a self-assessment to see how members
thought the team was progressing. The assessment results led to a very productive discussion in which the team recognized the need for stronger leadership.
Based on the results of this discussion, the team requested and received additional leadership training. Team members also saw a need to get more input
from the overall school community. They organized a district-wide community forum on school issues, under the leadership of the district superintendent.
5-6
Back
Guide
Stage 5
REVIEWING AND REFINING
Step: Celebrate Your Successes
Stage 5: REVIEWING AND REFINING
Step: Celebrate Your Successes
Definition
Collaborative Action Teams need to celebrate their successes and to recognize
individual members’ contributions of time, talents and resources. Celebrating
successes and recognizing contributions helps a team develop a sense of accomplishment, sustain members’ involvement and energy, and envision the team’s
next actions.
Action Components
Identify and recognize individual contributions to your team’s development
and to the implementation of your action plan.
■ Celebrate your team’s achievements, preferably in a public way that recognizes all involved, including nonmembers.
■
Team-Building Component
■
Make all members feel part of the team. Sustain involvement and build
momentum at the personal and team level by recognizing individual
contributions.
Toolkit Reference
Toolkit Activity: Celebrate Your Successes, p. 5-5
5-7
Back
Stage 5
REVIEWING AND REFINING
Step: Celebrate Your Successes
Guide
Background Information
Group and individual commitments are the cornerstones of a strong, effective,
sustainable team. As you continue to implement your team’s action plan, you
should recognize the team’s success and individual members’ contributions.
Celebrating all types of successes—large and small, team building and
action planning—is key to maintaining momentum at both the personal
and team level.
We’re all familiar with the expression, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” However,
many of us want to make changes and get meaningful results quickly. That’s
usually unrealistic because change is a process, not an event. Therefore, evidence
that your Collaborative Action Team is impacting students and their families
in lasting, positive ways can take a while to obtain. Sometimes it’s difficult for
team members to see the differences their efforts make. Celebrating individual
and team successes throughout the process encourages everyone to keep going.
It makes people feel valued, respected, supported and appreciated. Ignoring
individual contributions can slow down the team’s momentum. Toolkit
Activity: Celebrate Your Successes, p. 5-5, provides an opportunity to recognize
the successes your team has had.
There are many ways to recognize people for their contributions and let them
know they’re appreciated. Every individual should take time on their own to
give feedback to others about their work and their contributions to the team.
However, the team should also plan an activity to provide an opportunity for
team members to do this if they haven’t yet (see Toolkit Activity: Recognize
Member Contributions, p. 4-23). The team could give some type of a reward
to team members for their hard work. Let people know their efforts are
appreciated!
It’s also important to remember the contributions of those who aren’t active
team members but have contributed to the team’s efforts. These people should
be recognized publicly in some way. The team should also celebrate successes in
a public way that shows pride in what the team has achieved and appreciation
for all involved.
5-8
Back
Guide
Stage 5
REVIEWING AND REFINING
Step: Celebrate Your Successes
Some ideas for celebrating successes and recognizing contributions follow:
Writing an article for local and/or national newsletters, newspapers or
magazines telling the story of your Collaborative Action Team and the
team’s success. Mention everyone who has helped.
● Using different media, like marquees, newsletters and display boards, to tell
the team’s story to community organizations.
● Having a celebration event where all who have contributed are invited and
recognized.
● Organizing an open, visible, celebration event that will attract other people to
hear of the team’s successes (this could also be a recruitment opportunity).
● Other creative ideas that display the team’s success and tell the team’s story:
i.e., T-shirts, certificates or plaques, painting a mural in a school or
community organization.
●
Example
The Collaborative Action Team at Barbara Jordan Elementary in New
Orleans, Louisiana, organized a health fair on the school campus at the end
of the school year. The health fair brought the neighborhood together to celebrate the strengths of their community and to enjoy fun activities for the entire
family. Participants received health screenings and information from local
service providers. The team recognized the contributions of individual team
members in organizing the event at the beginning of their next team meeting.
Everyone was given the opportunity to reflect and publicly thank each other
for the role each person played in planning a successful event.
5-9
Back
Guide
Stage 5
REVIEWING AND REFINING
Step: Increase Effectiveness and Impact
Stage 5: REVIEWING AND REFINING
Step: Increase Effectiveness and Impact
Definition
At this point, your Collaborative Action Team is ready to make the changes
and transitions necessary to become more effective as a team and have a greater
impact in your school community. You may need to make adjustments in such
areas as representative membership, action planning and team organization
to ensure that your team can continue to meet the changing needs of team
members and the school community. It’s also time for the team to think and
make decisions about the future.
Action Components
Gather updated data about your school community, similar to the baseline
data gathered in Stage 1. Find out what major changes and issues face your
school community—now and within the next five years.
■ Determine adjustments that you need to make to increase your team’s
effectiveness and impact.
■ Discuss important issues about the long-term sustainability and impact of
your team.
■
Team-Building Components
Build a more effective, stronger team by adjusting membership, team
organization, shared leadership and your action plan to meet the school
community’s changing needs.
■ Maintain involvement and enthusiasm as you consider the team’s past and
future impact on your school community.
■
Toolkit Reference
Toolkit Activity: Increase Effectiveness and Impact, p. 5-9
5-11
Back
Stage 5
REVIEWING AND REFINING
Step: Increase Effectiveness and Impact
Guide
Background Information
At this point in the Collaborative Action Team process, you’ve looked back on
your achievements and celebrated individual and team successes. You’ve also
evaluated projects, assessed team effectiveness and reflected on what you’ve
learned so far. You’re now ready to consider what changes your team may need
to make to increase your future effectiveness and impact.
Although the experience of working collaboratively has been rewarding, getting
through the process has probably taken lots of work! It may have taken more
work than you’d expected. Your team has probably gone through internal ups
and downs in many areas, such as membership or the pace of accomplishment.
It’s likely that your school community has also experienced changes, such as
turnover in school administration or school district rezoning. Maybe a major
business or industry has moved into or out of the school community. Your
school community continues to face pressing issues, some of which are
probably different from when the team first started.
To be successful in the long run, a Collaborative Action Team must adjust
to changing needs and environments. The entire Collaborative Action Team
process is designed to be flexible and to accommodate these changes along the
way. However, this last activity specifically helps teams evaluate these changes
and make the transitions needed to continue collaborating with a new sense
of direction. In a way, your team will now loop back to the beginning of the
Collaborative Action Team process and go through it again. You won’t need to
repeat every activity in the same way as before. Now, you have enough understanding, experience and information to customize the process to meet your
team’s needs. This helps you continue working toward improved results for
students and their families.
To understand what transitions your team must make, you need to evaluate
the team’s process and outcomes. You’ve already done this through project
evaluations and your team effectiveness assessment. You must also gather
new information about your school community to learn what changes have
occurred and what issues you’ll face within the next five years. The data you
gather should be similar to the baseline data collected in the Toolkit Activity:
Examine Your School Community, p. 1-13.
5-12
Back
Guide
Stage 5
REVIEWING AND REFINING
Step: Increase Effectiveness and Impact
Some of the topics you should gather updated information about follow:
Student data
● Number and type of agencies that serve students and their families
● Businesses represented in your school community
● Issues, needs
● Demographics
● Key political and economic players
●
Once you have new information, your team should re-evaluate the eight factors
that impact team development discussed during Stage 1. Take a look at the
chart, “Factors That Could Impact Our Team’s Development,” Toolkit Activity:
Examine Your School Community, p. 1-13. Were you concerned about factors
that are no longer an issue? Do any new factors offer promise or present difficulties? What do you need to do to reduce the negative impact and increase the
positive impact these factors have on the team’s work?
Based on changes in the school community and on your process and outcome
evaluations, representative membership, team organization, shared leadership and action planning, your team should consider at least four important
transition areas.
Are there new gaps in team membership? Are there new businesses and
community organizations you should inform about your Collaborative Action
Team or invite to join the team? Is there a growing ethnic population from
which you need a team representative? Have you lost members that you need
to replace? For example, keeping student members requires constant attention
because students graduate and often leave their communities.
You may need to make transitions in your team’s organization and operations.
The team should review the decisions made about organizational and logistical
aspects during Stage 1 in the Toolkit Activity: Plan the First Steps, p. 1-17. This
is also a good time to review how shared leadership is being implemented.
You’ll want to ensure that new members are being incorporated into the team
and that responsibilities and leadership roles are being shared. Take a fresh look
at the process your team developed during the Stage 2 Toolkit Activity: Share
Leadership Responsibilities, p. 2-29. This will help you determine whether your
current process is still the most effective way to encourage shared leadership.
5-13
Back
Stage 5
REVIEWING AND REFINING
Step: Increase Effectiveness and Impact
Guide
Finally, you’ll need to review your action plan—vision, mission, priority issues,
goals, strategies and tasks—based on new data about the issues facing your
school community. You may also need to incorporate new members’ ideas.
They may not have been there for the first round of action planning. Maybe
your team vision is still right on target, but there are probably other issues and
goals you now want to address.
Looking into the Future
After your team has decided how to make these transitions, it’s ready to use
the Collaborative Action Team process to develop a stronger team and a more
effective action plan. However, you need to consider some other issues that
affect the team’s sustainability and long-term impact.
Scaling Up
Scaling up will increase the probability that your team will have more impact
in the long run. You can scale up your team’s work and level of impact several
ways. Most of these ways recognize that teams achieve impact through
“systemic” change. Systemic changes affect an entire system or organization.
Working systemically can mean any and all of the following things:
Working with the entire school system and school community to
effect change
● Working with every school in a system
● Working with every aspect of the school system
● Fundamentally changing the system
●
In the case of a Collaborative Action Team, systemic change refers to reform
of the school system and the community for the benefit of students and their
families.1
One way of “scaling up” is to go from focusing on simple, “feel good” activities
to tackling more complex, challenging issues that lead to real change for
students and their families. Many Collaborative Action Teams tend to work
on obvious issues that seem urgent to the school community and ignore the
underlying issues most important for real change. Are the outcomes of your
work as beneficial as they could be? Sometimes the solutions to the most
obvious issues don’t work. They might improve the situation in the short term
but not necessarily in the long term. Sometimes they can actually make things
worse later on! “Systems thinking”—or thinking deeply about the “big
picture”—encourages small, well-focused actions that can produce significant,
1
5-14
Holzman, M. “What is Systemic Change?” Educational Leadership, September 1993, p. 18.
Back
Guide
Stage 5
REVIEWING AND REFINING
Step: Increase Effectiveness and Impact
enduring results. This happens when the team understands which small
changes would lead to more lasting and substantial improvements. It’s important to see underlying “causes” rather than “symptoms” and to think in terms
of “processes of change” rather than “snapshots of change.”
Another way of scaling up is to expand to other schools within your district, or
even to include the entire school district. You might include neighboring school
districts or even other school communities in the region. Another option is to
help form new Collaborative Action Teams in other locations. In this case, your
team can share the process and train the organizers of new teams. The teams
can become a network of Collaborative Action Teams that work toward the
same purpose—improving results for students and their families.
Finally, a Collaborative Action Team may scale up by introducing the process
and core concepts to decision-making groups and organizations in the school
community. These might include school improvement councils, public commissions and even school boards and city councils. These are the traditional
key players in the politics and policy making of your schools and community.
Although they’re not likely to become Collaborative Action Teams, their policies
and practices become much more democratic and effective when they operate
with a collaborative frame of mind. One way of doing this is to make a greater
effort to include members of these decision-making groups on your team.
Funding
It’s also important to explore how your team will sustain itself financially for
long-term impact. You should work as much as possible with existing resources
in your district or community to build your team’s capacity to support itself.
Outside grants and other direct funding can provide a boost, but they bring
some risks. Such funding can become the motivator and guide the team’s
decisions. There’s also risk that some team members will participate just for the
money that might flow to their organization or school. When you accept a
grant, your program accepts the funders’ requirements, which may limit some
of your team’s choices.
One way to get financial support without relying too heavily on grants or
direct funding is to identify in-kind contributions that the team can use. These
might include staff time, food, services, training materials, office space and
other needs. Some Collaborative Action Teams have developed partnerships
with their school district’s community education office or parental involvement
program. Others have developed partnerships with service organizations, like
Communities in Schools, to provide staff time for team coordination and
logistics.
5-15
Back
Stage 5
REVIEWING AND REFINING
Step: Increase Effectiveness and Impact
Guide
Another approach is to bring potential funders into the partnership. Many
community organizations—local United Ways, chambers of commerce and
corporate foundations—contribute actively and creatively when they’re “at
the table” of a collaborative partnership. Most are more inclined to support a
partnership if they’re regarded as sources of time, talent and energy rather than
just sources of money.
Institutional Structure
Your team will also need to consider issues of institutionalization, structure and
staffing. The question is whether and how the team should establish itself as a
permanent entity. The current informal structure of people coming together to
represent the interests of many sectors of the school community may work
for a while. However, some argue that for long-term sustainability and to gain
respect and authority from the broader community, a team must have more
structure. In addition, the team may need to seek designation as a legal entity
to obtain external funds.
One way to institutionalize is to conduct operations under the auspices of
school districts, city, county or state governing bodies. This approach has
advantages and disadvantages. It establishes legal authority, public credibility
and support of the governing administration. However, the politics of governing bodies can consume your team’s energy and divert your goals.
Another option is to create a completely new legal entity—a public-private
intermediary or a nonprofit organization. A new entity has the advantage of
beginning with a new mission independent from existing special interests.
The disadvantages involve the administrative difficulty of starting any new
organization.
Networking
A final issue your team should consider is networking. Networking with other
organizations and collaborative groups in the school community can greatly
increase your team’s impact and sustainability. A Collaborative Action Team
can also network beyond the school community by joining associations,
making presentations at conferences or designing a website to share the team’s
work. Find out what associations are interested in topics relevant to your
Collaborative Action Team. Such topics might include collaboration, school
community improvement, community organizing, parental and community
involvement in schools, community education and partnership development.
Some examples of networking associations are Partners in Education and the
National Center for Community Education. For more information about
these organizations access their web sites:
http://www.napehq.org
http://www.nccenet.org
5-16
Back
Guide
Stage 5
REVIEWING AND REFINING
Step: Increase Effectiveness and Impact
There are no clear-cut formulas for sustaining a Collaborative Action Team and
increasing the team’s impact. Your team will sustain itself with insights from
your own experience and the networks you’ve established to share experiences
with other similar groups. The Toolkit Activity: Increase Effectiveness and Impact,
p. 5-9 will guide your team through a process that helps you consider your
next steps.
Examples
The Highland High School Cluster Collaborative Action Team in
Albuquerque, New Mexico, has been operating since 1991. In 1999, an
administrative transition occurred in the Albuquerque Public Schools. Several
of the school administrators and other staff who had been heavily involved in
the team were no longer there. Initially, the team experienced a loss of direction. However, team members realized that they could use this opportunity to
re-evaluate what they had done so far and find new direction for the team.
They proceeded to recruit new members and revisited the team’s vision, mission and goals. Then team members approached the new administration and
secured support for their vision and goals. The team reorganized itself and
learned that broad-based membership and leadership can sustain a team in
the midst of external changes.
The Collaborative Action Team at Del Valle High School in Del Valle,
Texas, started as part of a grant initiative to increase parental involvement and
student achievement. As the grant came to an end, the team began to think
about how it would sustain itself without continued funding. One of the
member organizations, Communities in Schools, was approached to coordinate the Collaborative Action Team. (Communities in Schools places social
workers in schools to link community services with students in need.) An
agreement was reached that allowed CIS staff and school resources (paper,
copier, phones, office space, computers) to be used. This helped sustain the
team’s work.
5-17
Back
Appendix A
Working in Youth–Adult Partnerships
As equal partners on the Collaborative Action Team, students are a key to team success. Having students on a team
helps keep adults motivated and accountable. It also helps the team develop projects and programs that really meet the
needs of young people in the school community. However, involving students as equal partners on your
Collaborative Action Team requires a shift in thinking for many adults and many young people. The National
Assembly of National Voluntary Health and Social Welfare Organizations lists ten tips for collaborating with students:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Share the responsibility for leadership. Provide guidance, but avoid total control.
Listen carefully to students and try to understand their perspective.
Provide meaningful roles and assignments for students.
Share all work activities, even the tedious ones.
Treat young people as equals and develop a partnership relationship.
Keep students informed about activities, even when problems occur.
Be energetic and excited about activities. Have a positive, open attitude.
Make activities fun and challenging.
Be clear about levels of authority for students and back their decisions when they
fall within the agreed-upon guidelines.
10. Serve as role models and be consistent and fair in your actions.
The following organizations can provide free or low-cost resources about youth–adult partnerships:
Youth on Board
58 Day Street, 3rd floor
P.O. Box 440322
Somerville, MA 02144
(p) 617-623-9900
(f) 617-623-4359
www.youthonboard.org
National Youth Leadership Council
1910 West County Road B
St. Paul, MN 55113
(p) 651-631-3672
(f) 651-631-2955
www.nylc.org
Youth Service America
1101 15th St. Suite 200
Washington, DC 20005
(p) 202-296-2992
(f) 202-296-4030
www.servenet.org
Corporation for National Service
Learn and Serve
1201 New York Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20525
(p) 202-606-5000
www.nationalservice.org
A-1
Back
Appendix B
Engaging Business in Collaboration
Businesses in your school community can bring important perspectives and resources to your team. Business representatives can be anyone from the corner grocer to the community liaison of a major corporation. These representatives
can help your team become more aware of the skills employers look for in graduates of your schools. They can also
keep you informed about work opportunities in your community. Business representatives can offer other resources
as well:
People, including executives and employees at all levels
● Credibility
● Independence of action and the ability to act quickly
● Results orientation, to keep efforts focused on getting the job done
● Political clout
● Steadiness of purpose
● Tangible resources, including staff, communications equipment,
meetings facilities, money and management expertise
●
(Source: The National Assembly of National Voluntary Health and Social Welfare Organizations)
The following organizations can provide free or low-cost resources about school–business collaborations:
National Association of Partners in Education
901 North Pitt Street, Suite 320
Alexandria, VA 22314
(p) 703-836-4880
(f) 703-836-6941
www.napehq.org
Business Coalition for Education Reform
c/o National Alliance of Business
1201 New York Ave., NW
Suite 700
Washington, DC 20005-3917
(p) 800-787-2848
(f) 202-289-2875
www.bcer.org
National School-to-Work Learning and Information Center
400 Virginia Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20024
(p) 800-251-7236
(f) 202-488-7395
www.stw.ed.gov
A-2
Back
Appendix C
Working with the Media
The local newspapers, TV stations and radio stations in your school community can be powerful partners to ensure
your team’s success. A good media strategy helps a team recruit new members, publicize the team’s successes and raise
public awareness about school community issues.
One strategy for developing a relationship with the media is to invite members of the local press to become team
members. If no local reporters are on your team, you can still learn to work effectively with the media. At least a few
team members should be able to:
Develop strategies for getting media attention for the team’s activities.
● Learn how to write news releases.
● Learn how to contact reporters and develop working relationships with them.
●
The following organizations provide free or low-cost resources for learning how to work effectively with the media:
National School Public
Relations Association
15948 Derwood Rd.
Rockville, MD 20855
(p) 301-519-0496
(f) 301-519-0494
www.nspra.org
Center for Community Change
1000 Wisconsin Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20007
(p) 202-342-0567
Publication: “How to Tell and Sell Your Story”
Media Alliance
814 Mission Street, #205
San Francisco, CA 94103
(p) 415-546-6334
(f) 415-546-6218
www.media-alliance.org
Community Media Workshop
c/o Columbia College
600 S. Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60605-1996
(p) 312-344-6400
(f) 312-344-6404
www.newstips.org
A-3
Back
Appendix D
Conducting Effective Meetings
Meetings play an essential part in the development of a
Collaborative Action Team. The material in this appendix is designed to help Collaborative Action Teams run
more effective meetings. Regular meetings provide a
time for members to:
Tips on Planning Collaborative
Action Team Meetings
Communicate with each other,
● Identify and prioritize issues, challenges and
opportunities and
● Make action plans to address school
community needs.
Forming Meeting Goals
●
This appendix provides practical suggestions for planning, conducting and evaluating meetings.
Effective Collaborative
Action Team Meetings
Have you ever attended meetings that had no clearly
defined agenda? Such a meeting tends to drag on forever,
ramble from topic to topic and end without any clear
direction or result. Most of us have attended such
meetings. They can be very frustrating and a huge
waste of time.
Collaborative Action Teams that have well-run meetings
tend to build their teams and take action more effectively. Well-run meetings equip teams to achieve their goals.
This produces the following results:
Advance preparation is the first and most important step
for effective team meetings. The more you prepare for a
meeting, the smoother the meeting will be.
Any Collaborative Action Team meeting should balance
team building with an action focus. A first step is to prepare specific written goals for the meeting. In describing
meeting goals, answer the question: What outcome do
we want from this meeting? Effective meeting goals use
action verbs, such as decide, determine, create, complete
and produce. Some examples of meeting goals follow:
Form recommendations for action, based on the parent survey results.
● Create an action plan for the next phase of the parent
training effort.
● Decide how to best involve students at the
next meeting.
● Complete a list of strategies for building a family
resource center.
Meeting goals like these leave little doubt in team members’ minds about why they’re attending the meeting and
what they need to do during it.
●
Assigning Roles
Increased trust and familiarity among
team members
● The exchange of useful information
● Identification of key issues in the
school community
● Creative strategies to achieve results
● The establishment of accountability for roles and
responsibilities
● Effective action
●
A-4
Next, assign roles to Collaborative Action Team members. Remember to promote shared leadership and
responsibility for all team activities, including team
meetings. (See Toolkit Activities: Share Leadership
Responsibilities, p. 2-29 and Take on Leadership Roles,
p. 2-33.) Assigned roles help structure the meeting and
allow everyone to focus on fulfilling meeting goals in
the allotted time.
You should think about a number of things when
assigning members to roles. Before you send out an
agenda, always confirm that people assigned a role in
that agenda will be at the meeting and prepared to fill
Back
Guide
that role. It’s unreasonable to request that someone fill
a role at the meeting right before the meeting starts.
Encourage Collaborative Action Team members to take
on new roles and responsibilities on a rotating basis as
your team develops and expands. You might do this by
rotating hosting duties among school, home, community and even student members. Asking different individuals from each of these areas to host and lead a meeting
helps develop leadership and creativity within the team.
It also prevents individuals from “burning out” after
doing the same thing month after month. Finally, ask
individuals to fill meeting roles well in advance of the
meeting so they can prepare effectively.
Making Meeting Arrangements
Another step in meeting preparation is handling meeting
arrangements. Taking care of little details ahead of time
greatly enhances Collaborative Action Team meetings.
Logistical arrangements include the following:
Setting the meeting place, date and time, and
notifying all members
● Distributing materials team members need to fulfill
their roles and responsibilities
● Setting up the meeting room and seating arrangements
● Ensuring that air conditioning, heat, microphones and
lights work
● Locating the rest rooms
● Bringing audiovisual equipment and supplies
(flipchart, overhead projector and screen, etc.) and
ensuring that someone knows how to use them
● Ordering and picking up refreshments and asking
someone to serve them
●
In addition, you need to consider a number of human
factors. Someone must follow up with team members
absent from the last meeting and tell them what happened. This can be done by phone, mail, email or fax,
or in small group meetings between team meetings.
Someone needs to make reminder phone calls between
meetings to ensure a balanced representation of school,
home, community and student members at each meeting. If, for example, no parents attended the last meeting,
one or more members who did should urge those parents
to come to the next one. It’s also important to build a
Appendix D ● CONDUCTING EFFECTIVE MEETINGS
way to orient new members and bring them up to speed
on team meeting procedures. Collaborative Action
Teams must also be sensitive to team members with
special needs, such as language translation, wheelchair
access, signing for hearing-impaired participants, etc.
Preparing Written Agendas
Finally, prepare and provide a written agenda to all team
members. An agenda should tell team members what
the meeting is about, what the team needs to accomplish
and the order and time allocated for each item. The
agenda should also list the person or persons responsible
for an agenda item. This encourages shared leadership of
meeting roles. An agenda should address six points:
1. Identify the meeting goals. They should answer
specifically what team members need to accomplish
at the meeting.
2. Limit the agenda to the number of items you can
easily cover during the allotted time. A reasonable
limit is three items requiring action, along with a few
informational items that don’t. If you have a large
number of informational items that will require a lot
of time, aim for fewer than three items that require
action. List the most important action item first, so
you can discuss it when team members’ interest and
energy levels are highest.
3. Assign the roles for the meeting. Ask separate individuals to conduct the icebreaker, record minutes,
lead discussion topics, summarize key ideas and
conduct the meeting evaluation.
4. Keep the agenda short and action oriented. The
entire meeting should last about 60 to 90 minutes,
if properly planned and scheduled.
5. List the estimated time required next to each
agenda item.
6. Prepare and circulate the agenda at least one week
before the meeting. Having this information ahead
of time is especially important for those responsible
for conducting the meeting and those with a role on
the agenda.
You will find a suggested meeting agenda in Toolkit
Activity: Plan the First Steps, p. 1-17. You can copy it or
adapt it and use it for your meetings.
A-5
Back
Guide
Appendix D ● CONDUCTING EFFECTIVE MEETINGS
Tips on Conducting Collaborative
Action Team Meetings
Now that you’ve completed all the preparations for a
successful meeting, it’s time to actually conduct the
meeting. Here are a number of tips on doing so:
Set a time limit and stick to it. Whatever time is
agreed to, be sure to start and end on time. It’s unfair
to those who show up on time to begin late, and it
reinforces the behavior of latecomers. It’s important to
end the meeting on time as well. Team members have
busy schedules and usually have other commitments
to meet.
● Follow the agenda and monitor the time. It’s not
helpful to assign time limits to agenda items if you
don’t follow them. Assign a team member to monitor
the time allocated for each agenda item. Keep in mind,
however, that sometimes it’s necessary to allow extra
time to discuss key items or to make important decisions before a meeting ends. On such occasions, you
can exceed preset time limits if your team reaches a
consensus to do so.
● Demonstrate shared leadership. Every team member
has different talents, knowledge and experiences. Tap
into these abilities by asking individuals to take on
roles and responsibilities for which they are uniquely
equipped between meetings and at future meetings.
● Focus on one issue at a time. Avoid side conversations that disrupt the speaker and annoy everyone
who’s trying to concentrate on the speaker’s message.
Only one person should speak at a time.
● Encourage active involvement. Actively involve all
members in discussions. Each Collaborative Action
Team member has something to contribute. Use
brainstorming to get everyone involved. Ask for input
and ideas especially from those who are quiet and
hesitant to speak. They may just need someone to
ask for their opinion.
● Reinforce group decision making. Always reinforce
the consensus decision-making process recommended
in the Collaborative Action Team process.
● Value diverse perspectives. Diverse opinions are valuable. Don’t immediately veto unusual suggestions. Be
sure you understand what the person is saying. Take
time to study and investigate the validity of each idea.
Such suggestions often offer something useful for
the future.
● Recognize and move beyond conflict. Conflict is
bound to surface during some meetings. When it
●
A-6
occurs, deal with it right away. Conflict should be
managed in ways that change attitudes and behaviors.
An open approach to conflict resolution can facilitate
learning. If handled constructively, differences of
opinion can improve team effectiveness and increase
understanding and commitment.
● Record and document meetings. Always have a signin sheet at the door. Assign one person to take minutes
and distribute copies to members. This is also a good
way to communicate what happened at the meeting to
those unable to attend.
● Summarize key decisions and actions. The facilitator
should close the meeting by clarifying with team members their understanding of what occurred. Include all
key decisions in the meeting minutes.
● Identify items for next meeting agenda. At the end
of the meeting, identify important items for your next
team meeting. Also identify the individual responsible
for each agenda item. This ensures that everyone
knows who will be doing what and assigns responsibility to individuals for completing actions by the next
meeting.
Tips on Evaluating Collaborative
Action Team Meetings
Your team should view evaluation as constructive
feedback to increase the effectiveness of team meetings.
An important part of every meeting is to ask team
members for feedback and suggestions for improvement.
Evaluation offers another way to share leadership by
sharing responsibility.
When evaluating meetings, use the KISS principle:
“Keep It Straightforward and Simple.” One way to
obtain feedback any time during a meeting or at its end
is to ask team members to draw a picture. Have them
draw either a smiling face or frowning face to show how
they felt the meeting was run—effectively or ineffectively—and leave it at a designated place. If team members
have established a high level of trust, you can also ask for
verbal feedback on specific questions about the meeting.
A more formal method for evaluating meetings is to use
evaluation forms. Such forms often provide more
detailed insights. Two sample evaluation forms can be
found in Toolkit Activity: Plan the First Steps, p. 1-17.
You can copy either one and distribute it to team
members at the end of the meeting.
Back
Guide
Appendix D ● COLLABORATIVE ACTION TEAM PROJECT SITES
Appendix E
Collaborative Action Team Project Sites
These materials were developed and refined in partnership with schools and school districts throughout the Southwest.
We appreciate their participation and commitment to the Collaborative Action Team project. The first five
Collaborative Action Teams were established in 1995–1996. They are:
L. R. Jackson Elementary School (West Memphis, Arkansas)
Established August 14, 1996, the L. R. Jackson Elementary Collaborative Action Team was located in West Memphis,
on the border of Arkansas and Tennessee.
P.G.T. Beauregard Middle School (St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana)
Established October 19, 1996, the P.G.T. Beauregard Middle School Collaborative Action Team is located in St.
Bernard Parish, a rural area along the Mississippi River. St. Bernard Parish is about 20 miles south of New Orleans,
Louisiana. The school is in the St. Bernard Parish School District and serves grades 6–8. About 88% of students at
P.G.T. Beauregard Middle School receive free or reduced lunch.
Rio Grande Cluster Human Services Collaborative (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Established September 5, 1996, the Rio Grande Cluster is in the south valley of Albuquerque, New Mexico, along the
Rio Grande River. The Rio Grande Cluster Collaborative Action Team includes 12 schools: Rio Grande High School,
4 middle schools and 7 elementary schools. About 76% of students receive free or reduced lunch.
Jackson Middle School (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)
Established October 4, 1996, the Jackson Middle School Collaborative Action Team is in South Central Oklahoma
City. The school is in the Oklahoma City School District and serves grades 6–8. One hundred percent of the students
receive either free or reduced lunch.
Fabens Independent School District (Fabens, Texas)
Established September 11, 1996, the Fabens Collaborative Action Team is in a rural community close to the
U.S.–Mexico border, about 30 miles east of El Paso, Texas. The team serves all 5 schools in the Fabens Independent
School District: Fabens High School, 1 middle school, 2 elementary and 1 pre-school. About 95% of students receive
free or reduced lunch.
Ten Collaborative Action Team Project Sites were established in 1998. They are:
Dollarway School District (Pine Bluff, Arkansas)
Established September 16, 1998, the Dollarway School District Collaborative Action Team is on the western edge of
Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The school district is one of four in Pine Bluff, about 50 miles south of Little Rock. Dollarway
School District Collaborative Action Team serves 5 schools: Dollarway High School, 1 junior high and 3 elementary
schools. About 66% of students in the Dollarway School District receive free or reduced lunch.
A-7
Back
Appendix E ● COLLABORATIVE ACTION TEAM PROJECT SITES
Guide
Barbara Jordan Elementary School (New Orleans, Louisiana)
Established August 17, 1998, the Barbara Jordan Elementary Collaborative Action Team is in an industrialized area of
east New Orleans, Louisiana and is part of the New Orleans School District. Barbara Jordan Elementary Collaborative
Action Team serves grades K–5. One hundred percent of students at Barbara Jordan Elementary are African American
and receive free or reduced lunch.
Albuquerque High School Cluster (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Established October 29, 1998, the Albuquerque High School Cluster Collaborative Action Team is located in South
Central Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Albuquerque High School Cluster consists of 13 schools: Albuquerque High,
2 middle and 10 elementary schools. About 20% of the students in the Albuquerque High School Cluster receive free
or reduced lunch.
Highland High School Cluster (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Established October 29, 1998, the Highland High School Cluster Collaborative Action Team is in the southeastern
part of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Highland High School Cluster includes 11 schools: Highland High, 2 middle
and 8 elementary schools. About 62% of students receive free or reduced lunch.
Ann Parish Elementary School (Los Lunas, New Mexico)
Established October 21, 1998, the East Mesa Collaborative Action Team is in a rural community experiencing rapid
growth 30 miles west of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Ann Parish Elementary serves colonia populations in unincorporated areas. Ann Parish Elementary serves grades PK–5. One hundred percent of students receive free or reduced
lunch.
Mora Independent Schools (Mora, New Mexico)
Established November 14, 1998, the Mora Collaborative Action Team is in a rural mountainous valley about 50 miles
north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Mora Independent School District consists of 4 schools: Mora High School, 1
middle school and 2 elementary schools. About 89% of students received free or reduced lunch.
Ponca City East Middle School (Ponca City, Oklahoma)
Established September 12, 1998, the Ponca City East Middle School Collaborative Action Team is in a small city in
rural North Central Oklahoma. The school community includes members of a nearby Indian Nation. Ponca City East
Middle School serves grade 8. About 44% of student receive free or reduced lunch.
Balmorhea Independent School District (Balmorhea, Texas)
Established June 30, 1998, the Balmorhea Collaborative Action Team is in a small rural community in the TransPecos border region of West Texas. It is about 70 miles from Big Bend National Park. Balmorhea has one school that
serves grades K–12. About 71 % of students receive free or reduced lunch.
Del Valle High School (Del Valle, Texas)
Established October 3, 1998, the Del Valle High School Collaborative Action Team is east of Austin, Texas, close to
the new Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. It is part of the Del Valle Independent School District. Del Valle
High School serves grades 9–12. About 48% of students receive free or reduced lunch.
Rio Hondo Independent School District (Rio Hondo, Texas)
Established November 5, 1998, the Rio Hondo Collaborative Action Team is in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas,
along the U.S.–Mexico border. It is about 5 miles west of Harlingen, Texas. Rio Hondo ISD consists of 4 schools: Rio
Hondo High School, 1 middle school and 2 elementary schools. About 81% of students receive free or reduced lunch.
A-8
Back
Guide
Appendix E ● COLLABORATIVE ACTION TEAM PROJECT SITES
Eight Collaborative Action Team Project Sites were established in 1999. They are:
Little Rock School District (Little Rock, Arkansas)
Established September 23, 1999, the Little Rock School District Collaborative Action Team is an urban district located in Little Rock, in Central Arkansas. Little Rock School District serves 5 high schools, 8 junior high schools and 35
elementary schools. About 50 % of students receive free or reduced lunch.
Lee County School District (Marianna, Arkansas)
Established September 1, 1999, the Lee County School District Collaborative Action Team is located in an isolated
farming community in the delta region of East Arkansas. The district’s central office is located in Marianna, Arkansas.
Lee County serves 4 schools: Lee High School, 1 middle school and 2 elementary schools. About 89% of students
receive free or reduced lunch.
Marshall School District (Marshall, Arkansas)
Established August 17, 1999, the Marshall School District Collaborative Action Team is located in a rural area of the
Ozark Mountains in North Central Arkansas. Marshall serves 2 schools: Marshall Elementary (K–6) and Marshall
Junior–Senior High School (7–12). About 60% of students receive free or reduced lunch.
Polk Elementary School (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)
Established August 18, 1999, the Polk Elementary Collaborative Action Team is in an inner city urban school in
Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It belongs to the East Baton Rouge Parish District. Polk Elementary serves grades K–5.
About 98% of students receive free or reduced lunch.
Clayton Independent School District (Clayton, Oklahoma)
Established August 30, 1999, the Clayton Collaborative Action Team is in a rural community located in Pushmahata
County in a mountain valley in southeast Oklahoma. The school community includes members of a nearby Indian
Nation. Clayton serves 2 schools: Crain Elementary School (K–8) and Clayton High School (9–12). About 73% of
students receive free or reduced lunch.
Clinton Independent School District (Clinton, Oklahoma)
Established September 9, 1999, the Clinton Collaborative Action Team is located in the town of Clinton, an isolated
farming and ranching community in western Oklahoma. Clinton serves 5 schools: Clinton High School, 1 middle
school and 3 elementary schools. About 73% of students receive free or reduced lunch.
Geraldine Palmer Elementary/César Chávez Elementary (Pharr, Texas)
Established October 14, 1999, the Pharr Collaborative Action Team is in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas along
the U.S.–Mexico border. It is about 5 miles east of McAllen, Texas. Palmer Elementary serves grades K–5, and about
88% of its students receive free or reduced lunch. Chávez Elementary is a new school serving grades PK–6. About
89% of students its receive free or reduced lunch.
Terrell Independent School District (Terrell, Texas)
Established August 26, 1999, the Terrell Collaborative Action Team is in a rural town located in Kaufman County
about, 40 miles southeast of Dallas, Texas. Terrell ISD serves 7 schools: Terrell High School, 1 middle school, 4 elementary schools and 1 pre-school. About 51% of students receive free or reduced lunch.
A-9
Back
Appendix F
Issues in Collaborative Work: A Review of the Literature
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, June 1998
Introduction
Recognizing that “children’s problems are increasingly horizontal, but government is organized vertically, like the quills
on a porcupine” (Kirst, 1991, p. 617), those concerned with the well-being of children and families have sought ways
to overcome the compartmentalization and fragmentation that have characterized traditional delivery systems. The
result has been a great variety of approaches to collaborative work. Models, strategies, and pilot programs–accompanied by an abundant literature of opinion, guidelines, theory, survey and case study research, and anecdotal experience–have proliferated.
The labels for these efforts are diverse; they include “partnerships,” “service coordination,” “intergovernmental arrangements,” “collaboration,” “community mobilization,” and “school-linked services.” Within these terms are significant
variations in purpose, players involved and their roles, levels of shared resources and responsibilities, and approaches
used to plan and implement services and other activities.
The role of public education in these efforts also has varied considerably. Herrington (1996) notes that although collaborative arrangements have been on the increase since the 1960s, “schools have not been a major player in these new
sets of intergovernmental relations until recently” (p. 204). In some circles, schools are deliberately avoided. For example, Heath and McLaughlin (1996) note that “partnership with community organizations seldom extends to education” (p. 70), because “many individuals working in youth organizations find schools the ‘most difficult’ partner
among the many social agencies with which they have contact” (p. 85). In other instances, however, schools have
taken lead roles in establishing collaborative links (Kritek, 1996; Payzant, 1992).
This report attempts to sort through the diverse literature on collaborative work, with a focus on its links to educational settings. The report explores the purposes and contexts for partnerships, outlines the commonly described
dimensions of starting and maintaining collaboratives, and highlights major issues and barriers to effectiveness.
Addressing the needs of students
within a community context
Educators increasingly recognize the necessity to look beyond academics to help assure that students can succeed in
school. As Payzant (1992) observes, “The days are past when schools could concentrate simply on basic education and
leave a child’s social, physical, psychological, and economic needs to others” (p. 140). This trend toward focusing on
the “whole child” is based on the perception that, as Kirst and McLaughlin (1990) note, “It is the whole environment
that creates the conditions for an adult life of satisfaction and productivity” (p. 77). Most of the collaborative initiatives discussed in the literature have been targeted, in one way or another, to more holistic approaches to working with
children and families.
A-10
Back
Guide
Appendix F ● ISSUES
IN
COLLABORATIVE WORK: A REVIEW OF
THE
LITERATURE
Providing comprehensive services for children and families
A major aim of many collaborative initiatives is to address the full spectrum of assistance needs among students
and their families. Linking educational, health, and other services; coordinating programs so that families can access
needed supports through a single point of contact; and filling gaps in available services–these are the motivations for
a range of programs. A recent television documentary series highlighted a number of collaborative intervention
programs; a New York Times review of the series observed:
Underlying the best of these efforts–and many others the series doesn’t cover–are some common
principles. Most of the successful programs, for example, are comprehensive, or holistic; they don’t
regard vulnerable young people as bundles of isolated problems to be “treated” by social agencies.
Instead, the programs emphasize collaboration–among the schools, the justice and medical-care
systems, and families–and they work to tackle a variety of real-world problems, wherever they are
found. (Currie, 1998, p. AR37)
Programs seeking to move toward comprehensive services tend to rely heavily on cooperation and coordination among
the various public agencies and institutions that are mandated to provide specific services. Involvement by private
agencies, parents, and community representatives varies greatly.
Some authors are critical of approaches dominated by intergovernmental collaboration. Furman and Merz (1996), for
example, argue that the literature on interagency collaboration reflects “a bureaucratic approach to solving problems”
(p. 340). The authors note that, in this type of collaborative work, there is often talk about community empowerment
and about “a sense of personalization” in service provision. “Yet there is nothing built in to interagency collaboration
per se (which essentially consists of bureaucratic arrangements) to guarantee this focus” (p. 341). Stone and Wehlage
(1992) also warn that “the current widely discussed conception of collaboration, built around providing more and
better health and social services, runs the danger of responding primarily to the symptoms of people’s problems and is
inadequate in the long run” (p. 3). These and other authors argue that unless programs are able to address underlying
social, political, and economic issues, they cannot achieve long-term success.
Concern for community supports
Some collaborative efforts look beyond short-term service interventions to strategies for rebuilding “the social fabric
of families and communities” (Stone & Wehlage, 1992, p. 3). Many educators have joined in the widespread concern
about the erosion, in U.S. society, of community supports for children and their families. Melaville, Blank, and
Asayesh (1993) describe an ideal configuration for community supports, an ideal that is rarely matched in reality,
particularly in poor rural communities and inner-city neighborhoods:
In communities where learning can happen, children and families are surrounded by three interconnected rings of caring and support. Closest to the family is a circle of caring relationships–the
extended family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers who are their first source of support. . . The
second ring embracing the family is a wide, cushioning band of helping institutions. This ring contains schools, churches, community organizations, libraries, recreation centers, community colleges,
hospitals and health centers, and voluntary agencies. . . A third, much narrower, ring contains
specialized crisis-intervention and treatment services. (pp. 7-8)
The work of James Coleman has been perhaps the most influential in shaping the literature of concern for community
supports. Coleman (1987) describes “a change in the locus of dominant activities in society” from the household
and neighborhood to increasingly distant places (p. 32), and “a change in the locus of dependency” from private to
public sources (p. 33). Thus the “rings of caring and support” have weakened substantially. Less able to rely on caring
relationships and helping institutions, people turn increasingly to institutional services, which are poorly equipped
to respond.
A-11
Back
Appendix F ● ISSUES
IN
COLLABORATIVE WORK: A REVIEW OF
THE
LITERATURE
Guide
Coleman uses the term “social capital” to describe the infrastructure of family, neighborhood, and community
supports that offer children a sense of safety and belongingness and that provide behavioral norms and guidelines.
Much of the literature on collaboration addresses the concept of social capital, either explicitly or implicitly, reflecting
the conclusion of Hoffer and Coleman (1990) that:
The single most important problem that American society faces in its effort to educate children is
that young people become segregated from the structure of responsibilities and rewards of the productive adult society. As a result, children and adolescents face historically unprecedented challenges
in finding a sense of purpose in their schooling tasks and a sense of connection with adult roles of
authority and responsibility. The problem for policymakers is to find ways of overcoming the obstacles presented by the forces that have generated this segregation. (pp. 129-130)
Some researchers have begun to examine the concept of social capital in light of theories that seek to explain the ways
in which social processes and structures perpetuate institutionalized imbalances in power and opportunity. StantonSalazar (1997), for example, notes that the social capital framework described by Coleman and others “unfortunately
tends to neglect or deemphasize those forces that make the accumulation of social capital extremely problematic” for
certain groups, particularly working class minorities (p. 9).
Stanton-Salazar refines the concept of social capital by distinguishing between social networks that function as
“protective agents” for children, fostering a sense of safety, security, and belonging, and those that promote “school
success and social mobility” (p. 7). He describes protective agents in much the same terms that Coleman and others
use in describing networks that foster social capital. Networks that promote social mobility and success, in contrast,
are usually middle class and “function as pathways of privilege and power” (p. 4):
Whereas working-class community networks are organized on the basis of scarcity and conservation,
the cosmopolitan networks constructed by middle-class members are oriented toward maximizing
individual (and group) access to the mainstream marketplace, where institutional resources, privileges, and opportunities for leisure, recreation, career mobility, social advancement, and political
power are abundant. (p. 4)
Stanton-Salazar also discusses the ways in which such middle-class networks–and the institutional structures within
which they are set–operate to exclude or isolate working-class minorities, thereby reproducing current patterns of
social status and mobility, or what some authors describe as “the culture of power” (Delpit, 1995). He cites the
work of Phelan, et al. (1993), who describe sociocultural, socioeconomic, linguistic, and structural barriers that
“problematize. . . access to social capital and institutional resources” (p. 24).
Following this analysis to its logical conclusion, programs that seek to strengthen social capital not only must seek to
rebuild networks of neighborhood and community support to be effective in changing patterns of power and opportunity, they also must explore ways of broadening access to the “social freeways that allow people to move about the
complex mainstream landscape quickly and efficiently” (Stanton-Salazar, 1997, p. 4).
The growing literature on student resilience also fits social capital concepts. “Resilience” is described as “the ability of
individual children to adapt to and overcome factors that place them in jeopardy” (Lugg & Boyd, 1997, p. 98). Fine
and Schwebel (1991), who reviewed a number of studies focused on dimensions of resilience, note remarkable consistency among the findings, even though the studies “used different research methods, studied different populations,
and focused on different stressors.” These studies consistently found
that resilient children possess: (1) favorable personality characteristics (e.g., high self-esteem and self
control, an internal locus of control, positive mood, social responsiveness, and flexibility); (2) a supportive family milieu that encourages and facilitates coping efforts; and (3) a warm, supportive social
environment that encourages and reinforces coping attempts. (p. 23)
A-12
Back
Guide
Appendix F ● ISSUES
IN
COLLABORATIVE WORK: A REVIEW OF
THE
LITERATURE
A number of authors distinguish between collaborative strategies that are grounded in deficit perspectives and those
that seek to identify and build on the assets of individuals and communities (see, for example, Heckman, Scull, &
Conley, 1996; Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993; and Wolff, 1995b). White and Wehlage (1994) note that attention to
social capital requires an honest assessment of both strengths and weaknesses within communities. They issue a strong
warning against focusing exclusively on problems and deficits:
Recognizing the decline of families and other organizations that formerly served as community
cornerstones is essential to an honest treatment of issues. Of course, a danger in this analysis is
creating stereotypes around “deficits” and a “culture of poverty” that obscure the healthy and surviving aspects of the community. When this occurs, it gives permission to policy-makers to engage in
paternalism that serves neither the stated goals of policy makers themselves nor the interests of the
community. (p. 27)
Wolff (1995b), citing the work of Chavis and Florin, summarizes the major differences between what those authors
describe as “community based” as opposed to “community development” approaches. Though the labels are different,
the content also reflects the distinctions between intergovernmental arrangements focused on service interventions and
more inclusive, empowering approaches oriented to building social capital:
“The definition of a problem in a community based approach is made by agencies, government, and outside institutions, while in the community development approach the community defines the problem” (p. 2-17).
● “The primary vehicles for creating change in the community based approach are information, education and
improved services, whereas the community development approach involves building community control and
increasing community capacity” (p. 2-17).
● “In a community based approach, the professionals are the key and central decision makers, whereas in a
community development approach, the professionals are a resource to the community’s problem solving” (p. 2-17).
● “The primary decision makers in a community based model are the agency and government representatives and
other appointed leaders. In the community development model the key decisions are made by the indigenous,
informal and elected leaders from the community” (p. 2-17).
●
Working toward systemic change
A number of sources note the pervasiveness of institutional barriers to the kinds of structural changes that enable true
collaboration (Crowson & Boyd, 1996; Kirst, 1991; Mawhinney, 1996; Smylie, M.A., Crowson, R.L., Chou, V., &
Levin, R.A., 1996). There has been limited work toward promoting systemic changes–i.e., transformations in policies,
roles, relationships, and funding patterns that would eliminate organizational barriers to resource sharing and joint
decisionmaking and facilitate flexible, responsive approaches. The New Futures initiatives funded by the Annie E.
Casey Foundation were established with the intent of both providing direct services and working toward systemic
change. In reflecting on the successes and failures of these initiatives, Foundation staff conclude that “comprehensive
system reform is the path of most resistance” (Annie E. Casey Foundation, n.d., p. 1). They also describe the great
difficulties “of simultaneously running [direct services] programs and pursuing the system analysis, policy evaluation,
public education, planning, and advocacy necessary to advance. . . comprehensive reform” (p. 2).
Grounding instruction in the local environment
Although the greatest impetus for collaboration is grounded in extracurricular concerns, there also are trends in
teaching and learning that lend support to strengthened ties among schools, families, and community. Constructivist
learning theory, for example, posits that children begin school with preconceived ideas and beliefs about various
aspects of their environment, including concepts related to language, mathematics, science, and human behavior.
As Powell (1994) explains:
A-13
Back
Appendix F ● ISSUES
IN
COLLABORATIVE WORK: A REVIEW OF
THE
LITERATURE
Guide
The ideas that the student has formed were not created in a vacuum; they have been formed by the
social and cultural life of the student’s home and community. . . Teachers need to value students’
existing community-formed knowledge not out of some abstract principle regarding valuing diverse
experiences but because of a fundamental fact of learning: “students use extant knowledge, based on
culturally diverse experiences, to make sense of new experiences” (Gallard, 1993, p. 172). (p. 84)
Instructional strategies that draw from constructivist principles emphasize the need for teachers to develop a rich
understanding of their students’ lives outside the classroom. Teachers also are encouraged to design instructional
activities that draw from community contexts and local traditions.
Strategies for improving academic performance among linguistically, racially, and culturally diverse student populations stress the importance of strong links to family and community. Minami and Ovando (1995), in their review of
research on language issues in multicultural contexts, list two major factors in minority students’ success: parental
involvement and “a community’s active participation in school curriculum design in order to cater to the needs of
a particular student population” (p. 439). They quote Winkelman (1990), who concludes that teachers’ primary
responsibilities are to facilitate classroom dialogue that engages all students, and to perform the role of an “experienced
participant in the community rather than sole authority” (p. 441).
Reversing the tide of separation and mistrust
As a result of the concerns and understandings described above, more and more school systems are working to
strengthen student and family supports and to play more active roles in sustaining the overall well-being of the
neighborhoods in which they exist. The New York State School Boards Association (1990) has issued a policy
directive that typifies this new perspective:
Districts should develop schools as community where diverse elements of a community can
meet and together reap mutual benefits such as enriched educational systems, a coordinated and
more efficient social support system and a community strengthened through cooperation and
collaboration. (p. vi)
In seeking ways of building these links, however, schools must deal with the fallout from decades of movement in the
opposite direction. Early in this century, as school systems began to be modeled increasingly on the organizational
principles of an industrialized society, educators began–consciously and unconsciously–to distance themselves from the
surrounding communities (Furman & Merz, 1996; Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993). DeYoung (1989) describes the
“earlier conventional wisdom among professional educators: that parents and the community ought to be kept out of
the way of the teaching staff” (p. 40). This perspective is illustrated in the comments of school principals interviewed
by Seeley, Niemeyer, and Greenspan (1991) for their study of parent involvement. One principal stated:
When I came into my school, I inherited from the ’60s an open school where the parents and everybody were moving through the building, and I knew I couldn’t guarantee security. My first priority
was to go “anti-community” and get the community out of there, and establish strict security procedures for coming into the building. I couldn’t have shopping carts and baby carriages–you couldn’t
walk down the hall. Teachers were constantly interrupted by parents who wanted to speak to them.
(p. 11)
Reversing this mindset is not an easy task. Schools must overcome a lack of trust among many parents and community members, communication problems, and differences in perception about the strengths and weaknesses of both
school and community. For example, Smrekar (1996), in discussing the collaborative approaches used to establish the
Kentucky Family Resource Centers, notes that the centers have had to distance themselves from schools, physically
and symbolically, because of parents’ negative associations with school–even though the centers were established
specifically to more closely link parents and schools. The results of this collaborative program outline “the serious and
A-14
Back
Guide
Appendix F ● ISSUES
IN
COLLABORATIVE WORK: A REVIEW OF
THE
LITERATURE
negative implications of integrated services programs that ignore the social distance, conflict, and anonymity associated
with family-school interactions” (p. 23).
Corbett, Wilson, and Webb (1996) describe the lack of communication between parents and school staffs. Reporting
the results of a case study of an inner-city elementary school, they note:
In the setting we have been studying for the last three years, there were parents and community
members who had more in common with some of the faculty in [their goals for students] than the
teachers had with each other. However, differences in opinion among teachers and similarities of
opinion between some community members and teachers tended to be invisible–unseen because the
opinions required words to bring them into focus and because the extended, productive, and direct
dialogue about students that was needed to evoke these words rarely occurred. (pp. 28-29)
In their case study report, Corbett, Wilson and Webb also note significant differences in perspectives among parents
and teachers: “Teachers commuted into the neighborhood in the morning, saw the artifacts of urban decay, illegal
drug dealing, and neglectful public services, and thought of what they must counter in teaching students.” Parents, on
the other hand, “saw the limited presence of the educators in the community, felt their disdain for the local environment, and wondered how their children could possibly receive the caring and attention they deserved in school” (p.
35). Similarly, Payzant (1992), discussing the New Beginnings collaborative in San Diego, describes findings from a
needs assessment conducted as part of the project’s feasibility study:
The families see themselves in better overall condition than the agency personnel see them, but they
do feel plagued by short-term problems. The service providers are more likely to see the families as
having many long-term needs. Clear discrepancies exist between the perceptions of the families and
those of the agency workers. (p. 143)
Despite these and other complexities of collaboration, however, it is likely to persist as a strategy for strengthening
educational performance. By themselves, schools simply lack the resources, authority, linkages, and expertise to address
all relevant aspects of students’ lives.
Dimensions of collaborative work
The term “collaboration” can be used to describe a wide variety of efforts. Crowson and Boyd (1993), for example,
describe collaboratives ranging from “limited, technical arrangements for resource sharing, on the one hand, to
full-fledged joint enterprises in which shared languages and meanings are created through common activities, understandings of problems and boundary-spanning roles, on the other” (cited in Driscoll, Boyd, & Crowson, 1997, p. 49).
Most of the collaborative initiatives described in the literature, however, share a number of characteristics. As the
following sections will describe, important commonalities can be noted in the definition of collaboration, in the
broad steps involved in starting and maintaining a collaborative group, and in the activities and processes involved in
collaborative work.
Distinguishing collaboration from other cooperative approaches
Most authors take pains to distinguish collaboration from more limited linkages, describing a continuum of joint
effort that moves from coordination through cooperation to collaboration. Coordination involves extremely limited
arrangements, generally for sharing information; cooperation extends to shared activities, but without any relinquishment of autonomy or control of resources. Collaboration, in contrast, is generally considered to involve “a commitment to: a definition of mutual relationships and goals; a jointly developed structure and shared responsibility; mutual
authority and accountability for success; and sharing of resources and rewards” (Mattesich & Monsey, 1992, p. 7; see
also Hord, 1986; and Wang, Haertel, & Walberg, 1997).
A-15
Back
Appendix F ● ISSUES
IN
COLLABORATIVE WORK: A REVIEW OF
THE
LITERATURE
Guide
An article by Hord (1986) is often cited as the first to describe the continuum from coordination to collaboration.
Hord notes the importance of clarifying expectations among participants as to where the proposed effort will fall
along the continuum: “One can also immediately construe what conflicts would arise when it is not clear which
model is in process–when some individuals are involved in cooperation, and others are expecting collaboration” (p.
25). Payzant (1992), based on the experience of the New Beginnings collaborative, makes a similar point: “Our experience in San Diego demonstrates that anyone considering interagency collaboration should not underestimate the
importance of reaching complete initial agreement on the meaning of collaboration. It can make the difference
between success and failure” (p. 141).
Activities involved in establishing a collaborative
A number of models and guides have been developed that outline a suggested sequence of steps for establishing and
sustaining a collaborative group. Exhibit 1, on the following page, provides an overview of the steps outlined by six
sources, including: the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory’s Collaborative Action Team Model (SEDL,
1998); the U.S. Department of Education’s (1996) guide to school-linked strategies, Putting the Pieces Together; the
Together We Can initiative (Melaville, Blank, & Asayesh, 1993); the Families and Work Institute’s Community
Mobilization guide (Dombro, A.L., O’Donnell, N.S., Galinsky, E., Melcher, S.G., & Farber, A., 1996); the Amherst
H. Wilder Foundation’s Collaborative Handbook (Winer & Ray, 1994); and the approach outlined by Epstein (1995),
which serves as a framework for the National Network of Partnership-2000 Schools.
Though there are variations in the sequence of steps, suggested activities, and emphasis on specific aspects of the
process, most of these sources, in some fashion or another, address seven broad categories of activity:
Convening a group—This involves identifying, recruiting, and securing commitments from members. Some guides
suggest a specific configuration of membership.
● Assessing strengths and needs in the school or community to be addressed—This may involve a variety of formal or informal needs assessments. Most guides emphasize the importance of assessing strengths as well as needs.
● Building collaborative capacity—This includes focusing on the skills and abilities of group members to engage in
effective communication, decisionmaking, conflict resolution, and other processes important to the success of collaborative work. Two of the six models presented in Exhibit 1 do not explicitly address this step.
● Planning projects—Planning is emphasized heavily by several sources. Case study reports suggest that a lack of attention to planning can cripple a collaborative (see, for example, Newman & Beck, 1996).
● Implementing projects—Although implementation is generally mentioned as a major step, information is often
sketchy. Other than listing staffing and infrastructure issues, sources seem to presume that most implementation
considerations will be covered in the planning process.
● Evaluating the effort—The importance of evaluation is consistently emphasized.
● Sustaining the results—The emphasis here varies significantly, from attention to sustaining momentum through celebration of tangible accomplishments, to larger concerns for expanding and institutionalizing change. Only one
source includes provisions for bringing the collaborative to an end.
●
Collaborative processes and activities
Within and across the activities listed in Exhibit 1 are a number of processes and considerations common to most collaborative efforts. These are described below.
Community readiness—Although it is not well addressed in most of the guides to collaboration, community readiness is a major consideration and “plays a critical role in the timing and pace” of a collaborative’s development (Annie E.
Casey Foundation, n.d., p. 11). In assessing the New Futures initiatives, staff from the Casey Foundation found that:
A-16
Back
Guide
Appendix F ● ISSUES
IN
COLLABORATIVE WORK: A REVIEW OF
THE
LITERATURE
Exhibit 1
Major Steps in Collaborative Work
Identified in the Literature
Assessing
Strengths and
Needs
Building
Collaborative
Capacity
Planning Projects
Implementing
Projects
Evaluating
the Effort
Stage 1: Getting
Started
Stage 1: Getting
Started
Stage 2: Mobilizing
the Team
Stage 3: Setting
Direction
Stage 4:
Taking Action
Stage 4:
Taking Action
Stage 5: Reviewing
and Refining
Introduce the process,
plan first steps
Gather school community information
Establish representative membership,
determine ground
rules, build common
understanding, identify shared leadership
Agree on a vision,
identify and prioritize issues, develop a
mission, set team
goals, communicate
your message
Develop strategies,
determine tasks,
expand network
Establish evaluation
methods, monitor
progress
Celebrate success,
increase effectiveness and impact
1. Building
Collaborative
Partnerships
2. Conducting a
Community
Assessment
3. Finding and
Developing
Resources
Includes building
human as well as
fiscal resources
5. Moving from
vision to action
(see next box)
3. Developing a
Strategic Plan
Together We Can
Identifying partners,
learning about each
other, developing a
common vision
3. Finding and
Developing
Resources
2. Building Trust
2. Building Trust
Deciding to act,
involving the “right”
people, committing
to collaboration
Conducting
community assessment, defining mission and goals
Developing common
knowledge base,
establishing community presence
1. Creating a Vision
1. Creating a Vision
Not addressed
Involving parents,
business
Assessing needs
1. Envision results by
working individual-to-individual
Not addressed
Collaboration
Handbook
Sustaining
Results
Stage 5:Reviewing
and Refining
Assess team
effectiveness
1. Getting Together
Epstein/
Partnership 2000
SOURCE
Convening in
Group
Families and
Work Institute
U.S. Dept. of ED
SEDL’s CAT
Development Model
STEPS
Focusing on a neighborhood, setting
outcomes, designing
service delivery prototype, formalizing
relationships
2. Implementing
the Vision
5. Moving from
Vision to Action
4. Evaluating Schoollinked Strategies
6. Maintaining
Momentum in
Collaboration
4. Taking Action
4. Taking Action
5. Going to Scale
Addressing staffing,
outreach, diversity
Evaluating activities
Taking steps to
expand and institutionalize
2. Implementing
the Vision
3. Sustaining the
Vision
3. Sustaining the
Vision
Assessing results
Maintaining
momentum,
developing financial
mechanisms,
engaging the public
3. Ensure success...
4. Endow continuity by working
collaboration-tocommunity
Planning and implementation activities,
addressing infrastructure, staffing,
operating procedures
Linking and coordinating services,
moving to a systemic
focus, institutionalizing
1. Empower
ourselves by working individual-toorganization
2. Empower
ourselves...
Organizing the effort
Bringing people
together, building
trust, confirming
vision, specifying
desired results
3. Ensure success
by working
organization-toorganization
Evaluating results,
reviewing
Managing the work,
creating joint systems
1. Create an action
team
3. Identify starting
points
Involving teachers,
parents, administrators, other school
staff, community
members
Assessing strengths
and needed changes
Not addressed
2. Obtain funds and
others’ support
4. Develop a threeyear plan
Not addressed
Creating visibility,
involving the community, changing
systems, ending the
collaboration
4. Develop a threeyear plan
5. Continue
planning and
working
Identifying indicators and evaluation
strategies
A-17
Back
Appendix F ● ISSUES
IN
COLLABORATIVE WORK: A REVIEW OF
THE
LITERATURE
Guide
Not every community is ready to take on a complicated and comprehensive child and family service
system reform initiative. Some communities have too many of their resources (financial, political,
and intellectual) committed to other efforts or other priorities. In other cities, there is a lack of leadership commitment, leadership stability, or management capacity needed to sustain a long-term
change process. In still other places, a systems change approach fails to excite the individuals it needs
to engage. (p. 11)
The Foundation recommends a careful assessment of a community’s readiness for collaborative initiatives.
This assessment involves looking hard at local leadership and collaborative experience, the complexity and risks of the initiative, the maturity of the organization[s] expected to carry it out, the presence
or absence of other related efforts, and the availability of a sufficient resolve and patience to build
effective cross-system communication. (p. 12)
Membership—Recommendations regarding the composition of collaborative groups vary substantially. Some
guides, such as the Partnership-2000 Schools materials, assume a school-based initiative and thus recommend a
collaborative team with heaviest representation from teachers and other school staff (Epstein, 1995). Others assume
an interagency approach, while still others present more generic considerations intended to accommodate a range of
purposes and groups.
Melaville, Blank, and Asayesh (1993) recommend the inclusion of “people who will bring clout, commitment, and
diversity to the table” (p. 25). However, assuring both clout diversity–particularly in terms of authentic community
representation–often seems an overwhelming challenge.
Without “clout,” Melaville, Blank, and Asayesh (1993) note, the collaborative will lack the necessary authority to get
things done. As Mattesich and Monsey (1992) explain, “Collaborative groups which intend to make system-wide
changes or work with the wider community must be perceived as a legitimate leader by the community they intend
to influence” (p. 17). White and Wehlage (1994), however, discussing the New Futures initiatives, warn against
collaborative boards weighted too heavily with top management or political leaders. They report that, in New
Futures sites, “collaborative boards tended to be very top-heavy with agency heads and other high level bureaucrats.
By necessity these people tended to be isolated, operating at some distance from either those being served or those
actually delivering services” (p. 10). Melaville, Blank, and Asayesh also warn of the hazards inherent in the close
involvement of elected officials:
In choosing when and how to involve elected officials, the collaborative should realize that community-based decisionmaking is vulnerable to political concerns. Political pressures can split partners
along partisan lines or push them toward politically expedient, but short-term projects. An election
defeat, decline in popularity, or priority changes may cause an elected official to turn his or her
attention and influence elsewhere, leaving the collaborative stranded. (p. 27)
Regarding the need for diversity, Melaville, Blank and Asayesh (1993) note that, “though different backgrounds can
strain a collaborative, broad representation is necessary to develop policies and practices that will respond to the full
range of community needs” (p. 25). They recommend including consumers, public-sector organizations, private
providers and nonprofit organizations, businesses and business organizations, and elected officials. In contrast, White
and Wehlage argue, “While noble in purpose, mixing public agencies, private sector organizations (both for profit and
not-for-profit), as well as involving the families being served, implies a level of organizational complexity that taxes the
intellectual and political skills of communities” (p. 2). Payzant, discussing San Diego’s New Beginnings initiative, takes
a sort of middle ground:
A-18
Back
Guide
Appendix F ● ISSUES
IN
COLLABORATIVE WORK: A REVIEW OF
THE
LITERATURE
Those who come together to collaborate must know a lot about children, youth, and families. They
must have professional training and years of experience to support their attitudes and practice.
However, it is dangerous to rely on professional and political expertise alone. Our feasibility study
taught us the important lesson that the users of our services know things that we don’t know. (p. 146)
The involvement of client or consumer representatives, parents (for school-related collaboratives), or other community
representatives appears to present the greatest challenge for collaborative membership. A majority of sources describe
the importance of broad community representation in order to assure both responsiveness and credibility, but the realities of establishing a truly representative group in which all members have an authentic voice and authority seem to
be another matter altogether.
Peirce and Johnson (1997), discussing leadership issues related to collaborative community development, observe that
“in all communities, there’s a problem with outreach, the efforts to expand the discussion table” (p. 15). In most cases,
the authors note, the initial conveners–who tend to be traditional leaders unfamiliar with all elements of the broader
community–“just don’t know they exist.” However, “others may be left out because they create uneasiness in mainstream groups” (p. 15). Similarly, White and Wehlage report:
The official New Futures perspective was that the broadest possible range of people needed to be
involved. . . [However,] no city developed a permanent mechanism for representing at-risk youth,
their families or finding articulate advocates for them. Providing opportunities for those who are the
focus of collaborative policies to have their voices heard and participate in the policy making generally did not occur. . . While some “community” members made their way onto the collaboratives, they
were neither numerous nor influential. (p. 14)
Several authors urge school and other agency staffs to consider honestly the extent to which they are willing to move
beyond tokenism and share authority with parents and community members. Zetlin (1997), discussing a school-based
program in East Los Angeles, notes, “We have to ask ourselves if we are truly prepared for parents’ full participation.
We must be prepared to relinquish some of our power as administrators, researchers, and program developers” (p. 90).
Similarly, Samuels, Ahsan, and Garcia (1995) state:
Often key players, who can change systems and allocate resources, genuinely want to hear the views
and opinions of community residents but reserve the right to have final say in all decisions. Before
inviting residents to sit on the planning team, key players should agree on the extent of their commitment to establish a “bottom-up” process of service reform. The results of this decision should be
clearly articulated to residents so that they can gauge for themselves whether the amount of decisionmaking power given them makes participating in the planning process worthwhile. Lack of clarity
with residents about their role may create an adversarial and distrustful relationship. (pp. 8-9)
It should be noted that a decision not to include strong representation from consumers, parents, or community representatives can affect the capacity of a collaborative to achieve specific goals. For interagency collaborations that are
intended primarily to improve the efficiency and comprehensiveness of existing services, the consequences may not be
substantial. But if the collaborative’s goals are to build community capacity and address long-term issues, strong community representation appears to be essential (Annie E. Casey Foundation, n.d.; Stone & Wehlage, 1992; Wolff &
Foster, 1995). And for schools, parent involvement and support are increasingly critical to school improvement efforts
(Epstein, 1995).
Few authors specifically discuss a recommended size for the planning group or collaborative board, though the lists of
recommended members generally suggest a sizeable group. Samuels, Ahsan, and Garcia (1995) do offer some more
A-19
Back
Appendix F ● ISSUES
IN
COLLABORATIVE WORK: A REVIEW OF
THE
LITERATURE
Guide
specific recommendations for their collaborative “planning team,” noting that, “all things considered. . . it is better to
start with too many, rather than too few, members” (p. 9). They suggest a group with twenty to thirty members as
“sufficient to conduct a comprehensive community assessment” (p. 10). A few guides suggest a smaller core group,
supplemented by additional representatives who serve on subcommittees to carry out specific aspects of the work
(Epstein, 1995; U.S. Department of Education, 1996).
Leadership—As is true for a number of aspects of collaborative work, the issue of leadership presents something of a
double bind. Wolff and Foster (1995) state that collaboratives need “a clearly identified leadership structure, but also
need to disperse leadership as broadly as possible” (p. 3-32). Other sources discuss the need for competent and effective
leadership while also recommending shared leadership approaches (see, for example, Melaville, Blank, & Asayesh,
1993). While these two factors are not mutually exclusive, the difficulty of assuring competence increases as leadership is
dispersed. On the other hand, group ownership diminishes with the concentration of leadership and decisionmaking
authority.
Zetlin (1997), among others, stresses that “quality leadership is essential” to the success of collaborative work (p. 90).
The Casey Foundation emphasizes the “need for core leadership that can articulate the initiative, build the necessary
consensus, manage the change process, weather the storms, and continually refine and redesign the effort without losing the community’s support” (p. 11). The Harwood Group (1998) in its assessment of learnings from Pew
Partnership projects, argues bluntly for the need for strong core leadership. Based on interviews with project participants, the report concludes “that collaborations that are left leaderless–or are handed over to a nebulous and ill-defined
group to lead–flounder” (p. 20):
At the start of every Pew collaboration was a small core group of leaders who sparked, and then led,
the collaboration. . . Strong leadership, we were told, must be exercised throughout the life of a collaboration. Any notions that a consensus process, or a so-called leaderless approach, can take its place
will only generate unplanned chaos. (p. 2)
Similarly, Peirce and Johnson (1997) urge collaborators not to abandon traditional leadership approaches. They note,
“As more people come to accept the reality and necessity of inclusive, participatory civic processes, there has been a
tendency to dismiss the idea that individual leaders can make a difference. . . Sometimes, still, there’s no substitute for
it” (p. 43).
Melaville and Blank (1991) suggest that, in the early stages of formation and planning, collaboratives may need a single leader whose vision can rally others to the effort, but that leadership can be more dispersed as the collaborative
gains momentum. Along with other sources, they also recommend that core leaders nurture leadership capacities in
other group members (Miller, 1995; Wolff & Foster, 1995).
The role of facilitators—Some sources discuss leadership primarily in terms of a facilitative role (Mattesich &
Monsey, 1992; Ohio Center for Action on Coalition Development, 1992). Hord (1992), in discussing school change
strategies, describes the importance of “facilitative leaders who assume responsibility for effecting change.” These are not
necessarily “positional leaders” but rather are “people who demonstrate functional leadership,” who help to “creat[e] an
atmosphere and culture for change” and to nurture both the vision and the tangible supports necessary for effective follow through (p. 88). Peirce and Johnson quote Bruce Adams, a co-project director of the Kellogg Leadership Studies
Project, who notes that “building relationships and crossing boundaries are the essential community leadership skills of
the next century” (p. 33). Melaville and Blank offer a more detailed description of facilitative leadership:
Effective leaders press each side to understand their partners’ point of view and the way they perceive
the issues and problems at hand. Leaders generate alternative solutions and pursue, from the many
interests identified, those that constitute common ground. A leader’s ability to keep participants
focused on goals prevents individual interests from derailing the initiative during the difficult process
A-20
Back
Guide
Appendix F ● ISSUES
IN
COLLABORATIVE WORK: A REVIEW OF
THE
LITERATURE
of determining how shared goals will be met and encourages partners to contribute to the full extent
of their abilities. (p. 25)
Most guides are silent on the question of whether to use an outside facilitator (or “convener”) rather than drawing
from the actual membership of the collaborative group. The strongest support for using an outside facilitator comes
from Molloy, P., Fleming, G., Rojas Rodriguez, C., Saavedra, N., Tucker, B., & Williams, Jr., D.L. (1995b), who state
that “the planning phase [of a collaborative endeavor] is a complex undertaking and is more likely to be effective
when. . . partnerships involve a neutral facilitator” (p. 5). The authors list three reasons for using an outside facilitator:
1) to help members deal with and ultimately welcome the partnership’s diversity, 2) to help diffuse
divergent viewpoints and sometimes highly charged emotions, and 3) to help partnerships maneuver
successfully through the. . . stages of the planning phase. (p. 4)
Samuels, Ahsan, and Garcia suggest that, “if there is little or no history of broad-based collaboration in the community, or if there is polarization or lack of trust among those who should be involved, a facilitator can be a key component
to successful planning” (p. 10). Other authors stress the need for neutrality and fairness (Mattesich & Monsey, 1992;
Melaville & Blank, 1991).
Decisionmaking processes—Approaches to decisionmaking present tensions similar to those involved in leadership
issues. “Shared decisionmaking” is consistently recommended; by this, most sources appear to refer to a process of
group consensus. The U.S. Department of Education (1996) lists three commonly used decisionmaking approaches:
group consensus, committee decisionmaking, and majority rule. That report describes the consensus approach as
“ideal for partnerships because the process requires thorough discussion of alternatives, allows all voices to be heard,
and fosters commitment” (p. 19). However, the report notes that consensus decisionmaking is extremely time consuming. Winer and Ray (1994) similarly describe the tension between involving everyone, which builds ownership
but “can limit power and productivity,” and empowering “individuals and small groups to act unilaterally or in consultation,” which can boost productivity but “limits group ownership” (p. 89).
The other major issue discussed in regard to decisionmaking processes relates to the involvement of school and other
agency staffs. For collaborative groups that seek to be broadly inclusive of parents and community, it is important that
the group’s membership and decisionmaking not be dominated by institutional voices. Yet experience has shown that,
without significant involvement from both upper-level management and direct service staff, schools and other agencies
often fail to develop consistent commitment to the work of the collaborative. White and Wehlage, for example,
describe the case manager approach used in Chicago’s New Futures initiatives. They report:
Interviews with case managers indicated that for the most part critical information they had as frontline workers was ignored. Their knowledge simply wasn’t recognized [by the policy level of the collaboration] as critical to decisionmaking. . . While top-level managers were making agreements at the
collaborative level, they were not hearing from the case managers about how those agreements were
working. Clearly, buy-in at the top often did not translate into buy-in at the front line. (pp. 7, 9)
The reverse can be true as well, in cases where upper-level managers are removed from the decisionmaking activities of
the collaborative. As a result, Mattesich and Monsey (1992), among others, recommend that “every level (upper management, middle management, operations) within each organization in the collaborative group participates in decisionmaking” (p. 23).
Communication and conflict—Most sources emphasize the importance of communication, discussing the process
in two ways: in terms of maintaining contact and sharing all relevant information among all members of the collaborative, and in terms of using effective communication styles. The latter includes assuring common understandings of
the terms used to describe the collaborative, accommodating differences in language and communication style, and
working out a process for addressing conflicts that allows open discussion without denigration or personal attack
(Jordan, 1997).
A-21
Back
Appendix F ● ISSUES
IN
COLLABORATIVE WORK: A REVIEW OF
THE
LITERATURE
Guide
Corbett, Wilson, and Webb (1996) point out the dangers of failing to explore the beliefs and assumptions underlying
the rhetoric of change. They note that, in the urban school site of their three-year case study, “people used the same
words but attached different meanings to them. Such language similarity can pose a danger.” They conclude that,
“without paying careful attention to meaning, people might be too quick to agree at the vision-building stage and not
realize the implications of their differences until they begin to act” (p. 45). In a similar vein, McClure, Jones, and
Potter (1996) warn, “A collaborative that requires or assumes a common vision cannot account for the conflicted
power relationships inherent in a participatory democracy” (p. 396).
Much of the discussion about communication focuses on ways of coping with–without ignoring or skimming
over–conflict. Melaville and Blank (1991) state:
Participants need to establish a communication process that gives them permission to disagree and
uses conflict and its resolution as a constructive means of moving forward. Interagency initiatives
that circumvent issues about how, where, why, and by whom services should be delivered and
resources allocated, in an effort to avoid turf issues and other conflicts, are likely to result in innocuous objectives that do little to improve the status quo. (p. 37)
Differences in power relationships, race, and class are often major sources of conflict. Staff from the Annie E. Casey
Foundation (n.d.), discussing the New Futures initiatives, conclude:
Power, race and ethnicity matter. . . Communication gaps created by the historical isolation of participants from one another were formidable. The sheer lack of experience that most people have in
dealing across racial, class, and cultural lines was as pervasive on most of the collaborative governing
boards as in the communities at large. (p. 4)
White and Wehlage (1994), in their assessment of the New Futures initiatives, reach the same conclusion. They note
“the neglect of political conflict lying just under the surface of the apparent shared will to collaborate” (p. 12).
Surveying the broader literature on collaboration, they further observe that “policy is still treated in much of the collaborative literature as though it were free of politics. The difficulty of building consensus is almost always underestimated” (p. 13).
Building collaborative capacity—Strategies for building a collaborative’s capacity to function effectively are not
consistently addressed in the literature. Two processes are sometimes mentioned: building support among key constituencies, and training or other development to build the leadership, communication, decisionmaking, and other
collaborative skills of group members. A third process, networking among different collaborative programs, is an
explicit element of two collaborative approaches: projects funded by the Pew Partnership for Civic Change (The
Harwood Group, 1998), and SEDL’s Collaborative Action Team process (SEDL, 1998).
Planning—Of all the processes involved in collaborative work, considerations related to program planning receive
perhaps the greatest attention in the literature. Systematic planning is described as critical to success (Molloy, P.,
Fleming, G., Rojas Rodriguez, C., Saavedra, N., Tucker, B., & Williams, Jr., D.L., 1995a). Steps involved in the planning process generally include needs assessment, resource planning, development of work plans and implementation
schedules, and identification of indicators of success and strategies for gathering evaluation data.
For some sources, planning also includes clarification of group members’ expectations, working contexts, and concerns. For example, McClure, Jones, and Potter (1996) recommend, “For a collaborative to succeed, members should
consider spending time at the beginning examining their assumptions of common intent in order to develop ways of
accommodating inevitable differences in these critical underpinnings” (pp. 395-396). Hord (1986) further notes:
The necessity for clarifying expectations of the participants is of paramount importance–not only
the expectations of rewards, but expectations of goals, of commitments from each sector, and of
A-22
Back
Guide
Appendix F ● ISSUES
IN
COLLABORATIVE WORK: A REVIEW OF
THE
LITERATURE
procedures. These decision points frequently become the critical dilemmas that force a choice of the
cooperative mode rather than the more demanding collaborative one. (p. 25)
Needs assessment is heavily emphasized by most sources. As Melaville, Blank, and Asayesh (1993) observe, “Effective
initiatives are data driven” (p. 16). Strategies for collecting data regarding community strengths and needs vary.
Guthrie and Guthrie (1991) suggest laying out a matrix “that matches up needs. . . with various service providers” to
“help reveal gaps in service and areas of overlap” (p. 20). Melaville, Blank, and Asayesh (1993) recommend more
detailed, “comprehensive community profiles” that include “baseline indicators showing how well children and families are faring, how well services are meeting family needs, and where serious gaps in services exist.” As the development process continues, “additional information and data collected in planning and implementing service delivery
prototypes identify specific changes in systemwide policies and practices” (p. 16). Sohng (1996) recommends “participatory research” not only as a strategy for identifying strengths and needs but also as a community organizing and
development strategy:
Knowledge becomes a crucial element in enabling people to have a say in how they would like to see
their world put together and run. . . Participatory research is a means of putting research capabilities
in the hands of deprived and disenfranchised people so that they can identify themselves as knowing
actors, defining their reality, naming their history, and transforming their lives. . . It is a means of
preventing an elite group from exclusively determining the interests of others, in effect of transferring power to those groups engaged in the production of popular knowledge. (pp. 80-81)
Samuels, Ahsan, and Garcia (1995), although they stress the importance of needs assessment, also warn of the hazards
that can accompany the process:
Communities need good information if they are to develop strategies which can improve the wellbeing of their children, families, and neighborhoods. Too often, however, communities find that
their efforts to collect information and conduct a needs assessment drain scarce energy and resources,
create misunderstandings, delay action, and produce documents that shed little light on how to
move forward. Assessments which are done “at” rather than “with” communities, or that focus upon
deficiencies and fail to recognize assets, disempower rather than energize. (p. v)
In discussing the time needed for the planning phase of a collaborative endeavor, Molloy et al. (1995a) cite Morrill, W.A.,
Reisner, E.R., Chimerine, C., & Marks, E. (1991), who found that “twelve to eighteen months was usual, two years
was not surprising, and less than six months was not sufficient” (p. 2). Payzant (1992) also urges that the planning
phase not be rushed, and warns, “The amount of time necessary to work on issues surrounding the actual processes of
collaboration should not be underestimated” (p. 145). The Harwood Group (1998), discussing findings from collaborative projects funded by the Pew Partnership for Civic Change, points out the need to be sensitive to “community
time,” that is, the rhythms and pace of each particular local community (p. 39).
Acquisition and use of resources—Schorr (1997) discusses the dilemma that most effective programs exist only
within a “protective bubble” of special funding or other extraordinary support. When the funding dries up, so does
the program. Other sources note the hazards of money, rather than community need, as the prime motivator for
action; Morse (1996), example, states, “If money alone drives the collaboration, it is in peril from the beginning” (p.
20). To address these problems, a number of sources stress the need to work as much as possible with existing
resources. For example, Melaville, Blank, and Asayesh (1993) observe:
Effective initiatives are financially pragmatic. Instead of basing service delivery changes on the availability of new money, they use existing resources fully. They rely on external support primarily to fund a
collaborative’s planning efforts and to provide enough financial stability to ensure that prototype efforts
point toward systemwide policy changes. (p. 16)
A-23
Back
Appendix F ● ISSUES
IN
COLLABORATIVE WORK: A REVIEW OF
THE
LITERATURE
Guide
Molloy et al. (1995a), among others, recommend that partners “identify resources that are alternatives to direct funding.”
These may include “in-kind contributions of staff time, training materials, office space, and coverage in newsletters and
other informal publications” (p. 54). The U.S. Department of Education (1996) suggests considering strategies that
might encourage funders to sustain their involvement:
One approach is to bring potential funders into the partnership. Many private-sector
organizations–local United Ways, chambers of commerce, and corporate philanthropies–contribute
actively and creatively when they are “at the table” of the collaborative partnership. . . Most are more
inclined to support a partnership if they are regarded as sources of time, talent, and energy rather
than only as sources of financial support. (p. 50)
Wolff (1995a), in listing barriers to collaborative work, lists “too much” as well as “too little” funding as a deterrent to
effectiveness. Noting that he and his coworkers have witnessed the failure of “very well funded coalitions (one might
suggest, overfunded)” (p. 4-46), he lists a number of hazards involved in collaboratives “that were started by the potential lure of dollars”:
“Once a coalition gets into the business of delivering programming itself. . . it runs the risk of moving from a collaborative organization. . . to becoming another community agency. This can create a conflict where the coalition is in
competition with its own members” (p. 4-46).
● If a collaborative provides services by “subcontracting program dollars to other agencies,” it becomes necessary “to
engage in a process of awarding and then monitoring the contracts.” The collaborative then may become “a monitor
of its own members, which creates an inordinately complex set of roles” (p. 4-46).
● “When coalitions are gathered together around the lure of external funding sources, one can never be sure that the
partners at the table are not there just for the dollars.” (p. 4-46)
● In obtaining external funds, a collaborative often must designate a lead agency to receive the funds. “The lead
agency may then take on roles, responsibilities and power that place it on an unequal basis with other coalition
members” (p. 4-46).
●
Program implementation—Implementation issues are weakly addressed in the collaborative literature. To some
extent, this can be explained by the fact that most guides do not prescribe specific actions, but rather presume that collaboratives themselves will identify action-oriented programs and projects based on locally identified needs. Since these
projects can vary considerably in focus and scope, it would be difficult to offer specific guidelines.
However, most sources also seem to fall prey to the assumption that most of the work of implementation lies in the
planning. The Ohio Center for Action on Coalition Development (1992), for example, lists activities involved in the
collaborative process. Under “Implement the chosen solution,” the guide counsels, “Plan strategies for carrying out the
plan,” noting that “most of the work is in this step” (p. CFA-104-1). This perspective–which neglects to consider the
substantial disjunctures that generally occur between even the most carefully developed plans and the realities of taking
action over time–is a common error in the development of innovative programs.
Monitoring and assessment—The need for program evaluation is heavily stressed in most guidelines for collaborative work. Kirst (1991), for example, recommends a “base-line assessment” followed by the issuance of periodic “comprehensive report card[s]” (p. 617). Jordan (1997) urges projects to “set up reporting systems from the beginning, even
when it seems like nothing is happening” (27).
Many sources also recommend gathering impact as well as process data (Ohio Center, 1992; U.S. Department of
Education). However, Payzant (1992) urges patience in terms of being able to assess measurable impact, warning that
“results based on traditional indicators will not be immediately apparent” (p. 146). Similarly, Zetlin (1997) states that
it may be “five or seven or ten years before the sorts of outcome data that society will applaud become available”
(p. 91).
A-24
Back
Guide
Appendix F ● ISSUES
IN
COLLABORATIVE WORK: A REVIEW OF
THE
LITERATURE
In spite of the emphasis on evaluation, there is evidence that most collaboratives lack effectiveness in this area.
In surveying the literature on collaborative school-linked programs, Wang, Haertel, and Walberg (1997) report:
Evaluation and research studies. . . often contain inadequate descriptions of the program components, use a limited number of outcomes, have few direct measures of collaboration, do not collect
process or implementation data, do not have comparable control groups, have high rates of attrition,
and report little data on program costs. (p. 17)
Momentum—Many sources note the need for explicitly planned rituals, milestones, or other strategies to assure a
sense of momentum and sustain the enthusiasm of collaborative group members. In a developmental process whose
planning stages can require many months, members often become frustrated at the lack of tangible accomplishments.
The advice from Mattesich and Monsey (1992) is typical of discussions on this subject:
Collaborative groups must experience a progression of “successes” during the collaborative process in order to
be sustained. Defining success too narrowly and distantly–only by accomplishing the collaboration’s ultimate
goals–can be discouraging. (p. 28)
Institutionalization—Like program implementation, approaches to institutionalizing programmatic change are
weakly addressed by most sources. Issues related to whether and how the collaborative group should establish itself as a
permanent entity; whether and how specific projects are to be sustained; and how to accomplish changes in policies,
roles, and relationships within and among the agencies and groups involved in the collaborative, are treated only
sketchily. Perhaps most significant is the absence of information on how to address the kinds of “deep structure” issues
that tend to block major changes in the way existing institutions work with others (Crowson & Boyd, 1996).
Challenges to effective collaboration
The literature on collaboration includes numerous lists outlining obstacles to the success of collaborative work. Exhibit
2, on the following pages, presents information from a number of sources; the obstacles listed fall into ten general categories:
Lack of community readiness,
● Membership problems,
● Limitations of schools and other partner agencies,
● Relationships among collaborating partners,
● Relationships between partners and community,
● Leadership problems,
● Limitations in the collaborative’s skills or capacity,
● Resource problems,
● Collaborative process issues, and
● Outcome issues.
●
A-25
Back
Appendix F ● ISSUES
IN
COLLABORATIVE WORK: A REVIEW OF
THE
LITERATURE
Guide
Exhibit 2
Major Barriers to Effective Collaboration
Identified in the Literature
Lack of community readiness
Need for a certain base of social capital (White & Wefflage, 1994)
Lack of support for collaboration among community leadership
(Annie E. Casey Foundation, n.d.)
Lack of collaborative experience (Casey Foundation, n.d.)
Lack of capacity within partner groups (Casey Foundation, n.d.)
Absence of necessary resources (Casey Foundation, n.d.)
Lack of necessary patience and resolve (Casey Foundation, n.d.)
Membership problems
Too small a group (Samuels, Ahsan, & Garcia, 1995)
Failure to include community representatives or engage them in significant roles
(Payzant, 1992; White & Wehlag, 1994)
Top-heavy collaborative boards (White& Wefflag, 1994)
Limitations of schools and other partner agencies
Lack of buy-in from key agency leadership (Dombro, O’Donnell, Galinsky, Melcher, & Farber, 1996; Elder, 1992)
Bureaucratic inertia; resistance to change (Crowson & Boyd, 1996; Dombro, et al., 1996; Elder, 1992)
Confidentiality and other bureaucratic issues (Elder, 1992; Heath & McLaughlin, 1996)
“Deep structure” issues that discourage shared power and responsibility,
including reward structures and role specialization (Crowson & Boyd, 1996)
Fragmentation of agency initiatives, leading to conflicting priorities and procedures
(Smylie, Crowson, Chou, & Levin, 1996)
Relationships among collaborating partners
Turf issues and competition (Elder, 1992; Wolff, 1995a)
Historical lack of links and communication between partner groups (Dombro, et al., 1996;
Heath & McLaughlin, 1996)
“‘Bad history’” (Wolff), leading to a lack of trust (Dombro, et al., 1996)
Differences in belief systems, culture, or perspectives (Dombro, et al.; Heath & McLaughlin, 1996)
Relationships between partners and community
Weak linkages to the community (Wolff, 1995)
Alliance with specific programs rather than the larger community (Dombro, et al., 1996)
Lack of knowledge about neighborhood contexts; “disjuncture” between assumed knowledge and actual conditions
(White & Wehlage, 1994; Heath & McLaughlin, 1996)
Leadership problems
Too few partners with needed leadership skills (Dombro, et al., 1996)
Failure to build leadership capacity (Wolff, 1995)
“Dominance by professionals” (Wolff, 1995)
Dominance by a single agency (Payzant, 1992)
A-26
Back
Guide
Appendix F ● ISSUES
IN
COLLABORATIVE WORK: A REVIEW OF
THE
LITERATURE
Limitations in the collaborative’s skills or capacity
“Minimal organizational capacity” (Wolff, 1995)
Lack of knowledge and influence (Elder, 1992)
Resource problems
Lack of time (Dombro, et al., 1996; Driscoll, Boyd, & Croyson, 1997)
“Too much or too little” funding support (Wolff, 1995)
Lack of money and other needed resources (Dombro, et al., 1996)
Collaborative process issues
Failure to articulate goals, assumptions, expectations (McClure, Jones, & Potter, 1996; Newman & Beck, 1996)
Defining success too narrowly and distantly (Mattesich & Monsey, 1992)
Lack of communication among partners (Dombro, et al., 1996)
Excessive use of jargon (Guthrie & Guthrie, 1991)
Failure to address conflict (White & Wehlage, 1994)
Inadequate time and attention to planning (Newman & Beck, 1996)
“NATO,” or, No Action, Talk Only (Guthrie & Cuthrie, 1991)
Lack of standards for measuring success (Newman & Beck, 1996)
Outcome issues
Imbalance between process and achievements “(Dombro, et al., 1996) or, the costs outweigh the benefits” (Wolff, 1995)
While lists of obstacles can be useful, they provide an inadequate picture of the magnitude of the challenges involved
in collaborative work, particularly efforts that seek to change basic opportunities, roles, and relationships. Peirce and
Johnson (1997) point out that “there’s a deep mismatch between the level of challenges [that collaboratives seek to
address] and the way American society is organized, collectively, to deal with them” (p. 7). Similarly, Crowson and
Boyd (1996), noting the proliferation of guides to collaboration and service coordination, conclude, “What the handbooks and guidelines and experiential evidence to date do not adequately provide are insights into ‘deep structure’
issues in cooperating institutions” (p. 139). Such “deep structure” issues often represent the most pervasive, deeply
entrenched barriers to collaborative work. These barriers are discussed in some detail in the following paragraphs.
Addressing institutional resistance to change
Institutional inertia is perhaps the greatest barrier to successful collaboration. Schorr (1997), in discussing the reasons
that effective programs rarely move from isolated local efforts into widespread use, concludes, “We failed to see that
you can’t grow roses in concrete. Human service reformers and educators alike thought the challenge was to develop
new ideas, not to change institutions” (p. 29). She describes “the great hidden paradox” involved in creating and sustaining widespread improvements:
Agreement around the elements of successful programs has grown, and yet policy and practice have
not recognized how poorly matched are the attributes of effectiveness and the requirements of institutions and systems within which programs must operate if they are to reach millions instead of
hundreds. (p. 19)
Mawhinney (1996) reports that “research on the involvement of schools in collaborative initiatives has documented
their resistance to change and the persistence of their organizational structures and patterns” (p. 226; see also Furman
& Merz, 1996). Smylie, et al. (1996), among others, echo this conclusion, noting:
Existing school conventions provide few built-in mechanisms for collaboration. Schools are not usually structured with even the simplest of organizational linkages upon which service coordination
A-27
Back
Appendix F ● ISSUES
IN
COLLABORATIVE WORK: A REVIEW OF
THE
LITERATURE
Guide
depends. Indeed, fragmentation and role specialization, rather than interdependency, are traditionally the workaday reality of schools. (p. 178)
Smylie, et al., in their study of Chicago’s Nation of Tomorrow projects, observed a number of behaviors on the part of
school principals that undermined the effectiveness of the collaborative:
First, principals, in varying degrees, compartmentalized and isolated the project from routine school
functions. Second, they engaged in entrepreneurial behavior, treating the project as a reservoir of
resources for their schools. Finally, principals evoked a wide range of control mechanisms to influence project implementation. . .Project staff observed the difficulties of many principals (and many
teachers for that matter) “getting their heads around” the project’s philosophy of service coordination, collaboration, and empowerment. They also observed difficulty in the principals’ ability to
conceptualize the work of their schools in terms that went beyond traditional instructional activities
within the four walls of the building. . .Once acquired, it was not unusual for the principal to redirect resources from purposes acknowledged to be important to the project as a whole to purposes
more consistent with existing school goals and ongoing activities. (pp. 182-183)
Efforts to control activities and fit them to existing institutional self-interests are by no means confined to schools.
Melaville, Blank, and Asayesh (1993) cite a report on integrated services by the inspector general of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services: “The report concludes that interagency coordination frequently results in
short-term improvements in the accessibility of services for some clients, but has little permanent effect on the operation of key institutions” (p. 2).
As Crowson and Boyd (1996) point out, “Each institution in a collaborative will be full of its own self-interests. These
will be rooted in institutional reward systems” (p. 156). White and Wehlage (1994), discussing the “slippage” between
collaborative policies and the activities of individual members, note, “A collaborative has to rely on a weak, looselycoupled organizational form. It is essentially a confederation of organizations that has few sanctions to hold members
accountable” (pp. 5-6). The authors cite Lipsky (1980), who “contends that to speak of an agency having a single
‘interest’ obscures critical differences among various individuals and groups within agencies” (p. 6).
Issues of competence
Beyond brief references to qualified, skilled staff members (Melaville & Blank, 1991; Schorr, 1997), the issue of competence is rarely addressed in the literature on collaboration. However, the knowledge and skills of those involved in
collaborative work–and of those who carry out the activities and services designed to address collaborative goals–cannot be taken for granted. And, as the educational literature on professional development well illustrates, strengthening
the competencies of professional staffs represents a “deep structure” issue that is not easily solved.
It is important to consider questions of competence in several ways: (1) the abilities of group members to engage in
collaborative processes, (2) the competencies of staff members or volunteers who work on the programs established via
the collaborative, (3) the competencies of agency staff in making institutional changes to support collaborative work,
and (4) the capacity of school staffs to teach all children effectively.
Attention to competency issues includes working to facilitate professional training that extends beyond traditionally
rigid disciplinary boundaries. Melaville, Blank, and Asayesh (1993) observe that “narrow professional training has
helped to create and continues to reinforce the existing system” (p. 17). They urge “new forms of interprofessional preservice and inservice education, training, and leadership development” (p. 17).
A-28
Back
Guide
Appendix F ● ISSUES
IN
COLLABORATIVE WORK: A REVIEW OF
THE
LITERATURE
Collaborative groups should not ignore issues of instructional competence. Although attention to issues not directly
related to instruction–such as children’s health, safety, and emotional well-being–is perhaps long overdue, attention to
the “whole child” does not negate the importance of quality instruction. Unfortunately, studies suggest that, in many
cases, schools lack capacity for instructional improvement (Boethel, 1998).
Addressing differences in power, perspective, and belief
As noted in earlier sections, differences in race, culture, and class can lead to tensions, miscommunication, and competing agendas among members of the collaborative group as well as between the group and the community it seeks
to serve. The observation by Wolff (1995b) echoes a common theme in the literature; he reports that one of the
“major difficult[ies] that we have found in community helping systems is the inability of helping systems to deal with
issues of diversity” (p. 1-5). Race is perhaps the most volatile and pervasive issue; Peirce and Johnson (1997) conclude,
“There’s not a single American metro area where [race] is not, to some extent, a very real problem” (p. 27).
The challenge of working through the deep-seated, often unconscious beliefs that different individuals hold about
each other should not be underestimated. As Delpit (1995) observes, “We all carry worlds in our heads, and those
worlds are decidedly different” (p. xiv). In her book, Other People’s Children, Delpit asks the question,
Why do the refrains of progressive educational movements seem lacking in the diverse harmonies,
the variegated rhythms, and the shades of tone expected in a truly heterogeneous chorus? Why do
we hear so little representation from the multicultural voices which comprise the present-day
American educational scene? (p. 11)
One answer to those questions, Delpit argues, is that inherent in issues of race, culture and class are issues of power.
She observes that “those with power are frequently least aware of–or least willing to acknowledge–its existence,” while
“those with less power are often aware of its existence” (p. 26).
Ignoring issues of cultural, class and racial difference has not proved an effective strategy. Robinson and Hanna
(1994), in discussing the community development work of Saul Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation, describe the
Foundation’s “practice of rigidly applying a culture-neutral and color-blind approach,” a strategy that, in retrospect,
has been described as “organizers’ myopia” (p. 88). But as staff from the Annie E. Casey Foundation (n.d.) point out,
Unfortunately, there is no single group-work exercise that helps very different people work well
together to do big things, no magic technique that quickly enables diverse groups to collaborate in
meaningful ways. Instead, we discovered that people who work hard together and in good faith on
problems of enormous importance to the community can provide, in time, the impetus for taking
risks, for talking about things most often not raised directly, and ultimately for building mutual
respect. Further, we learned that a truly diverse array of local stakeholders must be involved early,
and that this expectation must be communicated as early and as clearly and consistently as possible.
(pp. 4-5)
It is also important to consider the ways in which institutions–and the interpersonal networks that function within
and support them–help to perpetuate differences based on race, culture, and class. New sociological theories and
research are helping to uncover some of the processes and structures that have led to “the institutionalization of classand ethnic-based antagonisms” (Stanton-Salazar, 1997, p. 20) and to the reproduction of traditional patterns of power
and social mobility. Issues of diversity are not merely a matter of addressing individual values and beliefs; they remain
one of the most difficult and pervasive “deep-structure” issues.
A-29
Back
Appendix F ● ISSUES
IN
COLLABORATIVE WORK: A REVIEW OF
THE
LITERATURE
Guide
Conclusion
The literature on collaboration is one indicator of a trend, visible in many aspects of American society, toward what
one writer describes as an “associational world view” (Schwartz, 1992, p. 113), which emphasizes interdependence,
community, and “the invisible structure of society beneath the formal structures of which, by common consent, it is
believed to be composed” (Schwartz, p. 114). Although the difficulties in mobilizing this perspective are substantial,
there are a growing number of tools and experiences available to support collaborative efforts.
As is true of any trend, the popularity of collaborative endeavors is both a boon and a hazard. A report by the
Pew Partnership for Civic Change (Morse, 1996) notes that “collaboration is what might be called the community
amoxicillin of the 1990s. Not unlike that pink miracle drug given for 90 percent of the earaches of America’s next
generation, collaboration is being seen as the panacea for community problem solving.” The biggest challenge in
making collaboratives work, as the Pew report concludes, is not in writing a prescription for change–it is in “how
to sustain health after a heavy dose” (p. 1). For that challenge, no literature yet exists.
References
Annie E. Casey Foundation. (n.d.). The path of most resistance: Reflections on lessons learned from the New
Futures. Baltimore: Author.
Boethel, M. (1998, April). Issues in teaching English-language learners: An overview. Unpublished draft. Austin:
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.
Coleman, J.S. (1987, August-September). Families and schools. Educational Researcher, pp. 32-38.
Corbett, H.D., Wilson, B., & Webb, J. (1996). Visible differences and unseen commonalities: Viewing students as the connections between schools and communities. In Cibulka, J.G., & Kritek, W.J. (Eds.), Coordination
among schools, families, and communities: Prospects for educational reform, pp. 27-48. Albany: State University of New
York Press.
Crowson, R.L., & Boyd, W.L. (1993). Coordinated services and children: Designing arks for storms and seas
unknown. American Journal of Education, 101(2): 140-179.
Crowson, R.L., & Boyd, W.L. (1996). Structures and strategies: Toward an understanding of alternative
models for coordinated children’s services. In Cibulka, J.G., & Kritek, W.J. (Eds.), Coordination among schools, families, and communities: Prospects for educational reform, pp. 137-169. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Currie, E. (1998, April 12). Solutions for a nation where children kill. The New York Times, pp. AR37.
Delpit, L. (1995). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: The New Press.
DeYoung, A.J. (1989). The disappearance of “social capital” in rural America: Are all rural children “at risk”?
Rural Special Education Quarterly, Vol. 10 #1, pp. 38-45.
Dombro, A.L., O’Donnell, N.S., Galinsky, E., Melcher, S.G., & Farber, A. (1996). Community mobilization:
Strategies to support young children and their families. New York: Families and Work Institute.
Driscoll, M.E., Boyd, W.L., & Crowson, R.L. (1997). Collaborative services initiatives: A report of a national
survey of programs. In Haertel, G.D., & Wang, M.C. (Eds.), Coordination, cooperation, collaboration: What we know
about school-linked services, pp. 49-88. Philadelphia: Mid-Atlantic Regional Educational Laboratory.
Elder, J. (1992, December 21). Developing effective working relationships to support the integration of comprehensive services to children and families. Phase I Final report. Austin: J.O. Elder Associates.
Epstein, J.L. (1995, May). School/ family/community partnerships: Caring for the children we share. Phi
Delta Kappan, pp. 701-712.
A-30
Back
Guide
Appendix F ● ISSUES
IN
COLLABORATIVE WORK: A REVIEW OF
THE
LITERATURE
Fine, M.A., & Schwebel, A.I. (1991). Resiliency in black children from single-parent families. In Rhodes,
W.A., & Brown, W.K. (Eds.), Why some children succeed despite the odds, pp. 23-40. New York: Praeger.
Furman, G.C., & Merz, C. (1996). Schools and community connections: Applying a sociological framework. In Cibulka, J.G., & Kritek, W.J. (Eds.), Coordination among schools, families, and communities: Prospects for educational reform, pp. 323-347. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Gallard, A.J. Learning science in multicultural environments. (1993) In K. Tobin (Ed.), The practice of constructivism in science education, pp. 171-180. Washington, D.C.: AAAS Press.
Guthrie, G.P., & Guthrie, L.F. (1991, September). Streamlining interagency collaboration for youth at risk.
Educational Leadership, pp. 17-22.
The Harwood Group (1998, Winter). Planned serendipity. Unpublished draft report. Charlottesville, VA: Pew
Partnership for Civic Change.
Heath, S.B., & McLaughlin, M.W. (1996). The best of both worlds: Connecting schools and community
youth organizations for all-day, all-year learning. In Cibulka, J.G., & Kritek, W.J. (Eds.), Coordination among schools,
families, and communities: Prospects for educational reform, pp. 69-93. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Heckman, P.E., Scull, W.R., & Conley, S. (1996). Conflict and consensus: The bitter and sweet in a community-school coalition. In Cibulka, J.G., & Kritek, W.J. (Eds.), Coordination among schools, families, and communities:
Prospects for educational reform, pp. 49-67. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Herrington, C. (1996). Schools as intergovernmental partners: Administrator perceptions of expanded programming for children. In Cibulka, J.G., & Kritek, W.J. (Eds.), Coordination among schools, families, and communities:
Prospects for educational reform, pp. 197-221. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Hoffer, T.B., & Coleman, J.S. (1990). Changing families and communities: Implications for schools. In
Mitchell, B., & Cunningham, L.L. Educational leadership and changing contexts of families, communities, and schools.
89th Yearbook, part 2, pp. 118-134. Chicago: University of Illinois.
Hord, S.M. (1992). Facilitative leadership: The imperative for change. Austin: Southwest Educational
Development Laboratory.
Hord, S.M. (1986, February). A synthesis of research on organizational collaboration. Educational Leadership,
pp. 22-26.
Jordan, C. (1997, April-June). Meeting your wants and needs. Volunteer Leadership, p. 27.
Kirst, M.W. (1991, April). Improving children’s services. Phi Delta Kappan, pp. 615-618.
Kirst, M.W., & McLaughlin, M. (1990). Rethinking policy for children: Implications for educational
administration. In Mitchell, B., & Cunningham, L.L. Educational leadership and changing contexts of families, communities, and schools. 89th yearbook, part 2, pp. 69-90. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kretzmann, J.P., & McKnight, J.L. (1993). Building communities from the inside out: A path toward finding
and mobilizing a community’s assets. Chicago: ACTA Publications.
Kritek, W.J. (1996). Introduction. In Cibulka, J.G., & Kritek, W.J. (Eds.), Coordination among schools, families, and communities: Prospects for educational reform, pp. ix-xxv. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Lipsky, M. (1980). Street-level bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the individual in public service. New York: Russell
Sage Foundation.
Lugg, C.A., & Boyd, W.L. (1997). Leadership for collaboration: Reducing risk and fostering resilience. In
Haertel, G.D., & Wang, M.C. (Eds.), Coordination, cooperation, collaboration: What we know about school-linked services, pp. 98-106. Philadelphia: Mid-Atlantic Regional Educational Laboratory.
A-31
Back
Appendix F ● ISSUES
IN
COLLABORATIVE WORK: A REVIEW OF
THE
LITERATURE
Guide
Mattesich, P.W., & Monsey, B.R. (1992). Collaboration: What makes it work. A review of research literature on
factors influencing successful collaboration. St. Paul, Minn: Amherst H. Wilder Foundation.
Mawhinney, H.B. (1996). Institutional effects of strategic efforts at community enrichment. In Cibulka,
J.G., & Kritek, W.J. (Eds.), Coordination among schools, families, and communities: Prospects for educational reform,
pp. 223-243. Albany: State University of New York Press.
McClure, M.W., Jones, B.A., & Potter, E. (1996). Beyond consensus: Mapping divergent views of systems
and power in collaboration. In Cibulka, J.G., & Kritek, W.J. (Eds.), Coordination among schools, families, and communities: Prospects for educational reform, pp. 379-401. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Melaville, A.I., & Blank, M.J. (1991, January). What it takes: Structuring interagency partnerships to connect
children and families with comprehensive services. Washington, D.C.: Education and Human Services Consortium.
Melaville, A.I., Blank, M.J., & Asayesh, G. (1993, April). Together we can: A guide for crafting a profamily
system of education and human services. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services.
Miller, B.A. (1995, Winter). The role of rural schools in community development: Policy issues and implications. Journal of Research in Rural Education, pp. 163-172.
Minami, M., & Ovando, C.J. (1995). Language issues in multicultural contexts. In Banks J.A. (Ed.),
Handbook of research on multicultural education, pp. 427-444. New York: Macmillan.
Molloy, P., Fleming, G., Rojas Rodriguez, C., Saavedra, N., Tucker, B., & Williams, D.L., Jr. (1995a,
November). Building home, school, community partnerships: The planning phase. Austin: Southwest Educational
Development Laboratory.
Molloy, P., Fleming, G., Rojas Rodriguez, C., Saavedra, N., Tucker, B., & Williams, D.L., Jr. (1995b,
November). Building home, school, community partnerships: The role of the neutral facilitator. Austin: Southwest
Educational Development Laboratory.
Morrill, W.A., Reisner, E.R., Chimerine, C., & Marks, E. (February, 1991). Selected collaborations in service
integration. Report to the U.S. Department of Education (ED Contract LC 89089001).
Morse, S.M. (1996, Spring). Building collaborative communities. Charlottesville, VA: Pew Partnership for
Civic Change.
Newman, R.L., & Beck, L.G. (1996). Educating homeless children: One experiment in collaboration. In
Cibulka, J.G., & Kritek, W.J. (Eds.), Coordination among schools, families, and communities: Prospects for educational
reform, pp. 95-133. Albany: State University of New York Press.
New York State School Boards Association. (1990). Schools as community. A position paper of the New York
State School Boards Association. Albany: Author.
Ohio Center for Action on Coalition Development. (1992). Building Coalitions. Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio
State University Extension.
Payzant, T.W. (1992, October). New beginnings in San Diego: Developing a strategy for interagency collaboration. Phi Delta Kappan, pp. 139-146.
Peirce, N., & Johnson, C. (1997). Boundary crossers: Community leadership for a global age. College Park,
MD: The Academy of Leadership Press.
Phelan, P., Davidson, A.L., Yu, H.C. (1993). Students’ multiple worlds: Navigating the borders of family,
peer, and school cultures. In P. Phelan & A.L. Davidson (Eds.), Renegotiating cultural diversity in American schools
(pp. 52-88). New York: Teachers College Press.
Powell, M.J. (1994, September). Equity in the reform of mathematics and science education: A look at issues and
solutions. Austin: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.
Robinson, B., & Hanna, M.G. (1994). Lessons for academics from grassroots community organizing: A case
A-32
Back
Guide
Appendix F ● ISSUES
IN
COLLABORATIVE WORK: A REVIEW OF
THE
LITERATURE
study—the Industrial Areas Foundation. Journal of Community Practice, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 63-94.
Samuels, B., Ahsan, N., & Garcia, J. (1995). Know your community: A step-by-step guide to community needs
and resources assessment. Chicago: Family Resource Coalition.
Schorr, L.B. (1997). Common purpose: Strengthening families and neighborhoods to rebuild America. New York:
Anchor Doubleday.
Schwartz, D.B. (1992). Crossing the river: Creating a conceptual revolution in community and disability.
Brookline, Massachusetts: Brookline Books.
Seeley, D.S., Niemeyer, J.H., & Greenspand, R. (1992). Principals speak–report #2: Parent involvement. New
York: Principals Speak Project/CUNY.
Smylie, MA, Crowson, R.L., Chou, V., & Levin, R.A. (1996). The principal and community-school connections in Chicago’s radical reform. In Cibulka, J.G., & Kritek, W.J. (Eds.), Coordination among schools, families, and
communities: Prospects for educational reform, pp. 171-195. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Sohng, S.S.L. (1996, December). Participatory research and community organizing. Journal of Sociology and
Social Welfare, pp. 77-97.
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. (1998, February 17). The comprehensive action team (CAT)
development model and process. Draft. Austin: Author.
Srnrekar, C. (1996). The Kentucky Family Resource Centers: The challenges of remaking family-school
interactions. In Cibulka, J.G., & Kritek, W.J. (Ed.), Coordination among schools, families, and communities: Prospects for
educational reform, pp. 3-25. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Stanton-Salazar, R.D. (1997, Spring). A social capital framework for understanding the socialization of racial
minority children and youths. Harvard Educational Review, pp. 1-39.
Stone, C., & Wehlage, C. (1992, May). Community collaboration and the restructuring of schools. Madison,
Wisc.: Center on Organization and Restructuring of Schools, University of Wisconsin, Madison.
U.S. Department of Education. (1996, May). Putting the pieces together: Comprehensive school-linked strategies
for children and families. Washington, D.C.: Author.
Wang, M.C., Haertel, G.D., & Walberg, H.J. (1997). The effectiveness of collaborative school-linked services. In Haertel, G.D., & Wang, M.C. (Eds.), Coordination, cooperation, collaboration: What we know about school-linked
services, pp. 3-19. Philadelphia: Mid-Atlantic Regional Educational Laboratory.
White, J.A., & Wehlage, C. (1994, January). Community collaboration: If it is such a good idea, why is it so
hard to do? Madison, Wisc.: Center on Organization and Restructuring of Schools, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Winer, M., & Ray, K. (1994). Collaboration handbook: Creating, sustaining, and enjoying the journey. St. Paul,
Minn.: Amherst H. Wilder Foundation.
Wolff, T. (1995a, Spring). Barriers to coalition building and strategies to overcome them. In Kaye, G, &
Wolff, T. (Eds.), From the ground up: A workbook on coalition building and community development, pp. 4-49. Amherst,
Mass.: AHEC/Community Partners.
Wolff, T. (1995b, Spring). Coalition building: One path to empowered and healthy communities. In Kaye,
G, & Wolff, T. (Eds.), From the ground up: A workbook on leadership and changing contexts of families, communities, and
schools. 89th yearbook, part 2, pp. 118-134. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Wolff, T., & Foster, D. (1995, Spring). Principles of success in building community coalitions. In Kaye, G.,
& Wolff, T. (Eds.), From the ground up: A workbook on coalition building and community development, pp. 3-29 - 3-39.
Amherst, Mass.: AHEC/Community Partners.
Zetlin, A.G. (1997). Lessons learned about integrating services. In Haertel, G.D., & Wang, M.C (Eds.),
Coordination, cooperation, collaboration: What we know about school-linked services. pp. 89-93. Philadelphia: MidAtlantic Regional Educational Laboratory.
A-33
Back
Southwest Educational
Development Laboratory
211 E. Seventh Street
Austin, TX 78701
voice: 512/476-6861
fax: 512/476-2286
www.sedl.org