Understanding Collaboration: A Formative Process Evaluation of a State-Funded School-University Partnership.

School-university partnerships are widely promoted yet little is known about what contributes to their effectiveness. This paper presents a participatory formative evaluation of a state-funded schooluniversity partnership. The study employed an empirically derived systems model – the Bergen Model of Collaborative Functioning (BMCF) – as the analytical frame. Twenty-one semi-structured interviews with a range of participants were conducted, transcribed, and then analyzed according to the BMCF. Participants described the foundation of partnership work between schools and universities as requiring the cultivation of humility in order to overcome hierarchical barriers for students, parents, and staff within schools. The central findings include a practice model for changing organizational structures to institutionalize protected collaborative space, a theoretical model providing a framework for better understanding the process of partnership, and a policy model which indicates the importance of significant funding to surmount organizational barriers and provide incentives for the intensive, longterm work required. NAPDS Nine Essentials Address: #1/A comprehensive mission that is broader in its outreach and scope than the mission of any partner and that furthers the education profession and its responsibility to advance equity within schools and, by potential extension, the broader community; #2/A school–university culture committed to the preparation of future educators that embraces their active engagement in the school community; #3/Ongoing and reciprocal professional development for all participants guided by need; #4/ A shared commitment to innovative and reflective practice by all participants; #5/ Engagement in and public sharing of the results of deliberate investigations of practice by respective participants; #7/A structure that allows all participants a forum for ongoing governance, reflection, and collaboration; #8/ ork by college/university faculty and P–12 faculty in formal roles across institutional settings; #9/Dedicated and shared resources and formal rewards and recognition structures. School-university partnerships are widely promoted by accrediting bodies, professional organizations and state legislatures (National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, 2001; Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, 2013). Yet, such collaborations are complex to enact (Goldring & Sims, 2005; Klieger & Wagner, 2014). Insufficient research exists that examines relational dynamics within school-university partnerships or that draws upon participants’ multiple perspectives. The literature is disparate, failing to connect research in a way that builds theory or provides recommendations for effective collaboration among partners (Teitel, 2004; Clift & Brady, 2005). In order to create the right collaborative conditions for positive school and university culture change, the needs of the school, the learning of both future and current teachers, and effective processes within university-school partnerships must all be taken into consideration. (Goodlad, Mantle-Bromley & Goodlad, 2004). This paper reports on an effort to proactively evaluate the activities of a state-funded school-university partnership in its second year of operation. Applying the Bergen Model of Collaborative Functioning (BMCF), we systematically documented the inputs, activities and outputs of the initiative as both a formative evaluation and as a case study of the process of university-school collaboration to contribute to the literature on partnership functioning.