Brokering information sharing [electronic resource] : a social network perspective on school partnerships with college outreach programs
Keywords: Education.

External college outreach programs are increasingly conceptualized in policy and practice as catalysts for reform of school-based college preparation and advising services. In addition to directly serving a cohort of students, these programs are increasingly positioned in schools and articulate an active agenda to influence how schools prepare students for postsecondary pathways. Yet, despite their wide scope and growing policy attention, there are many open empirical questions regarding external college outreach program, particularly with respect to their role in shaping school practices. One mechanism that may be at work and is worth exploring is knowledge sharing between external programs and their partner institutions. Given their specialized focus on the college search and application process, one way programs may catalyze school change is by sharing their expertise. A dominant thread of the literature on organizational change also posits that organizations learn through entry of "new" knowledge from external sources, further underscoring the need to empirically identify the knowledge sharing mechanism in schools with external partners. My dissertation begins to address the gap in the literature on external college outreach programs, by exploring if and how external programs and school staff share knowledge or information related to the college search and application process. To investigate information sharing in schools with external college outreach programs, I designed a comparative case study of four New York public high schools with at least one external college advising program. The schools varied in terms of the number and structure of other external programs at the school site and common indicators of college-going norms, such as graduation rate and college enrollment. The data for this study include semi-structured interviews and focus groups with a total of 78 participants across the four schools. In addition, in this study I took a social network point of view and administered a network questionnaire to all program and school staff participants. The relational perspective allows me to identify and explore the linkages between individuals necessary for knowledge transfer. The analysis presented in this dissertation offers an empirically grounded description of knowledge sharing in schools that partner with external college outreach programs. The data reveal a wide breath of information related to the college search and application process and a largely central role for external program staff in managing the flow of this information. External program representatives emerge as key stakeholders for transmitting updates, coordinating advising and school activities, and collaborating with colleagues. The data also characterize school staff as repositories of valuable insights about students and the school, yet show how dissemination of this information is related to their position in the network. Overall, the analysis presented in this study suggest the potential for centrally positioned program and school staff to not only share their expertise but also retrieve and integrate knowledge held by their peripherally positioned colleagues. The data also reveal important cross-case differences that draw a connection between existing college-going norms and knowledge sharing among stakeholders. The data indicate that in schools with more cohesive college-going norms, central program and school staff have a comparatively wider reach. These schools, the data reveal, are physically and formally structured in ways that are conducive to information sharing. Moreover, the cohesive college-going norms present at these schools, the data suggest, are associated with stakeholders' ability to maintain a largely positive interpersonal dynamic at the school. The analysis presented in this study furthers our understanding of college outreach programs by illustrating their role in motivating information flow relevant to the college search and application process in their partner schools. Moreover, the findings presented in this study suggest a broader conceptualization of school staff, not only in terms of their immediate job functions, but also in terms of the advantage -- or disadvantage -- that their relational position offers for influencing information flow in their respective schools. The findings presented in this study also have important implications for policy and practice; most notably, by highlighting the relationship between network position and information sharing, this study supports efforts to strategically position external program representatives centrally among school staff, irrespective of their immediate focus on student-facing services.