Criteria for "best practices"

Guiding Principles

The Foundation - Developing the partnership's core values

Partnerships must be built on shared values and philosophies

Partnerships should:

• Begin with an open and frank discussion about values, goals and needs.
• Respect and reflect the culture and goals of both the education and business partners.
• Support the core mission of the school.
• Bolster the academic, social and physical well being of students.
• Compliment the social values and goals of the school, business partner and the community.

Partnerships should be defined by mutually beneficial goals and objectives

Partnerships should:

• Clearly define short and long-range goals.
• Focus on collaboration to determine activities that meet the goals of all involved.
• Be aligned with education goals and board policies of individual schools and/or districts.

Implementation - Translating values into action

Partnership activities should be integrated into the school and business cultures.

• Partners should communicate frequently to respect and understand each other's cultures.
• Partnerships should provide students, teachers and business employees with opportunities to interact at school, community and business sites.

Partnerships should be driven by a clear management process and structure.

• Each school and school district should have a point person to manage partnerships to ensure quality and alignment with educational goals for students.
• Partnerships should include written descriptions of roles and responsibilities, accountability measures and guidelines for responsibilities of educators and business employees.
• Partnerships should include training for all key personnel.

Partnerships should define specific, measurable outcomes

• Partnerships should be guided by a written collaborative agreement on outcomes, benchmarks and measures of progress.

Continuity - Sustaining the partnership over time

Partnerships should have support at the highest level within the business and school and concurrence at all levels.

• Superintendents, principals, school boards, CEO's and managers should articulate and demonstrate support for the partnership internally and externally.
• Partnerships should be explicitly supported by teachers, employees and other constituents.
• Communities should have the opportunity to review and contribute to partnerships

Partnerships should include detailed internal and external communication plans, which clearly illustrate expectations of all parties

• Partners should communicate regularly about intended and actual outcomes of all activities
• Communication about partnerships should allow opportunities for private and public recognition of both parties.

Evaluation - Determining strengths, weaknesses and future directions

Partnerships should be developed with clear definitions of success for all partners.

• Measures for success should be established at the outset of the partnership
• Partnerships should be evaluated on a regular, agreed-upon basis
• Evaluation should include collection and analysis of information to determine accomplishments, strengths and weaknesses of the partnership.

Source: The Council for Corporate & School Partnerships: Guiding Principles for Business and School Partnerships