The Susquehanna Township School District is an urban fringe district located in central Pennsylvania. According to Niche.com, serving 2,990 students and representing 25 languages, the district is one of the most diverse school districts in the nation and the most diverse district in the Commonwealth. With learners and families representing an expanse of experiences, ethnicities, religions, socio-economic statuses, and post-secondary ambitions, our diversity is our greatest strength and our biggest challenge. Community partnerships help expand opportunities in many ways.
Struggles of Our District
Like a growing number of school districts across the nation, we struggle to raise test scores, address unfunded mandates, and thrive despite dwindling resources. With a deluge of competing priorities, school leaders risk becoming preoccupied with local urgencies at the expense of preparing learners to meet the challenges of a technologically transformed workplace, leaving us wondering how to prepare our increasingly diverse student populations to excel in the Information Age.
Our district is no different. Just seven years ago, we engaged a cross-section of stakeholders to develop our mission and vision. These guiding tenets were not a laundry list of hollow aspirations awaiting the occasional review by school leaders. They were reminders of our agreement and commitment to learners and families entrusting us with their futures. Our vision is World-class, every day, in every way, and our mission is the success of every learner. We are acutely aware that, to fulfill our vision and mission, we must maintain a global perspective on education and the impact that the educational experiences we provide will have on every learner’s success.
Our Core Values
Developing our core values further solidified the district’s commitment to providing STEM equity and access through a collective approach.
- Every learner has the right to a world-class education.
- We will be a leader in innovation and technology.
- The learning environment must be safe and supportive.
- Our diversity is our strength.
- Community partnerships are vital to our success.
- We will act ethically at all levels of the organization.
Districts may enjoy some level of individual impact through programmatic and curricular adjustments. However, collective impact positions districts and their partners to mutually identify strategic challenges, foster innovation, demonstrate organizational agility, and achieve a shared mission and vision on behalf of every learner. Pooling resources across sectors provides comprehensive and sustainable STEM experiences that extend beyond the school walls into community partnerships. For example, STEM instruction at local libraries, before and after school programs facilitated by service organizations, and summer programs operated through the local municipality further enhance the community’s STEM ecosystem.
Our Journey’s Beginning
We began our journey by defining our district’s STEM ecosystem, school, home, and community-based resources that, when aligned, would provide a wide range of learning opportunities for students. Further, we developed a list of partners representing the public and private sectors with whom we conducted business. Finally, we identified additional partners who might share the district’s vision for a STEM-focused community. Next, we developed the district’s mission statement for STEM. It was critical to have a variety of perspectives in the room to ensure that our mission and vision reflected the expanse of our experiences. This work was accomplished over two days, offsite, with a cross-section of district staff. After this process, we developed our rules of engagement. Our district’s mission and vision would drive its long-term commitment to improving all post-secondary outcomes. Our STEM mission statement was the catalyst to engage partners in a STEM-centered collective.
In their article, Collective Impact, John Kania and Maria Kramer (2011) identified collective impact as a promising approach to addressing large-scale social challenges. Within the framework, Kania and Kramer note five conditions essential in achieving sustainable change.
- Backbone organization
- Common agenda
- Shared measurement
- Mutually reinforcing activities
- Continuous communication
Backbone Organization
The backbone organization offers structure to the process and monitors the overall progress of the initiative. School districts are uniquely positioned to serve as backbone organizations, particularly in developing a STEM collective. As hubs of their respective community partnerships, districts deliver access to learners and typically hold transactional relationships with local business and industry leaders as a cost of doing business. School leaders who regularly leverage their influence within the community are ideal to launch a collective impact approach. Leaders who have yet to explore resources within their respective communities are strongly encouraged to build their professional cross-sector network. Community partnerships make all the difference.
Common Agenda
The care and attention expended in developing the district’s vision should be applied when advancing a common STEM agenda, as it will guide the work of partnership organizations. Essential to the development of a common agenda is the purposeful identification of businesses and organizations within the public and private sectors that share an interest in strengthening the local economy, extending STEM-related opportunities for all learners, and establishing local and regional STEM partnerships through workforce development. One conversation at a time, school leaders must invest time to meet with leaders across sectors to share their vision for the district, the learners, and the community’s future. A combination of passion, vision, and trend data will help identify allies whose needs and capacities complement the district’s mission and vision for connecting learners to STEM-related careers.
A Time-Consuming Path
The road to a common agenda is unquestionably time-consuming, given the growing responsibilities of school leaders. However, it will pay dividends for all stakeholders when carefully crafted. Despite mounting demands, this endeavor is paramount to achieving systems-level change. Budgetary constraints are a mainstay in education. While fiscal support can certainly enhance program opportunities, the collective impact also necessitates a commitment to human resources, professional expertise, and preservice experiences, not easily monetized contributions.
Finally, a shared agenda, particularly one aimed at expanding STEM learning outcomes for underserved and underrepresented student groups, must be viewed through an equity lens. Identifying policy and procedural changes needed to address systemic inequities will also facilitate the removal of barriers that reinforce disparities within STEM disciplines. The needs of my district are always at the forefront of my mind as I engage in conversations. I ask, how can this partnership support our mission of the success of every learner? How can I make my mission their passion? How can I align our vision with their area of expertise? The leader’s role is to make the connection and make it meaningful for my would-be partners.
Shared Measurement
Mutual indicators of success are as critical as a common agenda. Partners need to envision the fruits that collective impact will yield for their organization. Key questions to shape the development of shared measures include, what does a successful partnership look like for each stakeholder? Will your district serve as a pipeline for partnering organizations’ workforce? Will partners be allowed to mentor and shape potential employees through internships, shadowing, and other preservice experiences? What is a reasonable timeline, and how will you benchmark progress along the way? While the agenda will guide the work, shared measurements ensure the quality and degree of the work accomplished. Each partner must articulate outcomes they hope to realize and a timeline for achieving those outcomes.
Mutually Reinforcing Activities
Collective impact through community partnerships, though akin to collaboration, is distinct in its focus on the individual accomplishments of each partnering organization. Following creating a common agenda and shared measures of success, each organization agrees to align its efforts to pursue the collective vision. For example, partners whose policies prohibit high school students from job shadowing or internships commit to reviewing and updating those policies to extend such opportunities to our learners. Similarly, organizations with limited experience connecting with K–12 institutions committed to developing processes to advance authentic and productive partnerships.
Learning requires greater customization to meet learner needs, and the prevalence of information at each learner’s disposal weakens the argument that schools exist to impart knowledge to generations of learners. Instead, schools must help learners channel the proliferation of information through moral, ethical, and creative lenses that will ultimately lead to a college/career pathway. Because authentic STEM experiences at key intervals across the K–12 experience are critical in building comprehensive pathways and ensuring access for all learners, our district is committed to developing new and advanced STEM courses beginning in middle school.
Counseling learners to consider career and technical education (CTE) courses in high school and partner with post-secondary institutions to offer scholarships and dual enrollment opportunities into STEM majors. Partner organizations created opportunities to engage high school learners through internships, mentorships, job shadowing, and targeted funding.
Continuous Communication in Community Partnerships
Ongoing communication is vital to collective impact as partner organizations revisit the agenda to determine if it remains appropriate and ensure that activities remain aligned. Continuous focused communication with partners fosters trust. Additionally, it allows the coalition to monitor progress toward achieving shared measures and pivot where warranted. Partners are also more readily available to troubleshoot, solicit, and offer feedback on shared challenges when communicating regularly.
The Leader’s Charge
Districts must equip and produce authentic STEM experiences in cutting-edge and emerging technologies to prepare learners to compete within the rapidly evolving and increasingly competitive marketplace. Businesses and industries seek a workforce that can innovate, think critically, and generate the next big idea, and preparation cannot begin in high school. On the contrary, STEM experiences must be integrated throughout the K–12 experience and beyond the school walls. Even the highest performing school districts will have limited impact if assuming this challenge alone.
Harnessing resources beyond the district to include business, industry, and civic organizations can intensify the district’s impact to reach all learners. As chief visionaries and advocates of the organization, it is incumbent upon school leaders to assist would-be partners in seeing their role as impactful within the STEM ecosystem and then guide the larger coalition to achieve those shared goals. Every handshake, every phone call, every conversation is a strategic move in building that coalition. Do not miss an opportunity to capitalize on the moment of community partnerships. Students need you.
Reference
Kania, J., & Kramer, M. (2011). Collective Impact. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 9 (1), 36–41. https://doi.org/10.48558/5900-KN19
About the Author
DR. TAMARA WILLIS
Dr. Tamara Willis is unwavering in her campaign to prepare globally competitive, 21st-century learners through innovation and customization. In her chapter, she reveals how school leaders can expand access to STEM opportunities for all learners using a collective impact approach. The focus of a Microsoft Customer Story and two-time featured speaker for HP’s American Reinventors Series, Tamara has successfully leveraged key partnerships to develop sustainable STEM initiatives within her school district. During her twenty-two years in education, she has served as a building-level principal, an assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, and an adjunct professor in the areas of special education and instructional leadership. Dr. Willis is currently Superintendent of the Susquehanna Township School District located in south central Pennsylvania.
