Making Sense of Community Partnerships
The context
An independent K–12 school identifies community partnerships as a strategic priority aligned with its commitments to equity, ethics, and community engagement. Over time, the school has developed a range of partnerships with community organizations, but senior leadership seeks a more thoughtful, evidence-informed approach to understanding how these relationships function in practice, including partners’ perceptions of partnership quality, value, and outcomes associated with this work.
Rather than evaluating individual partnerships, the school is seeking insight that can inform more intentional partnership decisions as part of its broader strategic planning.
Sample questions guiding this work include:
How are community partnerships experienced by partners and by the school community?
How do different partnerships support student learning, ethical development, and community engagement in practice?
In what ways do partnerships appear to advance the school’s commitments to equity, ethics, and community engagement, and where is that impact less clear?
Where are partnerships well aligned with the school’s mission, and where might expectations, outcomes, or structures benefit from greater clarity?
Our approach
In situations like this, Wasatch Education Group works with schools to examine the quality, strength, and perceived impact of community partnerships through qualitative inquiry.
A typical engagement includes:
In-depth interviews with community partners to understand how they experience the partnership, how they view the school’s role, and how the work supports shared goals related to learning, equity, ethics, and community engagement
Conversations with faculty, staff, leaders, and students most directly involved in partnership work to surface internal perspectives, goals, and areas of alignment or tension
Review of partnership materials (e.g., strategic priorities, partnership descriptions, agreements, and impact documents) to examine how partnerships are intended to function alongside how they are experienced in practice
The focus is on identifying patterns across partnerships and comparing internal and external perspectives to support reflection and strategic sense-making.
What schools gain from this work
Through this type of inquiry, schools gain:
A clearer understanding of how the quality and impact of partnerships are perceived by partners and the school community
Insight into how partnerships contribute to student learning, equity, ethics, and community engagement in concrete ways
Shared language for distinguishing between partnerships that are well aligned with educational goals and those that may benefit from clarification, redesign, or deeper integration
Evidence to support more intentional, mission-aligned partnership decisions over time
Typical deliverables
A concise executive summary highlighting key themes and strategic implications
A synthesized findings report integrating partner and internal perspectives
A facilitated findings conversation to support leadership reflection and next-step decision-making
Why this work matters
This kind of work helps schools move beyond aspirational statements about community engagement toward a more grounded understanding of how partnerships actually function. By centering lived experience and multiple perspectives, schools are better positioned to strengthen partnerships in ways that support teaching, learning, and belonging—both within the school and across the broader community.