BLOG 4: The External Partner- If You Want to Help a Partnership School, PLEASE Read This First

 We know you mean well. Truly. You saw a need to support a school identified for Partnership status, you built something to meet it and marshaled your resources, and now you want to get in there and make a difference.  That impulse is good.  It's important.  If you are an ISD its REQUIRED.  Don't let go of it. 

But I’d be doing you a disservice if I didn't tell you what I have personally seen happen when well-meaning organizations walk into a Partnership School environment without fully understanding what they're walking into.  Maybe you’re already there and have experienced what I have walked through firsthand!

The room might stall. Relationships among school leadership, the authorizer, MDE, and your crew can get strained.  The school leader- who is likely already carrying more than their fair share- might end up trying to manage you and the personalities in the room, instead of feeling the support you are designed to give.  What I have experienced is that when this is what’s happening, nobody wins.  Especially not the students. 

Here's the reality I have come to understand, having been part of the management company of a school in Partnership: a Partnership School isn't just a school.  It's a system.  There's an authorizer.  There's the Michigan Department of Education.  There might be an ISD structure and a management company (this might be you!).  There are existing improvement goals with specific metrics.  There are reporting requirements.  There are politics, histories, and dynamics you won't see on the website.  What I can guarantee you from my experience is that below the surface there are lots of fears and feelings!

And if your organization doesn't understand how to operate inside the ecosystem of these rooms, if you show up with a great program and no coordination capacity or a framework for collaboration, you're not going to be the help you intended (or are mandated) to be.  This blog is not meant to discourage you.  It's meant to prepare you for the types of rooms that I have had to help others navigate successfully.

The external partners who consistently make an impact in these environments have a few things in common.  They align to the school's purpose first, and dial into how this purpose lives through strategies within their improvement plan first, not their own program roadmap.  They land on shared understood goals with the various players in the room.  They co-create a blueprint that serves as the strategic plan for the school’s collaborative work.  They establish clear reporting expectations before they start.  They identify one point of contact and protect that relationship.  They agree to shared metrics and accept accountability for outcomes.  And when something isn't working (please read this twice!), they adjust their approach instead of defending.

In short: Partners must earn the trust of those in the room, even if (and probably especially) they are mandated partnerships.

Before your organization, ISD, etc., steps into a Partnership School relationship, I’d encourage you to use our External Partner Readiness Assessment.  It's not a sales tool.  It's a clarity tool.  It walks you through alignment, coordination capacity, sustainability, and accountability readiness, and gives you an honest picture of whether you're actually ready to show up the way these schools need.

Partnership District Schools – External Partner Readiness Assessment – Fill out form

If you want to talk through how to align your organization more effectively with school leaders and authorizers, reach out to me directly at [email protected].  

If you're reading this, I think you want to be the kind of partner that delivers.  Let's make sure you're set up to do exactly that and that we collaboratively get our schools off the list!