Ed466 301 - Tomorrow’s Child

Recognizing that communities can accomplish more for their children if all parts of the community work together in a collaborative effort, family-school-community-business par.tnerships have developed to provide comprehensive services to children and their families more effectively. This report contains information on the history, purposes, and structures of family-school-community-business partnerships and offers examples of such partnerships that are making a difference for children. Following introductory remarks, section 1 of the report discusses efforts to improve educational quality and accountability. Section 2 discusses the evolution of collaboration from the early 1900s to the present and presents the goals of family-school-community-business partnerships. Collaboration models are described, and three major types of partnership service-delivery models presented: school-based, school-linked, and community-based. Section 3 of the report describes the unique needs, key players, and primary characteristics of partnerships that target the following underserved or underrecognized areas: (1) early childhood education; (2) education of homeless children and youth; (3) education of migrant children, youth, and their families; (4) education of chil-dren of poverty; (5) preparation of teachers to work with children with learning disabilities; and (6) reduction of the achievement gap through improved educational opportunities. Section 4 describes the critical components of successful partnerships: client-access facilitators, delivery-system facilitators, and government facilitators. (Contains 128 references.).