With its focus on the benefits of collaboration this research will prove useful to school leaders either considering entering into a partnership, or wishing to get the most out of existing collaborations.
Collaboration as a strategy for improving schools in challenging circumstances
Synopsis
This research suggests that collaboration can benefit schools facing difficult and challenging circumstances by transferring existing knowledge and – more importantly – generating context-specific new knowledge. However, as the authors acknowledge, there are considerable barriers that have to be addressed in dealing with these different contexts.
The research explores through a variety of evidence how, under the right circumstances, school-to-school collaboration is a powerful means for strengthening the ability of schools to address complex and challenging circumstances. It suggests that there is strong evidence that collaboration can widen student learning opportunities and help address the needs of vulnerable groups of pupils. It offers substantial evidence that collaboration can be effective in helping schools to resolve immediate problems, and some evidence that collaboration can be effective in raising expectations, if circumstances are right.
Successful collaborations, it concludes, demand certain conditions that need to be carefully fostered over time.