The University of Pennsylvania's partnership with University City High School / Alison LaLond Wyant.

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

LaLond Wyant, Alison.

Contributor:

Hartley, J. Matthew, advisor.

Watts, Caroline, committee member.

Grossman, David, committee member.

University of Pennsylvania. Higher Education.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Penn dissertations--Higher Education.

Higher Education--Penn dissertations.

Local Subjects:

Penn dissertations--Higher Education.

Higher Education--Penn dissertations.

Physical Description:

xi, 169 pages ; 29 cm

Production:

2013.

Summary:

This dissertation examined the form and function of the partnership between the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) and its neighboring public high school, University City High School (UCHS), throughout fiscal year 2012, as well as key stakeholders' perceptions of the partnership during that time period. Penn's status as an internationally renowned, well-funded research institution stands in stark contrast to the resource-challenged, underperforming state of UCHS. Moreover, their organizational cultures and missions are disparate. Existing literature about obstacles to creating interorganizational partnerships across lines of significant cultural difference (e.g., Fogel & Cook, 2006; Eckel & Hartley, 2008) highlights the need for research about how university-partnerships like the one between Penn and UCHS operate successfully.

One best practice for building successful partnerships one can find in the extant literature is to build a strong organizational structure for the collaboration (Bringle & Hatcher, 2002; Leiderman et al., 2003; Torres, 2000), but little information exists in current literature about how organizational models form and function within their unique contexts, or about how such structures affect the partnerships.

Although Penn and UCHS have had a working relationship since 1994, the relationship took its most formal structure in 2009, when the two entities partnered to open a Student Success Center at the school using a $670,000 three-year grant from the Department of Labor. Penn employs three full-time staff people at the school, and more than 75 additional Penn stakeholders come through the building on a weekly basis. Qualitative data revealed the importance of the partnership's responses to the two central challenges Eckel and Hartley (2008) identify in building interorganizational partnerships: 1) defining shared goals, and 2) reconciling organizational cultures into a shared system of procedures, policies, and managerial structures. The partnership's responses offered ideas about the importance of clear, shared, adaptable goals, aligned with stakeholders' needs and partnership activities; the value of integration in the school's organizational structure and physical space; the effects of blurred organizational parameters; and the value of coordinated efforts and continuity among skilled participants.

Notes:

Adviser: J. Matthew Hartley.

Thesis (Ed.D. in Education) -- University of Pennsylvania, 2013.

Includes bibliographical references.

OCLC:

866087296