Building Impact: A Closer Look at Local Cross-Sector Collaborations for Education

A new report by Teachers College, Columbia University, Building Impact: A Closer Look at Local Cross-Sector Collaborations for Education, helps fill the gap by examining eight contemporary education collaborations across the country. The report draws on case studies of each of the collaborations and includes summaries of these examinations. Among the key findings are that collaborations need a credible and compelling rationale, as well as committed advocates, to get started; supporting a “backbone” organization to coordinate among the various players is a primary expense of collaboration; and collaborations seem to be helped by efforts to gather and use data despite a range of obstacles, including privacy concerns and uncertainty about which metrics to use.