CATON, JOYCE JEAN; EDD
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY AT EDWARDSVILLE, 1989
EDUCATION, ADMINISTRATION (0514); EDUCATION, BUSINESS (0688)
Education reform reports in the last decade included specific recommendations
to increase
business/community involvement in education. Former President Reagan challenged
the nation's
schools to develop 110,000 partnerships with business across the country. This
study described the
developmental processes in three school business partnership efforts using the
conceptual framework
of Ronald Havelock's social interaction change process model. The model posits
a five stage cycle (1)
awareness, (2) interest, (3) evaluation, (4) trial, and (5) adoption. Strategies
and tactics associated with
the social interaction model were identified. Partnership programs in three
Missouri K-12 districts were
analyzed. Each had been in existence for more than one year; the partnerships
were voluntary and not
connected to federal or state funding. Descriptive survey methodology was employed.
A structured
interview guide was developed that was sequenced to move through the five stages
of the social
interaction model. A superintendent level administrator and the coordinator
of the partnership program in
each of the three selected districts were interviewed. Data were summarized
in the three conceptually
clustered matrices by selecting summary statements from the responses obtained
in each of the five
stages. Personnel in two of the three school districts related the diffusion
of their project to all five stages
of the social interaction model. Strategies employed by the three districts
included natural diffusion,
natural communication network, and network building. The participants engaged
in mass media, county
agent, salesman, and opinion leadership tactics. In each district the innovation
was diffused throughout
the entire system within a three-year period of time. Several recommendations
for additional research
were generated: (1) Measures of success need to be developed that could be applied
to a variety of
partnership configurations or formats. (2) Longitudinal studies to explore the
temporary or permanent
nature of partnership activities could determine the institutionalization of
change in these three districts
as well as others with partnership activities. (3) Studies could be conducted
to determine the impact of
partnerships on a variety of educational concerns such as drop-out rates, attendance,
student
achievement, tax referenda, and the passage of bond issues.