Characteristics of Enduring Partnerships

Why do some educational partnerships endure while others soon meet their demise? Leaders of partnerships (N=62), teachers and resource professionals participating in Partnering for Elementary Environmental Science (PEES) and Sciencing with Watersheds, Environmental Education, and Partnerships (SWEEP), reported perceived reasons for their team's endurance vs. decline during telephone interviews. Data suggest strong predictors of partnership endurance (i.e., qualities cited very frequently by interviewees as essential to partnering), moderate predictors, and low predictors of endurance. Similarly, data from teams that disbanded fell into strong, moderate, and low predictors of a partnership's demise. The data provide an "insider's view" to what it is like to participate in a partnership and to the dynamics of those relationships. It informs leaders in the partnership movement of the conditions deemed essential to establishing and nourishing partnerships that lead to school reform. (Contains 16 references.) (Author/MM)