School District and Researcher Collaboration: A School Administrator’s Practice and Perspective

The author, as a school administrator, wrote this article to describe an effective collaboration with several universities on research projects that benefit both institutions. The outcomes described here focus on the process involved in such collaborations and the benefits to the school district these collaborations can create. Directed toward other school administrators, the article outlines processes employed to encourage similar partnerships between other school districts and universities. Based largely on the collaborative partnership between Paradise Valley Unified School District (PVUSD) and the College of William & Mary, the author shares a framework for initiating and planning such collaboration from a school administrator’s perspective. Within this framework, she describes approaches for obtaining administrative support, methods for planning proactively, suggestions for allocating time and resources, and the importance of integrating projects into existing structures and aligning them to district initiatives. The outcomes discussed describe what schools can expect from these collaborative partnerships. These outcomes can include professional learning opportunities with leading experts in the field, free curriculum and other resources, and access to school or district research-based data that have been analyzed by the higher institution’s researchers