Phase 3 - Sustainment
In Phase 3, EPP and district partners focus on enhancing partnership work in support of ongoing improved outcomes for educator candidates. Partners establish a systematic approach to continuous improvement, routinely engage in collaborative discussions regarding partnership work, and determine short- and long-term partnership goals.
The essential aspects of the sustainment phase do not have to progress linearly. While working toward partnership goals, partners may determine that certain sustainment and development aspects should occur simultaneously.
Suggested Timeframe: 6-18 Months
Essential Aspects of Sustaining or Enhancing Effective Partnerships
- Use evidence to assess progress against intended outcomes.
- Make adjustments as necessary to improve educator candidate readiness and pre-K–12 student outcomes.
- Use a cycle of continuous improvement to address ongoing needs.
- Continue to engage in a number of needs-based, short-term and long-term, joint projects.
- Explore sustainable funding options.
- How will the partners measure the success of the partnership efforts?
- How will partners plan for continuous growth and development within the partnership?
- What is the “next level” of the partnership? Once the partnership has made acceptable progress toward its current goals, what aspect of the partnership will become the focus?
- What plan can be enacted to ensure that partnership work continues regardless of personnel changes?
Process Considerations
- Determine Clinical Practice Improvement Strategies – Partners establish common language and frameworks to support strategies for improving clinical experiences, and jointly identify high-quality curriculum resources to ensure appropriate support for developing pedagogical content knowledge.
- Connect Theory to Practice – Partners identify ways to build on experiences to help educator candidates make connections between education theory and the realities of a pre-K–12 environment.
- Strengthen Continuum Between Preparation and Employment – Partners should consider ways to strengthen the continuum between preparation and employment to include providing shared professional learning activities.
- Manage Complex Change Resulting from Partnership Initiatives – Ensuring effective, sustained change within partnerships requires formalization of key processes. Partners are encouraged to continue to use a specific process like the one described here to sustain desired change and to ensure a focus on continuous improvement.
- Intentionally Share and Utilize Organizational Data – Partners continue to share, analyze, and utilize data to monitor action plan progress against intended outcomes, making adjustments as necessary.
- Ongoing Assessment of Partnership Needs – Partners build on the results of the SWOT analysis and other partnership data to continually assess needs, adjust current action plans, and develop new goals. Partners use implementation data (stakeholder feedback, candidate data, etc.) to develop new goals and drive future action plans.
- Maximize Partner Human Capital – Partners continually assess participant involvement, adjusting core and ‘ad hoc’ membership as necessary.
- Protect Collaborative Time – Partners continually assess partnership collaborative activities and structures to ensure maximum return on resources invested, making adjustments as necessary.
- Innovative Use of Fiscal Resources – Partners assess effectiveness of fiscal resources innovations, expanding or adjusting as necessary to support partnership work.
- Collaboratively Review the Partnership – Partners openly discuss partnership progress, strengths, and challenges and collaboratively develop plans to address challenges. Partners adapt and adjust preparation programs to better meet district needs.
- Establish a Continuous Improvement Cycle – Partners engage in a systematic review cycle (e.g., “Plan, Do, Check, Act”) to review/monitor progress against goals and intended outcomes and to effectively sustain or enhance desired outcomes.
- Secure Sustainable Funding – Partners explore innovative and creative ways to secure, modify, or repurpose funds to support partnership work.