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

 (209 pages, PDF) While cross-sector collaborations in support of local education reform show promise, they also often face challenges. A new report from Teachers College, Columbia University commissioned by the Wallace Foundation, examined eight collaborations, including three in depth — Say Yes Buffalo, Milwaukee Succeeds, and  All Hands Raised (Multnomah County, Oregon) — and found that they helped bring together local partners despite often-contentious local education politics. At the same time, many collaborations faced challenges, from the difficulty posed by school districts that view collaboration as a distraction, to the expense of setting up effective data management systems, to engaging marginalized groups in the decision-making process.