Chapter 9: The Iterative Partnership Paradigm: Creating Healthy, Sustainable University/ School District/Community Organization Relationships That Work

Universities, school districts, and public community organizations must learn, listen, and lead together to achieve positive outcomes that enhance educational prospects for the children and families they serve. As Slater (2010) cautioned: “The goal of a complex design, particularly interagency types, for collaboration is the mutuality of purpose and sustainability in other interactions to come” (p. 4). When charged with the education of English Language Learners (ELLs), the need is for collaboration that is also culturally respectful and essential (Lindsey, Roberts, & CampbellJones, 2013; Scanlan & Lopez, 2015). How, then, do educators and community members, who seek to create university-school-community partnerships, meet the goals and agendas of the collaborative triad in a culturally inclusive and sustainable manner? The Chicagoland Partners for English Language Learners (CPELL) program offers one narrative by describing the specially developed “iterative partnership paradigm” (“The Iterative Process,” 2015) which has been utilized successfully over the past eight years within language and culturally diverse partner districts.