The Aligned Partners are three technical assistance organizations whose aim is to make their complementary technical assistance more coherent and useful to the needs of the district in which they are working.
In year one, SCOPE studied the work of the Aligned Partners, which resulted in two Learning Memos. The first memo went to the technical assistance organizations and documented the Aligned Partners’ progress toward their goals and attempted to illuminate possible “blind spots” in their work. The second memo was written for the project funder as a companion document and explored opportunities for the foundation to learn from its grantmaking role to support inter-organizational collaboration.
In years two and three, SCOPE conducted an Enactment Study of the project, following the Aligned Partners’ work in the district as well as educators who have participated in Aligned Partners’ professional development. Our learnings are available in narrative documents and graphic tools.
The Beyond Alignment paper examines the Aligned Partners project to answer the questions: What conditions are necessary for Technical Assistance Organizations (TAOs) to work together in a school district? and How can a school district create conditions for TAOs to work together toward achieving a common goal across its schools? Read the paper here>>
Published in The Foundation Review, “Coherent Assistance in Education Improvement” examines the role that a philanthropic organization played in the project and identifies several grantmaking practices that foundations can employ for greater impact in the field. Read the paper here >>
SCOPE's Toward the Desired State Practitioner Toolkit includes 3-page chart/handout that identifies key questions to ask and answer before, during, and after engaging with TA providers and a short narrative that describes the tool and how to use it. Get the toolkit here >>
