ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to look at the role of partnerships in supporting and empowering teachers. School community partnership offers a strategy that has shown in practice to both sharpen teacher's roles within instructional practice and to empower teachers to guide and lead the development and implementation of results-focused partnerships. The authors begin with one example of a partnership strategy in Los Angeles, where teachers play a critical role as leaders of school-community partnerships that support some of the city's highest-need students. Empowering teachers has always been the essential school improvement strategy for one community partner in Los Angeles. The next section highlights ways schools and partners operationalize their relationship to support teachers. Community schools are schools that work closely with community partners, often via an intermediary organization, in this case LAEP, and an on-site coordinator whose job it is to serve as a liaison linking students with an array of community services that support student learning.
