ABSTRACT
Understanding the role of higher education institutions in community partnership is more important now than ever as these institutions increasingly support complex, multisector community initiatives to determine and address community needs. This chapter assists engaged leaders by developing deeper understandings of partnership equity that embrace the multiple and sometimes competing conceptualizations of the public good evident in community-based coalitions for education reform. Higher education institutions can be essential partners in community-based problem-solving efforts, especially when the problem being addressed is educational opportunity. The chapter attempts to capture the complexity of defining and embracing the public good in a diverse, community-based multisector coalition. It outlines how the Walnut Hills Education Network collaborators constructed the idea of community in relation to the process of determining community need.
