Partnerships in UPPI with Daniel Reyes-Guerra
22m | Oct 24, 2023Welcome back to In the Lead with UCEA’s podcast series on the University Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI). Join UCEA Executive Director, Dr. Mónica Byrne-Jimenez as she talks with Dr. Daniel Reyes-Guerra, Associate Professor at Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) School Leadership Program within the Department of Educational Leadership and Research Methodology of the College of Education.
How did FAU coordinate and evolve partnerships with some of Florida’s largest school districts? And how are they revolutionizing their curriculum and internship programs?
In the Lead with UCEA is a production of University FM via a grant from The Wallace Foundation.
Chapter Timestamps:
- How did FAU pursue this initiative? | 0:55
- Relationships with other school districts | 2:03
- How did the faculty make power sharing easier? | 9:33
- Evolving the partnerships with other districts | 13:17
- The lasting impacts of this process | 16:45
- Summary & Closing | 22:13
Episode Quotes:
On creating deep institutional approach to partnerships
07:08: This idea of being equal partners and working together towards that common goal is something that's extremely difficult to do, but it's also something very rewarding, and I say difficult because these are two organizations that are very different. The culture within each of these organizations is very different. And so you have to create some really strong personal relationships across the university, the district, and back to really make the partnership work.
How did the partnership and relationships between districts evolve over the course of the redesign effort?
15:19: Bringing the three districts to the table was really insightful. For the leadership development across all three districts, they started communicating and learning from each other. They're in the same state, and in our state, they all run off the same standards. They all run off the same evaluation platforms, and they basically have the same instructional leadership needs. These districts are very similar in terms of their demographics as well. So, all of a sudden, they were talking to each other, and we were the medium by which they were actually communicating and getting the research scholarship, perhaps even calling it an outside observation of what it was that they were doing. And so this really helped, in terms of strengthening those other partnerships and connecting them much more to the work of each other and to the work of the university.
An important fact that we need to take into account when entering into partnerships
17:04: Universities are a huge font of not only knowledge but applicable professional learning that they can use not only for a partnership program but that they can use for other professional learning that they do with ed leaders in their district.
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