Diagnostic Rubric: Are We a Partnership Yet?

When you first begin to collaborate with a university or educational organization, your collaboration is not yet a partnership. There are some markers, though, that you can use to help you diagnose where you are on the path to becoming a partnership. The table below is a rubric that is based on a framework for assessing the development and impacts of research-practice partnerships developed by Erin Henrick, Paul Cobb, Kara Jackson, Tiffany Clark, and Bill Penuel with funding from the William T. Grant Foundation.

You can use this rubric as the basis for a discussion with your partners about your partnership’s development. You could begin by asking individuals to write down where they think the partnership is along each of the dimensions of the framework. Then, ask individuals to share their ideas and reasons for locating the partnership where they did. In the whole group discussion, encourage everyone to listen carefully to one another. Expect that different participants will have different views on where the partnership is in its development. Not everyone needs to have the same viewpoint, either, for the participants to learn from this discussion.