Partnership Development
Overview
A major part of what The P-12 Project does is to build partnerships between the university and Ohio public schools, especially those serving students from underrepresented populations. The P-12 Project’s relationships with public school educators, particularly those in administrative leadership, allow us to create successful partnerships among schools, faculty members, colleges, and support units.
The P-12 Project’s capacity as a central initiative is innovative and perceived by educators as a significant statement of the university’s intentions toward Ohio public education. This unusual university-wide structure has been important to our success in embedding initiatives across the university. This complements and supports Ohio State’s overall approach to outreach: a pattern of behavior and expectation within and across the academic and support units of the university.
Our partnership development work includes
- documenting and disseminating information about Ohio State’s involvement in schools
- initiating and incubating projects closely aligned with development of school-university partnerships and/or college aspirations in children and young people
- supporting university units in developing effective university-school partnerships
- serving as a gateway for individuals and entities interested in school-university partnerships
- providing assistance and advice in implementing, evaluating, and sustaining partnership efforts
Documentation
Annually, the P-12 Project compiles the Ohio State University School Partnerships Summary, a publication describing the university’s involvement with schools. See the Resources page.
Ohio State faculty and staff: Add your programs to this publication by completing the online form.
Partnership Model
Outreach Sufficiency: Model Partnership Self-Assessment
The P-12 Project is developing a model of university-community partnerships that describes the conditions that would be sufficient to support three types of partnerships. The following resources are part of this model:
Handouts and forms from presentations by Nancy Nestor-Baker and staff of the P-12 Project at the 2008 Outreach Scholarship Conference:
- Outreach Sufficiency Model (PDF, 53 KB)
- Outreach Sufficiency Needs Assessment Toolkit (PDF, 346 KB)
- Partnerships Best Practices Literature Review (PDF, 283 KB)
Are All Partnerships Created Equal? Examples of the Sufficiency Model by Didi Fahey, PhD
Partnership Descriptions
The P-12 Project has played a leadership role in several school partnership initiatives:
Harambee Christian School-Ohio State Partnership
As part of an ongoing partnership coordinated by the P-12 Project, students and chaperones from Harambee Christian School in Columbus visited the Ohio State campus in Fall and Spring quarters. Stories and photos-->
Baseball Day
Each year, Baseball Day brings more than 3,000 sixth-grade students and staff from the Columbus City Schools to campus for an educational pep rally followed by a Buckeye baseball game. Stories and photos-->
Project KEY (Keep Engaging Youth)
Project KEY is a truancy intervention program involving BREAD (Building Responsibility, Equality And Dignity); Franklin County Juvenile Court; Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health board; Franklin County Children Services; and Columbus City Schools. The partnership with Ohio State includes campus visits designed to promote college aspiration for the students. Stories and photos -->
Johnson Park Middle School
In the 2005-06 school year, Ohio State embarked on a university-wide partnership with Johnson Park Middle School (JPMS) in the Columbus City Schools. Stories and photos-->

