| his dissertation examined the form and function of the partnership between the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) and its neighboring public high school, University City High School (UCHS), throughout fiscal year 2012, as well as key stakeholders’ perceptions of the partnership during that time period. Penn’s status as an internationally renowned, well-funded research institution stands in stark contrast to the resource-challenged, underperforming state of UCHS. Moreover, their organizational cultures and missions are disparate. Existing literature about obstacles to creating interorganizational partnerships across lines of significant cultural difference (e.g., Fogel & Cook, 2006; Eckel & Hartley, 2008) highlights the need for research about how university-partnerships like the one between Penn and UCHS operate successfully.;One best practice for building successful partnerships one can find in the extant literature is to build a strong organizational structure for the collaboration (Bringle & Hatcher, 2002; Leiderman et al., 2003; Torres, 2000), but little information exists in current literature about how organizational models form and function within their unique contexts, or about how such structures affect the partnerships.;Although Penn and UCHS have had a working relationship since 1994, the relationship took its most formal structure in 2009, when the two entities partnered to open a Student Success Center at the school using a... |
