Collaborations between urban schools and businesses, community agencies, cultural institutions, and universities have become a popular way to improve public education. Motives for collaborating include the following: (1) schools with a largely disadvantaged population need powerful, vocal support groups; (2) businesses need a highly educated and…

A number of factors put pressure on schools to work more closely with health, social service, and other youth-serving institutions but poor communications, program redundancies, fear for job security, and concerns about parent and community support for controversial services inhibit close collaboration. Recent successful collaborative school,…