The key difference between the good and the bad example of the school-community partnership was in communication patterns. In the first case, Institute for Student Achievement (ISA) rarely engaged in an inter-organizational conversation with Dunbar High School. This situation widened the gap in mutual understanding and resulted in poor outcomes for both students and the education providers. At the first glance, ISA had a clearly established goal – to build up the student’s knowledge level to a college standard. However, such activities did not correlate with the school educational program, which is a vivid example of miscommunication on the organizational level.
The collaboration of Dunbar school with smaller schools demonstrated the opposite approach to partnership. They both had the same goals: raising the level of teaching quality, prioritizing academic knowledge instead of sport, and nurturing leadership. By sharing and discussing positive practices and collaboration channels the organizations worked together towards shaping better youth. Based on the example, communication seems to be the most effective way towards successful school community entrepreneurial partnership. Funding, on the other hand, appears to be not that important because it did not help ISA reach its goals. This leads to the conclusion that healthy cooperation is born through mutual dedication to teamwork and open dialogue.