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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to understand how collective impact partnerships, as a form of intermediaries within education, perceive and attribute their actions toward raising community-level postsecondary enrollment and completion rates for students of color. The researcher sought to understand the collective impact partners’ perceptions of the conditions and processes that contributed to these regional outcomes gains over multiple years. This study traced the history of federal policies and growth of intermediary organizations within the educational landscape that has resulted in collective impact as a model for cross-sector collaboration toward commonly identified outcomes. This study was theoretically framed through regional civic capacity, which examines cross-sector actors’ ability to influence population-level changes within their policy and political contexts. This study used a process tracing methodology to develop a model for how collective impact partners described their contributions to the postsecondary outcomes while taking into account other regional factors that may have influenced the outcomes, including other programs, policies, and political drivers. Five regions with StriveTogether collective impact partnerships were identified through these selection criteria: improving regional postsecondary enrollment and completion for Black and Latino students over multiple years leading up to 2019. This study found seven pre-conditions and value adds of participating in collective impact; cross-sector collaboration, data capacity, an equity focus, support from StriveTogether, a cradle to career approach, investment from regional leadership, and leveraged funding all contributed to collective impact partners’ capacity to improve postsecondary outcomes. The process through which effective collective impact partnerships influenced postsecondary outcomes followed seven steps: 1) convening cross-sector partners, 2) reviewing disaggregated data, 3) reviewing predictive research factors, 4) conducting landscape analyses, 5) developing or scaling strategies, 6) testing effectiveness of strategies, and 7) repeating process steps as necessary. These findings have significant implications for other collective impact initiatives seeking to raise regional outcomes, school districts and higher education institutions seeking to improve student outcomes, funders seeking to invest in successful collective impact, the business community seeking to close the gap between educational attainment and labor market demands, and researchers studying the role of collective impact in educational policy.