Increased pressures on schools have placed all stakeholders, especially principals, in a situation of needing to be fully aware of the roles and the functions necessary to provide students with the skills to be successful in the business world. Many schools and businesses are experiencing success in developing partnerships focused on various levels of involvement. In building and maintaining these linkages, the principals involved must be aware of their roles and functions within a partnership. The purpose of this study is to provide insight into this challenge by determining the role, actions, and characteristics of effective school leaders involved in business partnerships.; A medium size Florida school district was selected since most small districts have limited to no active partnerships on record and most large districts have partnerships that are multi-school or district-level partnerships which were the types of partnerships eliminated from this study. Twelve partnerships from ten different schools in a medium size Florida school district were the focus of this study. Seven characteristics of an effective partnership were most widely identified by principals, business leaders, and the district personnel: (1) open and continuous communication; (2) planning, goal setting, and evaluation; (3) commitment; (4) needs assessment; (5) know your community; (6) appropriate allocation of human resources; and (7) monitoring the process. From the skills, abilities, and knowledge identified by the participants, the most prevalent were five: (1) open and continuous communication; (2) planning, goal setting, and mission; (3) public relations; (4) knowing your community; and (5) commitment.; When evaluating the data collected according to elementary, middle, and high school levels, there were five different skills, abilities, and knowledge identified. The only differences were the order of importance: (1) communication; (2) planning; (3) know your community; (4) public relations; and (5) commitment. The Florida Educational Leadership Standards related to these characteristics were Community and Stakeholder Partnerships, Vision, Managing the Learning Environment, and Diversity.; The lack of available documents from the partnerships may indicate that the principals and the business partners have created a bond that does not need a written agreement to maintain and sustain the growth of the partnership.
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