Despite the fact that nearly every school and district in the K-12 market experiences some level of support from the surrounding community, very little research has been done in the area of community/school partnerships. This survey by DeHavilland Associates offers insights into how community/school partnerships are structured and what types of relationships schools and districts have established. Key findings from this survey include:

1. When asked to rank the importance of current partners to their efforts, respondents put individual businesses first, parent organizations second, and booster clubs third;
2. When asked to rank the partners with whom they'd most like to develop relationships, business coalitions came in first, followed by individual businesses and regional/national foundations;
3. Most school districts do not have established systematic procedures to recruit and monitor partnerships;
4. There were clear differences in the responses of suburban, urban, and rural schools and districts.

Those in suburban areas note generally higher levels of support from community-based partners; those in urban areas receive greater support from institutional partners (nonprofits, foundations, and postsecondary institutions); and those in rural areas record below-average levels of support from every partner with the exception of booster clubs; and (5) 46 percent of school districts report receiving support from a local education fund or school foundation.