The complexity of the challenges facing State agencies in education and children’s health suggests a new way of working with stakeholders – the consumers and providers of services, who can bring their knowledge and experience to States’ efforts. When policy and practice are grounded in the realities of practitioners in schools and local agencies, and of families, professional associations, and higher education, they are more likely to be implemented and succeed.

The IDEA Partnership encourages and facilitates this new way of working in several ways. We join 55 national professional and family organizations in productive activities with State agencies and technical assistance providers. We base our efforts on the ‘Communities of Practice’ concept, a powerful change strategy for bringing many voices and perspectives to the work of decision makers. We offer small seed grants to “laboratory States” for action research on how national organizations, their affiliates, and other stakeholders can work closely with State agencies using the Communities of practice strategy.

This section provides information about our mission, our history, and our partners.  Additional sections describe our collaborative Partnership work and an overview to the website. We invite you comments, ideas and suggestions.


http://www.ideapartnership.org/mission.cfm

http://www.ideapartnership.org/osep.cfm

http://www.ideapartnership.org/unifiedpartnership.cfm

http://www.ideapartnership.org/partners.cfm

http://www.ideapartnership.org/work.cfm

http://www.ideapartnership.org/websiteoverview.cfm