Issue Briefs and Reports

Networks for Social Impact in Education Series – Report 4: Navigating Network Change

View the Resource By Michelle Shumate, Rong Wang, Katherine R. Cooper, Jack L. Harris, Shaun Doughtery, Joshua Miles, Anne-Marie Boyer, Zachary Gibson, Miranda Richardson, Hannah Kistler This report focuses on managing networks in a changing environment. Although the research described concludes during the emergence of COVID-19, the findings suggest that dramatic disruption is not exceptional. We focus on three activities that are essential to managing change: Managing changing network membership.

Networks for Social Impact in Education Series – Report 3: Effective Data Practices Support Learning and Systems Alignment

View the Resource By Michelle Shumate, Rong Wang, Katherine R. Cooper, Jack L. Harris, Shaun Doughtery, Joshua Miles, Anne-Marie Boyer, Zachary Gibson, Miranda Richardson, Hannah Kistler In Networks that Create a Social Impact (Report 1), we highlighted two network designs associated with social impact. One of those network designs combined learning and systems alignment theories of change. Learning theories of change make a social impact by improving existing programs and

Networks for Social Impact in Education Series – Report 2: Equity and Empowerment in Education Networks

View the Resource By Michelle Shumate, Rong Wang, Katherine R. Cooper, Jack L. Harris, Shaun Doughtery, Joshua Miles, Anne-Marie Boyer, Zachary Gibson, Miranda Richardson, Hannah Kistler Do cross-sector networks make education inequity worse? This question has been the topic of significant debate in the sector, particularly around whether the collective impact model of crosssector network interaction is redeemable.1 In the years since this debate emerged, education coalitions across the United

Networks for Social Impact in Education Series – Report 1: Networks that Create a Social Impact

View the Resource By Michelle Shumate, Rong Wang, Katherine R. Cooper, Jack L. Harris, Shaun Doughtery, Joshua Miles, Anne-Marie Boyer, Zachary Gibson, Miranda Richardson, Hannah Kistler Consultants and foundations often tout collective impact as the best approach for organizations responding to social problems in their community. Organizations that function under the collective impact tenets, such as having shared metrics and goals, are said to have more significant community outcomes. This

Collaborative Networks: The Next Frontier in Data Driven Management

View the Resource By Julia Carboni, Catherine Annis, Mariana Escallon Barrios, Zachary Gibson, Joshua Miles, Nicholas Armstrong, Gilly Cantor, Karen Smilowitz, Michelle Shumate Collaborative networks to deliver services are ubiquitous where public policy or management challenges require the efforts of multiple organizations to solve a problem or assist clients with complex needs. While guidance on how to manage networks abounds, much of it is limited to strategies focused on network

Improving Evaluation to Address Social Needs

View the Resource By Michelle Shumate The Leveraging Integrated Networks in Communities (LINC) to Address Social Needs Act, currently before Congress, addresses the lack of coordination between social service and health organizations. Through public-private partnerships, it offers states and regions incentives to use technology to equalize access to essential services. Section 3 of the proposed legislation focuses on evaluation, requiring the U.S. Comptroller General to assess service provider networks based on