Family & Community Alternative Learning
The Educational Collaboratives of Massachusetts
An Overview 2004

Vision Statement

The Massachusetts Organization of Educational Collaboratives is a highly visible, influential organization that is recognized as the Commonwealth's primary advocate for and facilitator of interdistrict collaboration in education and related services.

Mission Statement

To provide a forum to enhance the ability of Collaborative Directors to promote leadership and direction to their organizations through professional development, information exchange, and advocacy for Collaborative programming such that Massachusetts Collaboratives can better serve their customers. The Executive Committee of the Massachusetts Organization of Educational Collaboratives has developed this document to help the state legislature, the State Board of Education, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, professional organizations, our member districts and the public in general to understand the history, operation and current condition of educational collaboratives.

Purpose

The Massachusetts Organization of Educational Collaboratives is the professional organization to which each collaborative may belong. MOEC serves to enhance the practice of collaboration among its members and their constituent districts through

1. education and information sharing;
2. responsive consultation and planning; and
3. field support to member collaboratives.

From Provincetown to the Berkshires, the state's twenty-nine educational collaboratives are providing, in a quiet and efficient manner, a host of inter-district support services to nearly 300 member school systems. They provide services to thousands of students and hundreds of school system personnel - teachers, support staff and administrators. And, they have been providing these services for the last twenty-five years.

How and why were educational collaboratives established?

The Massachusetts Legislature passed and the governor signed into law Chapter 40 Section 4e in 1974. This act encouraged local school committees to conduct in concert educational programs and services to supplement or strengthen existing school programs and services. Subsequently, the Massachusetts Board of Education adopted and updated through 1988 a policy on Educational Collaboratives. In the most recent policy statement, the Board of Education reiterated its belief "that educational collaboratives have a potential beyond special education to increase and expand the level of service in regular education, occupational education, staff development, research and innovative programs."

The majority of the collaboratives came into existence to address either or both the member systems' needs for special or occupational education. Thus, the collaboratives assumed first the responsibility for designing, implementing and delivering a menu of programs and services for low-incidence, handicapped populations and/or student populations in need of career and school-to-work programs.

How are collaboratives governed?

The governance of each collaborative is the responsibility of a board of directors which, by law, is comprised of one person appointed by each member school committee. That person is either a school committee member or his/her designee or the superintendent of schools or his/her designee. Each collaborative's board conducts its business pursuant to the terms and conditions of the collaborative agreement, a document that must receive the approval of the Commissioner of Education.

Agreement

It is this written agreement that governs the scope of programs, the financial terms and the conditions of membership. The agreement provides for the establishment of a trust fund, the hiring of a treasurer, an Executive Officer and other personnel. It allows the collaborative board to contract for services, lease or own property and otherwise act as a public entity. Collaboratives are eligible to receive both state and federal funds, and grants and gifts from both private and public sources. These receipts become a part of the collaborative's trust fund.

Collaborative Development

Collaboratives have developed in response to two factors - first, the increased educational demands placed on local school districts; and second, the fluctuating nature of fiscal resources. Astute school committees and school administrators have seen the value of creating and utilizing an "economy of scale" principle in providing a host of programs and services to students and staff. In fact, long before the much-touted "marriages "of health insurance providers, hospitals, and other types of service organizations, the educational collaboratives of Massachusetts were demonstrating the economic efficiency and programmatic advantages resulting from their efforts.

Today, the collaboratives provide services in the form of management support, cooperative purchasing, student transportation, research, technology development, the implementation of health and safety programs and professional development. In the 2003-2004 school year, the twenty-nine educational collaboratives that are members of MOEC are providing services to nearly 300 local and regional school systems. The total of the collaboratives' core budgets exceeds $217 million. They employ over 4,520 full and part-time professionals and support personnel. Growth of the collaboratives over the last twenty-five years is phenomenal.

The success of each collaborative is measured by the effectiveness of its response to the needs of its member school systems. The responsibility of the collaborative is to aid the members in assessing their individual and collective needs and to demonstrate through model programs the efficacy of a collaborative venture. The characteristics of the entrepreneurial organization - risk taking and mentoring - must be evident to the member systems at all times.

Educational collaboratives, therefore, must model for member districts the strategies that succeed in today's public sector - the use of effective planning and process tools, conflict resolution skills, and inclusive decision making. The collaborative's personnel and financial resources must be used to maintain a balance between the funding and support for current programs and services and those initiatives that stimulate untapped opportunities.

Survey

This survey of our member educational collaboratives reveals that they:

1. Serve 4,700 children whose special education requirements cannot be met in their school systems' programs.

2. Serve thousands of children in non-special education programs - gifted and talented, occupational education, migrant education, school-to-work, and DYS sponsored.

3. Returned to participating communities over $20 million from Medicaid reimbursement services in FY 2003.

4. Operate a variety of alternative school programs for children with psychological or behavioral disorders.

5. Manage extensive pupil transportation systems for districts.

6. Provide professional development and job-alike opportunities for their own staffs and the staffs of their member districts.

7. Serve as the purchasing agent for cooperative purchasing programs that provide educational supplies, technology equipment and energy resources to members.

8. Conduct both occupational education and school-to-work programs for member districts across the state.

9. Serve as grant managers for state-agency sponsored programs for clients in regular education, special education and adult services.

10. Provide management consultation and school committee policy development.

11. Currently utilize 376 classrooms in public school buildings and 363 "classrooms" in non-public space.

12. Ten have newly-established, site-based licensure programs for teachers and administrators in partnership with colleges and universities.

The chart contained herein illustrates the scope of programs and services currently reported by each collaborative in December 2003. Regardless of the size of the individual collaborative, each provides programs that its member districts demand. Thus, collaboratives like a variety of other human service and business organizations serve a truly entrepreneurial role.

There is little question that the existence of collaboratives and their services have a significant economic impact in Massachusetts. They save taxpayer dollars. No other educational organizations in this state have demonstrated the capacity to do what the collaboratives, individually and collectively, are accomplishing. In fact, twenty-three collaboratives have participated in the implementation of a ESE grant to MOEC to address the state-wide transitioning needs of youth with special needs. In the last two years, twenty-one of the collaboratives have worked together on a curriculum development and sharing project. The educational world in this state is just beginning to recognize the role that collaboratives have played, do play and could play. The Executive Board of the Massachusetts Organization of Educational Collaboratives invites your inquiries.

The Massachusetts Organization of Educational Collaboratives is available to respond to your inquiry through its Executive Director, Dr. Joseph A. Keefe, at (508) 653-1747 or (781) 237-3028. View directory information for educational collaboratives.

A Profile of Services Provided by
Massachusetts Educational Collaboratives [PDF]