While effective professional learning necessitates identifying and leveraging the expertise that exists in schools already, external vendors and technical assistance providers also have an important role to play in building educators’ capacity.

Expectations for these third-party vendors are shifting and may now include reframing their roles so they act as collaborative partners, critical friends, coaches, and experts who bring new perspectives and help manage change.

Given the spectrum of possibilities for engaging in external partnerships, educators will need to carefully align their needs, goals, processes, and expectations to achieve the best results for students.

• Collaborative relationships: Educators may consider today’s external assistance providers as extended members of their learning teams, working in collaboration toward mutual goals and benefits, ultimately for the purpose of student success. Transparency, trust, strong communication, and the ability to honestly assess results are key to these types of partnerships.
• Careful planning: While it may be tempting to forgo a complicated planning process and jump into implementation, especially when a provider has a ready-to-go system at hand, a thorough planning process builds a strong foundation for a productive, sustainable relationship. There are many important questions for educators to answer in the initial phases of selecting and working with an external partner.
• Ongoing review: Just as any effective professional learning system operates within a cycle of continuous improvement, so, too, do effective external assistance partnerships. From the beginning, measures of success and reflective touch points are helpful to guide and monitor the relationship, content, delivery, and results of partnerships.