The concept of a school-business partnership offered education a tool to forge linkages with business organizations to smooth the transition from school to work for noncollege-bound students. Massachusetts became the first state to charter student branch banks under the sponsorship of a school-bank partnership. The purpose of the descriptive study was to document the initiation process that promotes the implementation of a public high school student branch bank with a collaborating financial partner. Using two dimensional samples of secondary administrators and financial executives, perceptions were obtained for clarification of four basic research questions: (1) How does the high school student-bank innovation become a component of the school curriculum? (2) What are the perceptions of educators and financial executives concerning their roles and responsibilities in the evolvement of a school-bank collaboration? (3) How does the school structure affect the learning environment of student branch bank (SBB) students? (4) How does the student-bank partnership contribute to the learning experience? Qualitative research methodology--including in-depth, semi-structured interviews; a survey questionnaire; field observations; and analysis of related documents--was used to collect data from 37 educators and 34 financial executives. Data gathered in the study indicated the catalysts of school-bank partnerships were mainly educators seeking to offer noncollege-bound students experiences to aid them in their transition from school to work. The research also showed that financial institutions used the student-branch-bank innovation as an investment in the youth of the community and as a future pool of trained, qualified teller-employees. The findings of the study revealed the success of welding the relationship between education and bank organizations rested heavily on leadership efforts to provide solutions to difficult problems, particularly those identified with scheduling and interorganizational communication. A review of literature covered the theoretical parameters of partnership, change, interorganizational relations, and leadership that were associated with innovation. Research design; data presentation and analysis; summary, conclusions, and recommendations; and further research implications are included in final chapters.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:dissertations-8326 |
| Date | 01 January 1992 |
| Creators | McLaughlin, Dolores Liberty |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest |
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