A robust Project Lead The Way (PLTW) “community”—of students, educators, and supporters—can be instrumental in reinforcing student learning and creating opportunities for student recognition. This community connects your PLTW students to global and local challenges that capture their interests and links the PLTW program to your broader community including business and industry.

To build a community around your PLTW program, one key strategy is to form a PLTW Community Partnership Team. A PLTW Partnership Team is a group of collaborative stakeholders that provides leadership and action to support and enhance PLTW student learning experiences at your school. A strong PLTW Partnership Team impacts the efficacy of your program and helps build it into an exemplary, sustained program with influence that reaches beyond the bounds of your school and into the workforce.

Many PLTW teachers consistently collaborate with local businesses and organizations in various ways. However, other PLTW teachers request strategies, tips, and examples of how to build community partnerships that are focused, collaborative, and comprehensive and that will enhance the PLTW student experience. PLTW investigated this concept with schools that have implemented successful partnership teams and also consulted with community orgs. As a result, PLTW developed the PLTW Community Partnership Framework, which provides a roadmap for schools to follow as they build partnerships to support their PLTW programs.

The Community Partnership Framework outlines the steps you can take to build and sustain a community partnership team. The Framework guides you as you think through key aspects in each step of the process to develop an effective partnership team.

Explore the five steps in the Community Partnership Framework to learn about each step and access resources for building a community partnership team.

PLTW Partnership Teams are unique to each school’s situation and follow the process at their own pace. We encourage teams to reach out to the PLTW Strategic Partnerships Team for support and guidance as you navigate through these steps. To get connected with a Strategic Partnerships Team member, contact the Solution Center at solutioncenter@pltw.org.