A Case Study of a Public Private Partnership in Arts Education

Abstract

Public private partnerships (PPP) expand government services by utilizing the skills and resources of the private sector. Collaboration between the sectors allows for a greater reach of services, and the potential for cost effective and efficient methods of delivery. Using the skills and expertise of the arts community in the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, helped the public school system create a plan to provide equitable and sustainable arts education to its students.

This study seeks to understand a public private partnership among the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Tulsa Public Schools district and the Tulsa area nonprofit arts community. The partnership was formed to address arts education disparity in the Tulsa Public School district. This case study captures the yearlong planning process of the partnership as it attempts to create a sustainable arts education plan for the district, providing equal access to all students in grades kindergarten through eighth.

This research followed the guidelines of case study research as outlined by Robert Yin (2009). The research methods are explained in Chapter Three, and the findings are presented in Chapter Four. Chapter Five presents a discussion of the results, the limitations of the study and suggestions for further research. The findings suggest that this PPP was able to make progress in creating a plan for equitable arts education in the school district because it gathered classroom-level and community-wide data to determine goal-setting and strategic planning.