Adelante en Utah

Abstract

This case study discusses some of the issues that Adelante, a 6-year university–school–community partnership, continues to encounter in addressing college access and parent and community leadership in a community of color. It provides the sociopolitical context as well as a description of the university and community partners that make up Adelante. The two scenarios provided highlight the complexities and challenges of attempting to have an authentic university–school–community partnership given the present sociopolitical state, educational inequities for communities of color, the disconnection between the lived realities of communities of color and leading scholarship. The case relies on the partnership’s codirector and graduate student coordinators’ perspective and provides teaching notes that ask the reader to think about and react to challenges related to partnership development, higher education access for students of color, and the sustainability of university–school–community collaborations.