AbstractBased on a cross-case analysis of the studies presented in this book, this study concludes that during the COVID-19 pandemic, universities engaged with school systems and school networks to sustain educational opportunity. They did so through entrepreneurial educational innovation in ways which helped integrate their research, teaching, and outreach functions. This finding speaks to the nature of universities as learning organizations, open to their external environment, not just to respond to changes in it, but to shape it.This chapter identifies seven innovations that universities advanced in their collaborations with schools:
Research and analysis to support decision-makers in formulating strategies of educational continuity (outreach and research).
Advancing knowledge based on research in schools in the context of the pandemic (research).
Instructional and technological resources and online platforms for students and teachers, including efforts to support connectivity (outreach and teaching).
Professional development for teachers, education administrators, and parents (outreach).
Highlighting the importance of attention to socio-emotional support for students (outreach).
Organizational learning and innovation (synergies among research, teaching, and outreach).
Innovations in teaching: Engaging university students in these collaborations with schools (teaching).
These seven innovations include products, solutions, processes, and managerial improvements, and for the most part they are evolutionary innovations and, in some cases, revolutionary.These collaborations were facilitated by and, in turn, reinforced three institutional processes supportive of outreach:
University mission and strategy
Collaboration and institutional integration
Structures and preexisting collaborations with schools