The Developing Field of School-Community Initiatives

A Forum — February 5, 1999

School-community initiatives involve many organizations working to assist schools and communities.  According to Martin Blank, Staff Coordinator of the Coalition for Community Schools and Director of Community Collaboration at the Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL), efforts to bring school and communities together have been underway for more than a decade.  Because each community is different and has different needs, each community will require unique assistance.  Therefore, there is no “cookie cutter” approach to school-community initiatives.  Recently, IEL and the National Center for Community Education analyzed 20 school-community initiatives across the country to identify key characteristics and emerging trends.  The study looked at a sample of those initiatives, some of them large and well known, others small and less well known.  The findings were published in the report Learning Together:  The Developing Field of School-Community Initiatives.

Atelia I. Melaville, a private consultant and co-author of Learning Together, explains that evaluations of  school-community initiatives are still in their early stages.  Preliminary findings show increased school attendance and test scores, decreased student mobility, and improved social and emotional behaviors of participant students.  The findings also indicate increased parental participation in the schools involved, reduction in crime rates in the areas served, and increased employment rates for graduates.  The services and activities are not parallel add-ons to the regular school programs.  They bring fundamental changes to the school culture, influencing all aspects of school life, such as policies, classroom curriculum, instructional methods, and communication between parents and staff.  These changes can only happen when there is a positive, strong relationship between the schools and the community.  The school principal has an important leadership role in bringing all the partners together in an atmosphere of collaboration, but cannot be responsible for the daily management of the programs.  Generally, a non-profit organization manages the initiative, working in a guest/host relationship with the school.  However, for the success of the initiative, it is essential that this relationship becomes a real partnership.  One way to accomplish this goal is to have a full-time coordinator on staff.  The ultimate decision-making power though, belongs to the community, which include parents, students, employers, representatives of social agencies, the police force, and others.

Candace Cheatem, Neighborhood Development Coordinator at the Local Investment Commission, in Kansas City, Missouri, explains the role of local governance in  school-community initiatives.  While “it takes a village to raise a child,” Cheatem observes, “the villagers need to communicate and share results.”  It is essential to bring all interested parties to the table, the haves and have nots, the CEOs and the students, the parents and grandparents.  Participants need to learn how to understand the others’ point of view and problems.  Most parents want their children to do well and complete school, but they may not be able to communicate their desires to school staff for various reasons.  Similarly, most children want to finish school, but they may feel overwhelmed or demeaned at school.  By understanding the other’s point of view, participants are able to find solutions for difficult problems.  Cheatam says community coordinators must listen to their customers.  She describes a situation where community coordinators scheduled an evening meeting for parents, but no one showed up and coordinators interpreted that to mean there was no interest on the part of parents.   Later discussions with the parents revealed there was no bus service to the neighborhood where the meeting was held, so no one could get there.

Tom Shouvlin is CEO of P.A. Personnel Services, Inc., a small business in Jacksonville, Florida.  Shouvlin, whose wife is a teacher, works with six different school-community sites.  Employers are great assets for schools, Shouvlin states.  They should be used to publicize the activities of the organization, to raise funds, and to negotiate with others in the community-- activities that social workers may feel reluctant to pursue.  Shouvlin describes how employers helped one school that was having problems with head lice by convincing competitor firms to provide free boxes of their head lice solutions and educational films to the schools.  To involve business partners, though, the initiatives must be organized, and have clear goals and outcomes.  The initiatives must also be results-oriented and be ready to recognize the contributions of all partners.  Shouvlin is enthusiastic about “youth councils” (councils of adults working on youth issues called for under the Workforce Investment Act), as a resource to continue the work after the initial partners disperse, and as a tool to create future community leaders.

Birmingham Public Schools has worked in community initiatives since 1971 and has 18 community school sites serving about 40,000 students, of which 80 percent are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Two-thirds of the funding for the Birmingham initiatives come from the city and the mayor and one-third from the school board. Peggy Sparks, Senior Executive Director of Parent, Community & Student Support Programs, Birmingham Public Schools, supports councils made up of youth, because youth have a lot of the right answers to bring to the table, and can help the other partners see the problems from the youth’s point of view.  Councils of young people in Birmingham meet regularly and include a cross section of the school population, including gangleaders, cheerleaders, “nerds” and teen parents.  They have established a “Play Station” loan library with machines and software available for rental to children and their parents.  This project has helped increase communication between parents and children.  School-community initiatives create this flexibility to find the right solution for the problem, no matter how non-traditional the solution may appear.

Federal programs to encourage school-community partnerships are now requiring collaboration among different agencies and this emphasis has boosted the spread of school-community initiatives.  However, even categorical funding aimed at one agency can be used creatively to bring services together, Blank observes.  Sparks indicates that it is important that the community define their needs and goals and match resources to these, even turning away funding when it does not meet the community’s needs and goals.

Teachers and principals are often overwhelmed by the many needs their students present.  At one school, for instance, a principal had to dispense 36 different medications a day as the school did not have their own nurse.  The local school-community initiative was able to bring a nurse into the school and relieve the principal from this task.  Another initiative started a classroom in an empty public housing apartment for youth who refused to return to school because of safety concerns.  The reality is that schools cannot provide all the services children need and must join forces with the community.  School-community initiatives are a growing trend, for example California has more than 200 community schools through one initiative alone.

Community and business representatives must champion their initiatives to ensure funding stability.  Shouvlin observed that a key aspect of successful initiatives is marketing.  The community, particularly the politicians and those in decision-making positions, need to know that school-community initiatives are a win/win situation.

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