Community Schools: Making the Difference for Students, Families, Schools, and Communities

A Forum — June 27, 2003

Background

The Coalition for Community Schools recently released Making the Difference: Research and Practice in Community Schools . Community schools are organized as community hubs that emphasize the development of partnerships between the school and their surrounding community and which provide wraparound services to students and their families. The Coalition's report analyzes evaluations of 20 community school initiatives across the U.S. and concludes that these schools improve student learning, and strengthen families, schools, and communities so they can work together more effectively on behalf of students. The full report is available free of charge at www.communityschools.org. At this forum, panelists spoke about the report and community schools initiatives in Chicago and the District of Columbia.

Forum Summary

Martin Blank, Director of Community Collaboration at the Institute for Educational Leadership, introduced the panelists and the report. Community schools, Blank said, recognize that students need a variety of supports and that schools must act in concert with community organizations and families if students are to succeed. Blank emphasized that the success of a community school depends upon a community acting in concert to support student learning. For this to happen, it is essential that these schools have a community coordinator who helps to develop partnerships between the school and community groups and to ensure that these partnerships are focused on producing results: improvements in student learning.

According to Bela Shah, one of the authors of the Coalition's report, the unique nature of community schools enables them to create an effective learning environment, one in which the five conditions necessary for effective learning are satisfied: 1) There is a core instructional program with qualified teachers, a challenging curriculum, and high standards for students; 2) students are motivated and engaged in learning-both in school and in community settings, during and after school; 3) the basic physical, emotional, and mental health needs of young people and their families are recognized and addressed; 4) there is mutual respect and effective collaboration among parents, families, and school staff; and 5) community engagement, together with school efforts, promote a school climate that is safe, supportive, and respectful and that connects students to a broader learning community.

She described the findings reported in Making the Difference, which surveyed the impact of community school initiatives on students, their families, and their schools. She found that community schools improve student learning: 15 out of 20 studies reported improved student achievement and more than half found evidence of positive developments such as improved attendance, reduced behavioral or disciplinary problems, and greater contact with supportive adults. The research also showed that community schools promote family engagement with students and schools. The schools also had positive effects on families; more than half of the initiatives resulted in specific benefits to families such as improvements in communication with schools and teachers, family stability and ability to provide for children's basic needs, and increased parental confidence in their ability to teach their children. Her analysis showed that community schools help schools function more effectively and add vitality to communities.

She concluded from her research that community schools have three general advantages: they are able to garner additional resources and reduce the demands placed on school staff; they provide learning opportunities that develop both academic and non-academic competencies, and they build social capital.

Peter Parham, Director of Interagency Partnerships and Wraparound Services for the District of Columbia public schools described the district's community schools initiative, which is a joint project of the D.C. public schools and district government. The Transformation Schools Collaboration seeks to create a system of wraparound services and community supports for students, their families, and their schools. According to Parham, the initiative is an effort to improve low-performing schools as quickly as possible and it recognizes that school personnel by themselves, while they have expertise in education, may not have access to the personnel or resources that are necessary to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds succeed. Some children come to school with serious problems and need access to trained counselors, health professionals, and social workers in addition to qualified teachers. Their families may also need help if there are problems in the home.

Shane Salter, Chief of Staff in the Executive Office of D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, has played a leadership role in the development of community schools in the district. There are currently 14 schools in D.C. that have been designated community schools. According to Salter, the mayor and his administration hope that through their support of community schools and increased resources for these schools, they can, among other things, increase the capacity of these schools to assess students appropriately and thereby reduce inappropriate special education referrals. They also hope that by providing families with wraparound services they can involve them in their children's education and ultimately help prevent students from dropping out.

Salter said that in the process of developing community schools, it has proven to be essential to have an on-site director at the schools who is responsible for coordinating services and serving as a liaison between the school and community groups. Overall, the community schools initiative in D.C. has been and is a learning experience; developing a partnership between the D.C. public school administration and D.C. government has been a challenge; each has had to be very careful to communicate their perspective to the other and to respect one another's roles. They have had to take great care to avoid grandstanding and stepping on each other's toes.

Suzanne Doornos Kerbow, Associate Director of the Polk Bros. Foundation oversees the Foundation's involvement in community schools. As co-chair of the Campaign to Expand Community Schools in Chicago , she helped raise more than $1.6 million from Chicago foundations to start 20 new community schools in 2002. In 1996, the Polk Foundation visited schools to find out what was needed; teachers and principals said there were many wraparound services necessary to support learning that were not being provided by the school district. Kerbow emphasized that parents were also interviewed to determine what services were needed to support their children. This is essential, she said, if we are to determine what people actually need rather than what we think they need.

Polk began its work with community schools in 1996 when it awarded grants to three schools for a period of four years to support their development as community schools. After three years, Polk conducted an evaluation and found that test scores in reading and math had improved and student mobility had decreased. To extend the program to additional schools, they approached the superintendent of schools and other foundations and non-profits to ask for additional money. They also got support from the city's mayor, who recognizes that strong schools are essential to the city's economic development. Through these efforts, they have been able to raise significant funds and hope to have 100 community schools in place five years from now. Kerbow emphasized that several things have helped make their work successful: hiring technical assistance for the schools, developing an exit strategy so that schools can eventually sustain themselves, the presence of a strong network of nonprofits willing to become involved, and support from the mayor, the public school administration, and other city agencies.

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