Community Schools Educate Whole Child and Promote Values of Democracy

Across the country, schools, community groups, and local leaders are teaming up to create community schools, where “an integrated focus on academics and family support, health and social services, and youth and community development leads to improved student learning, stronger families and healthier communities.” In a new report entitled “Growing Community Schools: The Role of Cross-Boundary Leadership,” researchers from the Coalition for Community Schools dissect the leadership strategies and skills that have led to success in hundreds of community schools across the nation. The report emphasizes that community schools have great power to increase “faith in government, commitment to schools and belief in the core values of our democracy.”

These successful community schools are part of 11 community school projects, including:

a growing group of over 100 community schools in Chicago
community school construction efforts in Cincinnati
community schools throughout the district in Evansville, Indiana
75 community schools in Kansas City/Jackson County, Missouri
19 school-based centers in Lincoln, Nebraska
six community schools in Long Beach, California
a community school project that has spread to eight districts in Multnomah County, Oregon
three community schools and a variety of other programs in St. Paul
eight school-based community centers in San Francisco
a nonprofit providing services in schools in South San Francisco, and
a private agency that provides services in every district school in Tukwila, Washington.

“Leadership at all Levels”

The report emphasizes three types of leaders that have proven essential to community school success. They are identified as community leaders, those key figures whose vision and support drives commitment to community schools; leaders on the ground, staff and community members who oversee the functioning of the schools and create relationships that allow them to succeed; and leaders in the middle, “organizational managers whose ability to build an infrastructure across institutions and organizations keeps the community school initiative cohesive and focused.”

Each type of leader plays an important role in the complex operation of starting and running a community school or a community school program. Community Leaders are important because of their fundraising ability, their networking skills, and their clout within the community. According to the report, these leaders can include mayors or county officials, school district leaders, and nonprofit or private sector leaders; often some combination of these leaders is at work in various community school projects. Through their commitment and vision, these leaders can provide the impetus and drive that communities need to start, promote, and sustain a community school.

Leaders in the schools include principals, community coordinators, and parents. These leaders work to create the relationships that allow success in community schools; by welcoming the community into the school and encouraging broad parent, student, and community participation, these individuals put into place the vision articulated by community leaders.

As the report states, leaders in the middle “knit it all together.” These leaders have access both to key figures in the community and program directors and to the program leaders on the ground level. Bridging the gap between these two groups, leaders in the middle create a stable infrastructure, communicating between constituencies and “overcom[ing] implementation barriers” in order to push a community school or project to improve. The flexibility of these individuals is what allows community schools to grow, adjust, and improve.

“Key Leadership Strategies”

The writers of the report identify several leadership strategies that help to ensure the goals of a community school project are achieved. The end result of these strategies, according to the report, should be the reaching of a “tipping point,” “when the conditions for learning created by a community school approach are no longer viewed as add-ons or as beyond the scope of what schools should do.” By demonstrating that community schools are not only possible and manageable, but beneficial for the entire community, leaders can build support both for their schools and for the expansion of community school projects.

One key strategy is to develop a “sustainable financing strategy.” Creating a funding stream that will support the many elements of a community school requires pulling in several funding sources in order to ensure that funding will remain more or less consistent as the project develops. This also means that leaders have to be sure that the infrastructure of their programs is adequately funded; without sufficient administration, the cooperation of schools, external groups, parents, and the community will be difficult to create. This does not mean that community school leaders have to find vast new sources of funding; often creative combinations of resources from cooperating schools and community groups, as well as private and state or federal government grants can create a stream of revenue that will not disappear all at once. Some successful community schools have parlayed their achievements within the community into taxpayer support for local government funding.

Another key strategy is to utilize “technical assistance and professional development” in order to ensure that the community schools are doing the best work possible and constantly improving. The report emphasizes that these tools should be in place from the beginning, rather than being implemented only after problems become evident.

Finally, the report emphasizes that leaders must use “data and stories” to “show accountability for results,” and use public engagement to gain support from the entire community. With the advent of the No Child Left Behind Act and high-stakes testing, leaders of community schools are often under pressure to illustrate success with numbers. That community schools often dramatically improve students’ academic and personal success (raising achievement scores, improving attendance and graduation rates, raising parental involvement, and lowering student mobility) can serve as a powerful argument in favor of the schools, especially for business and government leaders. Public engagement can also work to increase public support by raising awareness and spurring involvement from members of the community without school-aged children. Allowing the community a voice in school programs will create “greater community investment in school issues,” and could spur funding, cooperation, and participation.

“Lessons for Leaders”

The report closes by outlining seven lessons for would-be leaders of community schools. As the report describes, these are:

1. Step out and scale up. Provide bold, immediate leadership to meet community challenges.
2. Open doors. Nurture and expand networks of community responsibility.
3. Build multilevel leadership. Connect community-wide visionaries to practical leaders in the community and at school sites.
4. Build an infrastructure to support change within and across the systems. Think systematically and embed the vision.
5. Fund for the long haul. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
6. Focus on results. Use data and stories.
7. Engage the community. Share, listen and respond.

By noting the strengths of leaders already involved in community school projects, the reports’ authors hope to continue to build the movement for community schools.

Prepared by Nelly Ward, May 16, 2006