2016 – The Center for Popular Democracy, the Coalition for Community Schools and the Southern Education Foundation have released a report entitled, Community Schools: Transforming Struggling Schools into Thriving Schools.
2016 – The Center for Popular Democracy, the Coalition for Community Schools and the Southern Education Foundation have released a report entitled, Community Schools: Transforming Struggling Schools into Thriving Schools.
This report profiles community schools across the country that are implementing evidence-based strategies to bring together the resources of school, family, and community to make schools stronger and help young people thrive. Through the use of these strategies, the schools profiled in this report have demonstrated consistent improvement in a wide range of indicators of student success. This report comes at a time when the newly passed Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) reflects a shift toward a broader set of indicators of school success, to include not just test scores but measures of school climate and family engagement.
The report offers templates for community schools policies to be introduced at the local and state levels. It also highlights opportunities provided by ESSA to develop and expand sustainable, transformative community schools across the country.
The report also demonstrates that successful community schools are found across racial, economic, and geographic diversities in this country. Community schools, at their core, are about investing in children through: quality teaching, challenging and engaging curricula, wrap-around supports, positive school climate, strong ties to family and community and a clear focus on results. As low-income students have now become a majority of our students in public schools, the power of community schools to provide opportunities to learn to all children is especially critical.
The report profiles six schools, three districts and a state that has left nothing to chance. They have come to thrive through coordinated implementation of the following six research-based elements of Community Schools:
The best of these schools leave nothing to chance. They are as committed to challenging academics as they are to health, wellness and social and emotional learning. They are sustained by the broad support they enjoy from their communities. Ultimately, they represent the true purpose of our schools: to prepare young people to pursue their aspirations and participate fully in our economy and democracy.