Abstract
Public school districts are locally controlled and funded through local property taxes. Funding schools this way perpetuates structural inequities in poorer school districts and as a result, students living in poverty have minimal access to critical resources that support student learning. Community schools are resurfacing in many of these urban spaces as a mechanism for addressing the systemic and structural inequities plaguing students, schools, and communities. Advocates posit that increasing student achievement requires addressing the needs of the whole child; conceptualizing schooling through this lens offers an expanded vision of what public education needs to be for many of today’s children. This paper aims to improve our overall understanding of community schools and highlights specific actions taken by community organizations and higher education institutions to create meaningful partnerships with public schools operating as community schools. The authors posit that collaborative and organically developed, grassroots relationships have the potential to alter the traditional dynamic between internal public school employees and external stakeholders, leading to school, student, and community transformation.
Highlights
Quality education has the potential to promote social and economic mobility for some of the nation’s most disenfranchised students
This is salient for schools advancing a community-focused approach, because they mindfully address the effects of poverty and other out-of-school factors that contribute to gaps in student learning and achievement (Fehrer & Leos-Urbel, 2016)
Accountability measures over the past two decades have primarily focused on school improvement efforts and outcomes, devoid of meaningful collaboration with community partners and families that target whole-child development
Summary
Quality education has the potential to promote social and economic mobility for some of the nation’s most disenfranchised students. Evidence suggests that high-quality schools are enough to significantly increase academic achievement among the poor (Dobbie & Fryer, 2011), making it more likely for students to pursue postsecondary educational opportunities and improve their life trajectories. This is salient for schools advancing a community-focused approach, because they mindfully address the effects of poverty and other out-of-school factors that contribute to gaps in student learning and achievement (Fehrer & Leos-Urbel, 2016). Full service community schools provide children with equitable learning opportunities, manifested through a strategy that addresses the needs of the whole child. Students and families receive a comprehensive, integrated, and coordinated range of academic, health, and social/emotional services that supports improved outcomes for underserved children
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