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The term community school refers to a type of publicly funded school in the United States that serves as both an educational institution and a center of community life. A community school is both a place and a set of partnerships between the school and other community resources. Its integrated focus on academics, youth development, family support, health and social services and community development leads to improved student learning, stronger families and healthier communities. Using public schools as hubs, community schools bring together many partners to offer a range of support and opportunities to children, youth, families and communities—before, during and after school, and on weekends.
According to the Coalition for Community Schools, a branch of the Institute for Educational Leadership, [1] a community school is "both a place and a set of partnerships between the school and other community resources" with an integrated focus on academics, health and social services, leadership, and community engagement. [2] Community schools are generally public, i.e. government and tax-payer funded, though many private and charter schools have also adopted the model. One of the difficulties the movement has encountered is the sheer diversity of institutions claiming to be community schools. This, coupled with the decentralized structure of American education, [3] has hampered efforts to quantify the number of community schools nationally extant.
The movement gained momentum in the Chicago area, where the Federation for Community Schools is working to disseminate the model throughout the public-school infrastructure. With the appointment of Arne Duncan, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, to the post of Secretary of Education, by President Obama, the concept of "schools as centers of community life" [4] became a part of the national education agenda during Obama's tenure. Currently, many local, state, and national organizations seek the establishment of community schools throughout the country. Of these the most prominent non-profits are the Coalition for Community Schools, Communities In Schools, Schools of the 21st Century (an initiative of Yale University), the National Community Education Association (NCEA), and the Children's Aid Society. The United States government (through the 21st Century Community Learning Center) and various state governments also provide funding and policy support for community school initiatives.
The American Federation of Teachers defines a community school as one that has: [5]
Several leading universities have established centers to investigate the community-school-family triad. A key focus of the Harvard Family Research Project is "linking families, schools, and communities to support success in school and in life." [6] The Institute for Education and Social Policy at New York University [7] also studies the relationship between these three tributaries to student learning. Fordham University's National Center for Schools and Communities [8] has a slightly narrower focus, emphasizing quality education for minority and low-income students. At Johns Hopkins University, the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships [9] augments academic research with guides to best practices and workshop resources for parents, educators, and activists.
Scholarship has made explicit the precise effects of such partnerships on everything from drop-out rates to standardized test results. For example, a 2003 study of 82 Maryland elementary schools found, after controlling for external variables, that "the degree to which schools were working to overcome challenges to family and community involvement predicted higher percentages of students scoring at or above satisfactory on state achievement tests." [10] Joyce Epstein, the director of the Center on Schools, Family, and Community Partnerships is a lead researcher in the field. In a 2005 article for The Journal of Educational Research, [11] she and colleague Steven Sheldon not only established the link, via data collection and analysis, between school-family-community partnerships and improved student attendance, they also laid out several activities to reduce chronic absenteeism. The establishment of channels of communication between schools and parents, workshops for parents, and after-school programs for students are among the best practices utilized by the community school model of education.
In 2020 Mavis G. Sanders and Claudia L. Galindo published an impact review volume, Reviewing the Success of Full-Service Community Schools in the US. [12]
The Full Service Community Schools (FSCS) Grant Program, part of an amendment to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, [13] offers grants from the Department of Education intended to fund the establishment, or expansion, of one or more community schools. Grants will be awarded annually and are estimated to range between $275,000 – 500,000 per annum. Applicants must be part of a consortium that consists of a local educational agency and one or more community-based organizations, non-profit organizations, or other public or private entities.
Health education is a profession of educating people about health. Areas within this profession encompass environmental health, physical health, social health, emotional health, intellectual health, and spiritual health, as well as sexual and reproductive health education. It can also be defined as any combination of learning activities that aim to assist individuals and communities improve their health by expanding knowledge or altering attitudes.
Agricultural education is the systematic and organized teaching, instruction and training available to students, farmers or individuals interested in the science, business and technology of agriculture as well as the management of land, environment and natural resources.
An urban university is a U.S. term for an institution of higher learning that is socially involved and serves as a resource for educating the citizens and improving the health of the city or region in which it is located. That is, the urban university must be “of” the city as well as “in” the city. A metropolitan university includes a similar mission; however, its research has national and international implications and its student body includes a significant number of international students. Many institutions have further defined what urban and metropolitan universities encompass.
The National Hispanic Institute (NHI) is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the future leadership needs of the global Hispanic community. Founded in 1979 in the State of Texas with the mission of serving the future leadership needs of the United States via the Hispanic/Latino community, NHI became the largest Latino youth organization in the United States. NHI is now an international organization with over 85,000 alumni worldwide and a well-known consortium of notable colleges and universities.
The Learning Center for the Deaf (TLC) is a Framingham, Massachusetts-based non-profit organization and school serving deaf and hard-of-hearing children and adults. The mission of The Learning Center for the Deaf is to ensure that all deaf and hard of hearing children and adults thrive by having the knowledge, opportunity and power to design the future of their choice.
These organizations for higher education have a common purpose and mission for advocacy in numerous areas of both institutional management and the general public interest. The organizations have specific purpose for issues from faculty unionization to public policy research and service to institutions. Most are focused on the organization and governance of higher and tertiary education, but some are involved in service and research at all levels of education.
The McCourt School of Public Policy is one of ten constituent schools of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. The McCourt School offers master's degrees in public policy, international development policy, policy management, data science for public policy, and policy leadership as well as administers several professional certificate programs and houses fifteen affiliated research centers. The McCourt School has twenty-one full-time faculty members, ten visiting faculty members, more than one-hundred adjunct faculty members and approximately 450 enrolled students across the various degree and executive education programs.
AED, formerly the Academy for Educational Development, was a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that focused on education, health and economic development for the "least advantaged in the United States and developing countries throughout the world." AED operated more than 250 programs in the United States and in 150 other countries around the world.
A business–education partnership is an agreement of collaboration between schools and businesses, unions, governments or community organizations. These partnerships are established by agreement between two or more parties to establish goals, and to construct a plan of action for achievement of those goals.
Children At Risk is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that drives changes for children through research, education, and influencing public policy. Founded in the year of 1989 in Houston, Texas and with an office opened in North Texas in 2011, the organization focuses on the well-being of children and educates legislators on the importance of solving children's issues while at the same time focusing on a variety of issues, and the primary issues are human trafficking, food insecurity, education, and parenting. Children At Risk also has a North Texas office in Dallas, Texas. Some of Children At Risk's previous primary issues were juvenile justice, mental health, and Latino children.
Susan Neuman is an educator, researcher, and education policy-maker in early childhood and literacy development. In 2013, she became Professor of Early Childhood and Literacy Education, and Chair of the Department of Teaching and Learning at NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.
Internationals Network for Public Schools is an educational nonprofit supporting International high schools and academies, serving newly arrived immigrants who are English language learners (ELLs), in New York, California, Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC. Internationals Network also partners with other schools and districts across the country.
The Phyllis J. Washington College of Education is home to three University of Montana departments: Counselor Education, Curriculum and Instruction, and Educational Leadership.
The National Equity Project, formerly known as the Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools or BayCES, is an education reform organization that specializes in leadership development and changing culture and conditions in order to further equity objectives. It is a coaching and consulting organization based in Oakland, California; its name change in July 2010. The name was changed as the organization had expanded into new regions and began offering new services. In addition to schools, they also work with many districts and nonprofits on educational equity initiatives.
A full-service community school (FSCS) in the United States focuses on partnerships between a school and its community. It integrates academics, youth development, family support, health and social services, and community development. Community schools are organized around the goals to help students learn and succeed and to strengthen families and communities. Full-service community schools extend the goals of traditional public schools further. They are centers of their communities that provide services to address the needs of student learners and build bridges between schools, families, and communities. They are schools that did not only promote academic excellence, but they also provide health, mental health, and social services on the school campus. The "school emerges as a community hub, a one-stop center to meet diverse needs and to achieve the best possible outcomes for each child."
The College of Education is one of 15 colleges at The Pennsylvania State University, located in University Park, Pennsylvania. It houses the departments of Curriculum and Instruction, Education Policy Studies, Learning and Performance Systems, and Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education. Almost 2,300 undergraduate students, and nearly 1,000 graduate students are enrolled in its 7 undergraduate and 16 graduate degree programs. The college is housed in four buildings: Chambers, Rackley, Keller, and CEDAR Buildings.
Patricia A. Edwards, a member of the Reading Hall of Fame, is a Distinguished Professor of Language and Literacy in the Department of Teacher Education and a Senior University Outreach Fellow at Michigan State University. She is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in parent involvement, home-school-community partnerships, and multicultural, early, and family/intergenerational literacy with a focus on poor and minority children. She served on the International Literacy Association Board of Directors from 1998–2001, as the first African American President of the Literacy Research Association from 2006–2007, and as President of the International Literacy Association from 2010–2011. Edwards also served as a member of the Board of Directors for the American Educational Research Association's (AERA) Family, School, and Community Partnerships Special Interest Group (SIG) from 2014–2016 and was elected to serve as its President-Elect/President from 2016–2020.
The Hispanic Federation (HF) is a U.S based non-governmental organization focused on supporting Hispanic communities through local, state, and national advocacy. The Federation was founded in New York City in 1990 by a small group of Latino leaders, establishing initiatives to advocate for the interests of the Hispanic community and has expanded to establish programs, and policies in 16 states. The organization's objective is to empower and advance the Hispanic community primarily through service pillars, membership services, advocacy, and community programs. The Federation has formed relationships with a network of 100 Latino grassroots nonprofits, as well as collaborating with organizations, government officials, and private sector partners to enact systemic change related to a variety of socioeconomic issues for Hispanic communities. The Federation has gained national recognition for its work in areas of education, health, immigration, economic empowerment, civic engagement, environment, and organizational development to strengthening Latino institutions to ultimately increase the quality of life within Hispanic communities.
Early childhood education in the United States relates to the teaching of children from birth up to the age of eight. The education services are delivered via preschools and kindergartens.
Mavis G. Sanders is an American research scientist studying education and Black families. She is senior research scholar of Black Children and Families with Child Trends.
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