Mind in the Making - Community Schools

Mind in the Making - Community Schools (MITM-CS)

 

The purpose of MITM-CS is to put into practice the findings that the research on Mind in the Making  and the experience of community schools has made clear: we must intentionally promote life skills in children, starting in the earliest years of children’s lives, if we truly want to address the achievement gap. Embedding MITM within a comprehensive community schools strategy where the needs of the most vulnerable children and families are being addressed and where their strengths are fostered is the best approach.
 

MITM has emerged as a uniquely effective strategy for crossing boundaries and creating strong linkages. All over the country, various groups have joined together to learn more about the most seminal research on learning outcomes through the birth through eight continuum, and about how to use this research to promote better outcomes for children, including professionals in early childhood and elementary schools, families and teachers, and professionals from different sectors, such as home visiting, pediatrics, parent education and education.
 

The Coalition for Community Schools at the Institute for Educational Leadership  is partnering with the Families and Work Institute and The Children’s Aid Society’s National Center for Community Schools to develop and implement a strategy for using MITM and the Seven Essential Skills (a research-based approach to improving children’s Life Skills and success) as a focal point for building bridges between early childhood systems and community schools and promoting for educational innovation in community schools. Our ultimate goal is to spur progress in creating a 0-8 system.
 

The first cohort of MITM-CS sites includes Multnomah County, OR; Tulsa, OK; and New York, NY. With the support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the MITM-CS Project will be working with a total of 6-7 communities across the country. Each site will improve the ability of leaders and practitioners in education, early childhood, health and human services as well as, families to work with children in ways that improve their development and create linkages among the partners in different systems. As a result of this work, there will be a better understanding of what it takes to create and sustain birth through age eight systems of care, education and family support and they will be further along toward creating a 0-8 system.

 

The seven skills that are essential for children in the short- and long-term are: