WWW www.communityschools.org

Community Schools News

Full Service Community Schools Act Introduced
Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD) has introduced landmark legislation, the Full Services Community Schools Act, H.R. 4585. The bill would provide incentives and financial support for the development of community schools. We applaud Mr. Hoyer on his leadership for community schools. The introduction of this bill demonstrates that community schools are gaining national visibility. Mr. Hoyer is strongly committed to working with us in moving this legislation forward and met with several members of the Coalition Steering Committee this week, Now we must do our part. Please write to your member of Congress and ask them to cosponsor the proposed legislation. Please let the Coalition know when you have made contact with your members by emailing Meagan Lindsay lindsaym@iel.org. We will be providing additional information and tools to help you promote this bill in the coming weeks. Legislation Overview, Press Release, Draft Legislation and Template Letter (posted June 17th)

Portland's SUN Schools a Model of Common Cents
This column in the July/August issue of Youth Today, writen by Jane Quinn of the Children's Aid Society, takes a look at the funding strategy of Portland's SUN Schools. Their strategy involves a blend of public and private funding streams. According to Quinn, the SUN Schools approach shows it is possible to be fiscally conservative and still be socially progressive. (posted August 18th)

LIGHTS ON AFTERSCHOOL! 2004
On October 14, more than 6,000 communities will celebrate Lights On Afterschool!, a nationwide event organized by the Afterschool Alliance to bring attention to the need for afterschool resources. The day serves as a way to bring local and national attention to the benefits of enriching afterschool activities for our nation's youth, and the resources that are required to keep these vital programs going. Afterschool programs keep kids safe, help working families and improve academic achievement-yet more than 14 million kids have no place to when the school day ends. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is serving as Chair of Lights On Afterschool! for the fourth year in a row. The National Presenting Sponsor is the C.S. Mott Foundation. (posted July 15)

For more information, and to see how you can find an event in your area, visit: http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/

Are Schools Ready for Families?: Case Studies In School-Family Relationships
PDF (2.51MB) This discussion paper written by Helen Nissani of Family Support America addresses the issue of how family support is expressed in school based/community school settings. Two of the schools used in the paper, Howe Elementary School in Green Bay, WI and Elliot Elementary School in Lincoln, NE, are schools that were highlighted in the Coalition's Making the Difference report. (posted June 8th)

How Community Schools Make a Difference
Written by Coalition Staff Director, Marty Blank, this article appeared in Education Leadership from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Community schools are centers of the community-open all day, every day, evenings, weekends, and summers. Partnerships are at the core of community schools, organized around a common goal: to help students learn and succeed and to strengthen families and communities. Partners include health and social agencies, family support groups, universities, youth development organizations, government, faith-based institutions, community groups, and others. Because community schools link school and community resources, they garner additional resources and thereby reduce the noninstructional demands on school staff members. They provide learning opportunities that enhance students' social, emotional, and physical development as well as their academic skills. They also offer students, their families, and the community important sources of "social capital"-the role models, life options, networks, and relationships that create a sense of belonging and communicate the importance of education and belief in the future. (posted May 28th)

Community-School Partnerships: The Living Legacy of Healthy Start
The California Healthy Start legislation, passed in 1991, has enjoyed 10 years of strong funding to create community-school partnerships that improve student learning and support families. This policy brief written by Lisa Villarreal and Joanne Bookmyer focuses on the living legacy of several Healthy Start sites that have forged strong partnerships with their district, city or county. The Healthy Start Initiative, designed and implemented through the California Department of Education, has led to a decade of innovative cross-agency reforms that are well on their way to impacting school performance and the well-being of children and families. (posted May 28th)

Community Involvement: A Win-Win Approach To School Facilities Planning
Current literature has offered answers to the what and the why of community involvement in school facility planning. But the "how to" of involving community members in planning a school facility has not been practically explored. This article is the first attempt to provide a
conceptual framework of how to involve the community by initiating a win-win approach to school facility planning. (posted May 3rd)

High Cost of Being Poor: Fighting the Land Sharks
Neil Pierce of the Washington Post, writes about the rise in predatory lending practices which are trapping low-income Americans in permanent high-cost debt. Pierce cites a report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation titled "KidsCount," about the high cost of living for low-income Americans. Casey promotes its Center for Working Families, which offer an array of financial services, as a way to fight poverty. (posted May 3rd)

SUN (Schools Uniting Neighborhoods) expands in Multnomah County
This April 9th article from the Oregonian, discusses the expansion of SUN schools in Multnomah County. According to the author, Kara Briggs, county officials recently expanded the number of schools where the SUN programs are offered and decided to make them a key way to reach families who need social services. (posted April 12th)

New super meets media
The woman who will be the new superintendent of Lincoln Public Schools, Susan Gourley, fielded questions Monday afternoon from Lincoln media outlets on the LPS budget, a potential bond issue and student achievement. (posted April 7th)

Bridges to Success issues new manual
Bridges to Success (BTS), Coalition partner and a collaboration of the Indianapolis Public Schools and the United Way of Central Indiana since 1991, announces the publication of "Doing What Matters: The Bridges To Success Strategy for Building Community Schools" -- a document that shares information about creating conditions that lead to student success.

This report has three parts:
Part I: community schools philosophy, history of BTS, primary strategies for school community collaboration, core features of BTS, examples of system-wide partnerships
Part II: adapting and replicating BTS, governance, planning, staffing, evaluation
Part III: long-term sustainability, expansion

To request copies, contact: Eric Williams, Bridges to Success, 921-1252, Williams@uwci.org
(posted April 7th)

After-School Culture Club
Times of London Education Supplement correspondent, Stephen Phillips, reports on a conference in Dublin of education ministers and officials from 30 countries. According to the article, a key point discussed at this conference is the theory that a school's involvement in the community can have a significant effect on a student's test scores. Phillips also takes a look at the culture of after-school in Woodmere Elementary, one of Portland, Oregon's Schools Uniting Neighbourhoods (SUN). (posted April 6th)

Billions Spent for New Schools: How Well Spent? Released March 14, 2004
Syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, Neil Peirce, recently issued three articles focusing on school design. The first column looks at how money is being spent on new school construction. The following columns focus on the size of new schools being built, and how well they're designed for communities' and childrens' needs. Pierce previously wrote an Op Ed based on the Coalition's Making the Difference report.

Radical Idea: A 'Child-Centric' School Released March 28, 2004
Could Smaller Schools Be The American Future? Released March 21, 2004
(posted March 29th)

Building new schools, creating new communities in Cincinati
This cover story on community learning centers in Cincinnati appeared in this week's Cincinati CityBeat. Author Stephani describes these community learning centers as, "...focal points in Cincinnati's neighborhoods, the community lifting its children when parents alone don't have the resources, while the promise of youth and change in turn lifts community elders." This article features 5 profiles of local schools with learning centers. (posted March 29th)

More Details of East End Community Learning Center Announced
This story about a new community school in Cincinnati, OH appeared on a local TV station, Channel 9 WCPO, on April 3, 2004. It discusses a new school in the East End that could transform the city and teach neighborhoods that learning doesn't end at 3 p.m. Many of the school's supporters believe it will have an impact on Cincinnati for years to come. (posted March 22nd)

Trend Grows for Creating Schools As Community Centers for Adults and Kids
This story from the Associated Press Wire, looks at the growing trend around the country of establishing schools as centers for medical care, social services and academic aid for adults and children. It focuses on Cincinnati Public Schools, which some educational experts see as a pioneer in trying to make all of its schools the hubs of their neighborhoods. As witnessed by the number of places that have already printed this story, wire stories often get picked up by various local media outlets. We are attempting to track this story, so please let us know if you have seen it elsewhere!
This piece also appeared in:
Newsday with the title "City Schools Becoming Hubs of Community" on March 9th
CNN.com with the title "Trend grows for schools as community centers" on March 10th
(posted March 4nd)

Schools As One-Stop Centers For Kids & Families
Children learn best when their basic needs -- including food, shelter, and clothing -- are met and when their families are free from worry about employment, housing, health, and child care. Full-service schools aim to meet all those needs under one roof. Providing educational and social services at the school site, many believe, is an effective and efficient way to provide what Joy Dryfoos calls "hope and solutions" for students, their families, and entire neighborhoods. Already there are well over 1,000 full-service schools in the United States, according to Dryfoos. And she and others predict that, as word of their success spreads, many more schools and community agencies will form partnerships to support students and their families, reports Susan Black. The message is clear: Focusing exclusively on raising test scores without attending to students' health and social needs will "leave many children behind." (posted March 5nd)

Multnomah County to Move Services to Schools
Published in the Oregonian, this article talks about the strides being made in Portland's Multnomah County around the School Age Policy Framework (SAPF), which re-engineers limited funding provided for school support services, and encompasses health, mental health and addictions services, social services for educational support and library services, among others. The framework goals are to minimize barriers to learning for children not succeeding in school, increase access to services and support for high-risk children and their families, increase attendance for chronically absent students, improve academic achievement for children not meeting benchmarks, close the achievement gap and increase enrollment in school or alternative settings for youths who drop out. To review the School-Age Policy Framework (SAPF), see: http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/oscp/ (posted March 4nd)

County 'Framework' -- Coming to a School Near You
A second commentary in the Oregonian writen by several Oregon Superintedents about how they value SUN Community Schools and the work of the Office of School Community Partnerships (OSCP) in Multnomah County, OR. (posted March 4nd)

Schools As Centers of Community: A Citizen's Guide for Planning and Design
A guide for facilities planning that outlines a process intended to engage all educational stakeholders in planning schools that more adequately address the whole learning community. It explores six design principles for creating effective learning environments, 13 case studies that illustrate various aspects of the six design principles, and effective learning environments. (posted March 4nd)

For Generations To Come: A Leadership Guide to Renewing Public School Buildings PDF A "how-to" manual that is designed for individuals interested in modernizing or building new public school facilities in their neighborhoods. Modeled after an innovative public-private development partnership, this tool details the importance of school facilities and community involvement, then explains the five basic steps to planning a new school or renovating an existing building assessment, envisioning, planning, development and implementation. (posted March 4nd)

Community Schools Directory Announcement
The Coalition for Community Schools has created an online community school directory to track the development of community schools in the field. All schools that identify themselves as "community schools" are invited to complete a brief survey to enter their school into the directory. Five randomly chosen schools that fill out the survey before June 30, 2004 will receive a mini-grant of $300. (posted March 1st)

Community Schools: Engaging Parents and Families PDF (376KB)
This article published in the January/February 2004 issue of Our Children, the National PTA Magazine, focuses on engaging familes. It includes lessons for PTAs and local community groups on how to engage families. Authors Marty Blank and Olga Heifets believe that, "PTAs can consider working with their schools to leverage community partnerships in a systematic way around the needs of thier families, creating lifelong learning opportunities for all." (posted Feb. 25th)

System Change Through Community Schools
This new article co-authored by Marty Blank and Dan Cady, the executive director of the National Center for Community Education, was published in the January 2004 issue of The School Administrator. "Community schools make a difference in the lives of students in ways that traditional schools, acting alone, do not. These two leaders of the community schools movement tell stories of superintendent leadership in four small to mid-size districts that illustrate how schools are changing from the inside out. The authors share how superintendents braided state and community services to solve problems of family mobility, insufficient health care and unsafe neighborhoods." (posted Dec 31st)

New Coalition Report
Making the Difference: Research and Practice in Community Schools, the newest Coalition report, examines the impact of 20 community school initiatives across the country. The report indicates overwhelming evidence that community schools do make the difference in imporving student learning, promoting family engagement with students and schools; helping schools function more effectively and adding vitality to communities. (posted May 2003)

© 2004, Coalition for Community Schools
For more information, e-mail ccs@iel.org.
View our Privacy Policy