Community Schools received a big boost at a recent hearing in Portland, Oregon.

The Center for American Progress and Institute for America's Future recently joined forces to organize a taskforce, named "Renewing Our Schools, Securing Our Future: A National Task Force on Public Education." The taskforce is looking at promising practices in education. Significantly, their first hearing, held at Earl Boyles Elementary School in Portland, Oregon, focused on community schools.

The Portland hearing highlighted Portland and Multnomah County's Schools Uniting Neighborhoods Community Schools Initiative, or SUN. The taskforce believes that SUN schools present a 'real life' example of the effectiveness of community and school partnerships.

Over the last couple of years, SUN has expanded to over 46 of the 150 schools in the county. SUN creates collaborative efforts among schools, non-profit organizations, government agencies and community-based groups to provide students and families with an array of services and opportunities such as healthcare, after school programs, tutoring and mentoring programs, adult education, and parent leadership and organizing.

At the Portland forum, the taskforce heard from a panel of senior local leaders who have been integral in the creation and maintenance of SUN, including Diane Linn, Chair of Multnomah County Board of Commissioners; Lolenzo T. Poe, Jr., Director of the Office of School and Community Partnerships, Multnomah County; Susan Castillo, Oregon State Superintendent of Public Instruction; Jonah Edelman, Executive Director of Stand for Children; and Barbara Kienle, Director of Student Services, David Douglas School District,.

The panelists spoke highly of SUN Community Schools. They acclaimed how it is a prime example of the rapid improvement a school can make in academic performance if it recognizes external social factors that can affect a child's learning experience.

The panel and taskforce sought to promote and publicize the sense of urgency that America needs to have towards education reform. "Our schools are facing a great crisis," said John Podesta, President of the Center for American Progress, formerly the Chief of Staff in Bill Clinton's administration. "Schools must be made constantly better to meet the changing demands of society." Podesta remarked that this statement was made Oregon teachers in 1920; he argued that the same issues that these teachers were facing then still remain in today's educational system.

Podesta maintained that community schools provide the social network necessary for students to excel because they realizes that schools are also extensions of families and communities.

According to Podesta, community schools will certainly be among the recommendations included in the Taskforce's forthcoming report to the public, and to Congress and the White House.

Diane Linn shared a personal anecdote that underscored the direct benefits of community schools. She spoke of a boy that was performing poorly in school. His teacher quickly learned that he was not receiving his medicine routinely, so she communicated this to the principal, who personally contacted the doctor and retrieved his medication. As a result, the child is actively participating and performing well in school.

Linn also discussed SUN partnerships, including state and local public programs that provide health and mental services, along with other supports, to help students and families. "It is important for people to know about the added value of this nationally-recognized program [community schools]," Linn stated, "it is critical that we set aside bureaucratic turf battles and politics, so that we can provide our students with a world class education."

Linn testified that community schools have gotten more children off Portland streets and helped to build stronger relations with teachers, parents, and students through its innovative, engaging programs.

She argues that this educational investment in programs like SUN will help save Americans money, because it can deter at risk students from ending up in prison, a more costly institution than schools.

According to Lolenzo Poe, community schools serve as an example of "pockets of excellence"-a term used to refer to communities that are actively working to help close the chronic achievement gap found between white and non-white students. Poe said that community schools provide great opportunities to connect culturally infused courses with active parental involvement. Parents, he believes, can help teachers construct culturally conscious curriculum to help better engage students in classroom and extracurricular activities.

Over the past couple of years, SUN schools have experienced dramatic increases in their reading and math test scores. Poe and other SUN officials maintain that this test score improvement is due to students' active involvement in its schools' support services.

After the panel discussed the varied benefits of community schools, the forum was opened to the audience. Teachers, students, and parents all commented on the direct benefits of community schools. Specifically, the eyes of two children shined as they spoke of the nostalgic memories after participating in SUN's after school programs.

For the City of Portland and Multnomah County, Community Schools are an effective path for school reform. Community schools have uplifted schools and communities and created stronger relations between schools, parents, and community agencies. SUN schools, according to the Taskforce, exemplifies excellent leadership and offers a proactive, innovative local approach to ensuring that every child is provided with the opportunity to succeed in America.

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=172204
(this link features a Center for American Progress article, the entire event on Audio, Selected Video Clips, and other newspaper articles)

The Oregonian:
"After-school program expands learning horizons --A Multnomah County effort draws the notice of a national task force trying to improve public education"
http://www.oregonlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/metro_east_news/1093694695175740.xml?oregonian?en#continue

The Statesmen Article: http://www.communityschools.org/Articles/SA23_Portland_StatesmanJournal.html

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