Education Week, in its November 10, 2004 issue has published a commentary entitled, Creating a Culture of Attachment: A Community-as-Text Approach to Learning. http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2004/11/10/11mclaughlin.h24.html

This commentary reflects the Coalition's perspective that engaging and motivating young people to learn is essential for their academic and life success. It argues that for most young people, learning matters when it is personal, has meaning to them and serves a purpose. When students have an opportunity to use or share what they know, they want to learn more. The real world, the problems and challenges in our communities, offer that opportunity.

This commentary represents the Coalition's effort to focus attention on the second condition for learning outlined in Making the Difference: Research and Practice in Community Schools. Condition #2: Students are motivated and engaged in learning --both in school and in community settings, during and after school.

In addition to the listed authors, Professional Milbrey McLaughlin and Marty Blank, Coalition Staff Director, several other people from among Coalition partners contributed to the commentary. They are: Betsy Brand, Glenda Partee and Sarah Pearson, American Youth Policy Forum; Ira Harkavy, University of Pennsylvania; Paul Heckman, University of California Davis; Gerald Lieberman, State Education and Environmental Roundtable; Karen Pittman and Nicole Yohalem, Forum for Youth Investment; Doris Williams and Rachel Tompkins, Rural Schools and Community Trust.

We encourage community school advocates to find people in your communities who are using the community as a text for learning - service learning, environmental education, civic learning, place-based education, work-based learning and youth development are among the approaches that the are consistent with our philosophy. And if you are already doing work in this arena, please share stories, articles and monographs with us. ccs@iel.org

The Community Schools National Forum will include there will be a series of sessions that will focus on this aspect of community schools. Register Now!

Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools http://www.civicmissionofschools.org/

Forum for Youth Investment http://www.forumforyouthinvestment.org/
National Service Learning Partnership http://www.service-learningpartnership.org/
National Environmental Education Training Foundation http://www.neetf.org
Rural Schools and Community Trust. http://www.ruraledu.org
State Education and Environmental Roundtable. http://www.seer.org

Additional Information
Check out http://www.communityschools.org/ for more information on the Coalition's work and progress. To subscribe to Community Schools Online, register at http://www.communityschools.org/about.html#email.

To unsubscribe, send an email to ccs-l-off@lists.iel.org.

Coalition for Community Schools c/o Institute for Educational Leadership * 1001 Connecticut Avenue, NW Ste 310 * Washington, DC 20036