In This Issue
Vol. I, No. 11

Call to Action

Your help is needed in convincing Congress of the importance of after-school programs: Act now!

Evaluation of Community Schools: An Early Look

Evidence confirms what advocates have long believed: that the community school approach is beginning to demonstrate positive effects on students,families, and communities. Improvements have been documented in learning and achievement, social behavior and healthy youth development, family well-being, and community life.

Publications

Read about new publications available from Coalition partners.

Leadership Awards Programs

Take advantage of opportunities to acknowledge and bolster the innovative work of community leaders.

Welcome to Community Schools Online where we provide updates on developments in the community schools field and the work of the Coalition. Please forward this e-mail to interested partners in your network and to related listservs. If you wish to subscribe to Community Schools Online, register at www.communityschools.org/about.html#email. To unsubscribe, send an email to ccs-l-off@lists.iel.org.
Call to Action
Before Congress recessed for the election, a tentative agreement had been reached to increase appropriations for essential child care and after-school funding in FY 2001. The 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program was to increase to $1 billion. However, the fate of this important appropriations agreement now is up in the air. Its collapse could result in backsliding, limiting the growth of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program.

Please take time today to call your Members of Congress - whatever their party, and whatever their stated views on after-school programs - to ask them to support the $1 billion appropriation for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers after-school program. You can reach House members through the House switchboard at 202.225.3121 - just ask the operator to connect you to your representative. Because some programs may be restricted from lobbying Members of Congress, you may want to call in your private capacity as taxpayer and citizen.

New Evaluation of Community Schools: An Early Look
Evidence confirms what advocates have long believed: that the community school approach is beginning to demonstrate positive effects on students, families, and communities. Improvements have been documented in learning and achievement, social behavior and healthy youth development, family well-being, and community life.

The Coalition has developed a brief that describes what a community school looks like, summarizes what we know about the impact of community schools on a range of results, and highlights three recent evaluations of community school initiatives. It is available on line at www.communityschools.org\evaluation/evalbrieffinal.html.

Publications
The ABC's (and P's) of Family-Supportive Schools is a special section (Fall 2000) of America's Family Support Magazine. ABC's (and P's) of Family-Supportive For its April 2000 national conference, Family Support America called upon three partner organizations - the Coalition for Community Schools, Communities in Schools, Inc., and Families and Schools Together - to create a track that would generate inclusive, relevant, and informed responses to questions about building family supportive schools. This special section is a synthesis of some of the best tools, tips, and treasures unearthed during the Family-Supportive Schools conference track. Free copies are available from the Coalition for Community Schools. E-mail us at ccs@iel.org.

Strengthening Partnerships: Community School Assessment Checklist is a planning tool to assist school and community leaders in creating and/or strengthening community school partnerships. Three checklists are included: the first helps assess the development of the community school partnership; the second helps take inventory of existing programs and services in or connected to the school that support children, youth, families, and other community residents; and the third helps catalogue the funding sources that support the programs and services. A list of additional resources is included. The tool was developed jointly by the Finance Project and the Coalition for Community Schools. Free copies are available from the Coalition for Community Schools. E-mail us at ccs@iel.org.

Leadership for Student Learning: Reinventing the Principalship is the first report of the School Leadership for the 21st Century Initiative of the Institute for Educational Leadership. The initiative is engaging partners from education, government, business, civic groups and other organizations to tackle leadership issues in various realms of the public education system. This report by IEL's Task Force on Principal Leadership is particularly important to community school advocates given the critical role of the principal. The report focuses on the instructional leadership, community leadership and visionary leadership task of principals. Copies are available at www.iel.org, see "Just In." Or, send a request via e-mail to ccs@iel.org.

Strategies for Success: Making the Campaign Come Alive in Your Community is a tool developed by The Children's Aid Society and the Coalition for Community Schools as part of the Community Schools for Excellence Public Education Campaign. This four-page document includes information on the campaign and tips on how to use it to generate support for community schools at the local level. E-mail the Coalition at ccs@iel.org to request a free copy.

Leadership Awards Programs
The Bruner Foundation is seeking applicants for its 2001 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence. The Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence is given to five winning projects, one gold medal winner will receive $50,000 and four silver medal winners of $10,000. The website is www.brunerfoundation.org. It contains a description of the Award program and the application.

The Ford Foundation has announced a new awards program, Leadership for a Changing World, and is seeking nominations of community leaders across the country who are successfully tackling tough social problems. Over six years the $19 million program will recognize 60 outstanding leaders and leadership teams that are not broadly known beyond their immediate community or field. Leaders will receive awards of $100,000 to advance their work, plus $30,000 for supporting activities. The Web site is www.leadershipforchange.org