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This 3-pager lifts up 8 key talking points to help support Bipartisan Community Schools advocacy.

Building a Community Schools System is written for diverse audiences engaged in Community School efforts, from planning to integration of the Community Schools strategy in their community and/or district to existing systems of schools looking to further sustain, deepen, and expand this strategy.

The Stages of Development serve as a guide for states as they build or scale their state coalitions for Community Schools. The four stages are: EXPLORING There is talk of developing a coalition, but only informal communications or plans have been made. Someone convenes a group of people to move the plans forward. EMERGING Commitment to developing a coalition by actively convening partners and putting in place a governance structure with initial goals and benchmarks outlined. EVOLVING There is an official coalition in place, a wide range of partners are involved, regular communications to local practitioners, and a leadership team and professional learning convenings occurring. EXPANDING The coalition has added key committees, is regularly tracking impact and stories, and is widening sphere of influence through new partnerships, expanded public communications, and ongoing capacity building.

Scaling Up School and Community Partnerships: The Community Schools Strategy builds on both practice and research to describe the what, why, and how of system-wide expansion of community schools. The guide is written for a wide audience and for communities at different points in planning for, implementing, and sustaining a community schools strategy. It targets grass-roots advocates, including parents, students, teachers, and community partners; school district, civic, business, and government leaders; and funders at the local, state, and national levels.

With strategic and financial support from the Ballmer Group, four national partners – the Center for Universal Education at Brookings Institution, the Coalition for Community Schools (CCS), the Learning Policy Institute (LPI), and the National Center for Community Schools at Children’s Aid (NCCS) – are collaborating with practitioners, researchers, and leaders across the country to elevate areas of alignment and consensus across various community school approaches to further align, build, and scale community schools.

This report outlines six essential strategies for Community Schools and the key mechanisms used to implement these strategies. Next, it profiles Community Schools across the country where these model strategies are being used to achieve transformational results. A close look at these model Community Schools and districts shows that across racial, economic, and geographic diversities in this country, Community Schools work. As the new federal education legislation gives states greater power to implement Community Schools, we recommend learning from the strategies and mechanisms we provide in this report—both from research and from practice—to achieve transformational and sustainable Community Schools across the country.

Stages of Development for creating and growing your State Coalition.