Community Schools

Schools as Centers of Community and Family Life

A young person’s education is an integral dimension of their entire growth, maturation, and development, but it is not isolated from the rest of that person's life. Life and academics must be bridged in, after, and before school.

School leaders and teachers are critical and influential members of a young person’s community, but they must be supported in their mission by parents and local organizations.  Partnerships must exist between schools, cities, communities, families, and parents in order for youth to thrive and succeed.

Today’s schools, however, reflect an increasingly dire situation in which schools experience greater pressure to reach benchmarks and standards, but with far fewer resources at their disposal. Community schools create an integrated focus on academics, services, supports, and family engagement that contribute to improved student engagement and learning, stronger families, and healthier, more vibrant communities.

Throughout the United States, community schools have become a movement and the tide of support continues to rise. With increasing numbers of community schools and their growing visibility among local and national policy makers, the time is right to make community schools a permanent and enduring part of the education landscape.

Six hours a day, five days a week, nine months out of the year doesn’t quite work. We really need to redefine fundamentally what it means to be a school. It means a longer day…it means all the values and principles around community schools: art, drama, academic enrichment, GED, family literacy nights. It means really engaging the community – health care clinics, early childhood, the whole gamut – to make school the center of family life.

Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education

The Foundation supports the community schools approach because it recognizes that students must first and foremost be engaged, inspired, and motivated as a precursor to their achievement in school. Our specific strategies are:

• Fueling Exemplar Practice. To support a limited number of community school sites to demonstrate success, scale, and sustainability that can potentially inform and influence local, state, and federal policy.
• Powerful Partnerships. To create and convene powerful networks and partnerships across sites in order to share lessons learned, and identify replicable components and policy opportunities.
• System-wide Impact. To support research, analysis, dissemination, and technical assistance that validate and exhibit community schools impact on student engagement, learning, and achievement.

For nearly a decade, Stuart Foundation has invested staff time and funding in community schools in Washington and California.  Highlights include:

• In South King County, WA, the Community Schools Collaboration has helped dramatically increase family stability by offering services and supports that build strong family connections with schools.  Tukwila School District saw its student mobility rate drop significantly over a four-year period. Tukwila’s work gained national attention when it received the Coalition for Community Schools National Award for Excellence in 2007.
• Tukwila’s success in student and family engagement did not go unnoticed by neighboring, 17,000-student Highline Public Schools (HPS).  In 2008, the Foundation launched replication efforts with Community Schools Collaboration and HPS to bring community schools to its high-need services areas of SeaTac and White Center.
• In Seattle, the YMCA of Greater Seattle has implemented community schools at five middle schools for several years. It has been a critical partner in engaging students and families, and linking in-school learning with out-of-school supports. Over the past three years, the YMCA has reported not only improved student academic performance but also strong youth development gains in key indicators such as deeper connections with adults and peers, reduced risk-taking behaviors, and increased personal and study skills.
• In Long Beach, CA, Stevenson Elementary has served as an exemplary community school for much of this decade. Since launching its community school work in 2000, the school has shown significant gains in student achievement. In 2006, the school received the Community Schools National Award for Excellence in large part for its strong commitment to academics and its unparalleled parent and family engagement, particularly among English language learners.
• One of the chief indicators that signals community schools success is the depth and authenticity of school-city-community partnerships.  In Emery Unified and Highline Public Schools, the Superintendents coordinate and collaborate regularly with their municipal City Managers. Philanthropy can initiate and promote innovation, but community schools can only succeed when public investment occurs and scarce resources are coordinated.  In 2008, our sites in Seattle and Pacoima (Los Angeles) went a long way toward achieving this sustainability by being two of 10 (out of 400 applications) sites selected to receive five-year, over $2 million Federal Full Service Community Schools grants.

For more information on these and other leading community school efforts around the country, please see the “Featured Community School Links” in the column to the right.