A Look at Community Schools
Source: Center for American Progress

Children living in poverty face many obstacles outside the classroom that can hinder their success in the classroom. Unaddressed health care needs interfere with learning and cause low attendance. Inadequate and inconsistent housing may deprive students of a safe and quiet place to study. A lack of affordable and accessible child care forces many young adults to sacrifice learning opportunities to care for younger family members. And poverty’s economic stress may cause students to be less engaged and parents to be less involved in their children’s education.

The advent of accountability-based school reform has pushed many high-poverty schools to focus on providing effective instruction and meeting high academic standards. Numerous schools have made progress in these areas but few have been adequately equipped with the tools needed to confront external learning obstacles related to poverty.

A small but growing number of “community schools” have bridged the gap between the provision of antipoverty services and an excellent academic program. They capitalize on the school’s physical space and access to students and families in order to deliver much-needed services in a central, accessible location. Community schools partner with nonprofits and local agencies to provide students with health care, academic enrichment, mental and behavioral health services, and other youth development activities without burdening school staff.

+ Executive Summary (PDF; 275 KB)
+ Full Report (PDF; 350 KB)

This entry was posted on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 1:47 am and is filed under Education, K-12, Social and cultural issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.