Resources

What is a Community School?
Visit the Coalition for Community Schools to find out more.

Linking communities and public education: Check out the Community Agenda for America's Public Schools.

The promise of meeting the needs of all young people: Read more about Promise Neighborhoods and the Harlem Children's Zone.

Need technical assistance? The Children's Aid Society can help.

The BASICS: Visit Stanford University's John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities.

Schools as centers of community:
The Center for Community School Partnerships.

University-assisted Community Schools: Netter Center for Community Partnerships.

For more about California and community schools policy, please visit the Partnership for Children and Youth.

 

Featured Community Schools

 

Funders

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Community Schools

Concluding a Decade Long Commitment

The Stuart Foundation has supported community schools because we recognize that students must be engaged, inspired, and motivated to their achieve in school. Over the past decade, the Foundation has invested nearly $12 million in the community schools approach.

Today, the Stuart Foundation's grantmaking embodies the community schools approach. In 2012, the Foundation intends to document our learnings from our work in community schools. We are no longer accepting proposals for new work.

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

Schools as Centers of Community and Family Life

Young people’s education is an integral dimension of their entire growth, maturation, and development, but it is not isolated from the rest of their lives. Life and academics must be bridged, in, after, and before school. Partnerships must exist between schools, cities, communities, families, and parents in order for youth to thrive and succeed.

Today’s schools, however, are more and more pressured to reach benchmarks and standards, but with far fewer resources at their disposal. Community schools create an integrated focus on academics, services, support, and family engagement that contribute to improved student engagement and learning, stronger families, and healthier, more vibrant communities.

Impact

For nearly a decade, Stuart Foundation has invested in building community schools in Washington and California. Below are some of that work’s highlights.

  • In Pacoima, the Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) linking of instructional programs with out-of-school time support programs increased student growth at San Fernando High School by 81 API points and at Sylmar High school by 48 points from 2007 to 2010.
  • In, South King County, Washington, the Community Schools Collaboration helped to dramatically increase family stability by offering services and supports building strong family-school connections.
  • In Long Beach, Seattle, and San Mateo Counties, community schools implementing parent engagement and academic enrichment supports have helped to improve student engagement and academic growth.
  • The Foundation’s community school partners have also shown gains in key youth development indicators: deeper connections with adults and peers, reduced risk-taking behaviors, and increased personal and study skills.

For more information, please see “Resources” in the column to the right.