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1. So, what is a community school?

A community school is both a place and a set of partnerships between a school and other community resources. Its integrated focus on academics, services, supports and opportunities leads to improved student learning, stronger families and healthier communities. Community schools serve as the centers of their communities.

So it’s more than an after-school program?

While many programs and services are found within community schools, we consider community schools to be a strategy that meets the comprehensive needs of students, families and community. In response to their constituents' needs, community schools can have a range of opportunities and supports – from enriching after-school and summer programs, to evening adult education classes, to school-based health services and beyond.

That sounds great, but how can schools do all that alone?

We believe schools don’t have to do it all alone. Throughout the country, schools are working closely with community-based organizations and other partners to jointly plan and implement the community school strategy. They have learned how important it is to not only bring a comprehensive menu of programs and services in their schools but also to ensure they are aligned and well-coordinated.

It must cost a lot to run a community school.

Remember, it’s a strategy, not a program. Community school partnerships provide schools and school systems access to new and diverse funding streams as well as opportunities to redeploy existing resources more efficiently. There are countless examples across the country of schools that are leveraging multiple resources – from the public and private sectors – to meet their comprehensive needs.

2. Are community schools effective? Do they “work”?

There is a growing body of research that suggests community schools afford increasing benefits to students, families and communities. Community schools address the multiple conditions for learning that students need to succeed in school, but their impact reaches beyond academic achievement. There is evidence nationwide that community schools have better attendance, greater parent engagement and healthier school climates than traditional schools.

Have any recent studies been conducted?

A recent synthesis conducted by the Coalition for Community Schools of nationwide evaluation data found multi-faceted gains:

improved academic performance in both reading and math;
improved student and teacher attendance;
reduced dropout rates and improved graduation rates;
improved behavior;
gains in indicators of positive youth development, such as leadership and conflict resolution skills;
greater parent involvement; and
community benefits, such as better use of school buildings and safer neighborhoods.

3. What does it take to run a community school?

The National Center for Community Schools has helped develop thousands of community schools across the country and beyond. We’ve learned that community schools become more effective as they develop four capacities: comprehensiveness, collaboration, coherence and commitment. Because every community is different, no two community schools will be exactly alike. These four capacities, however, are consistently required.

Tell me more about the four capacities.

Comprehensiveness – Community schools are responsive to a wide spectrum of identified needs by marshalling the full complement of partnership resources. Comprehensiveness refers to a whole child approach, efforts to understand the multi-faceted needs of constituents and the provision of comprehensive, high quality programs and services.
Collaboration – There is shared leadership by all stakeholders: educators, parents, students, funders, community members, providers, policymakers. Collaboration includes a commitment to engagement, partnership development and distributed leadership.
Coherence – Systems of management are coordinated and integrated. Community schools are coherent when programs are aligned, relationships between the school and partners are well-developed and the coordination function is carried out by a designated person and/or a team made up of various stakeholders.
Commitment – Sustainability planning and activities are employed from the start. Commitment to the success of a community school is reflected in the development of shared vision and a results framework, cultivation of broad-based public support for the initiative and collection of data for evaluation and continuous improvement.

4. How can the National Center for Community Schools help?

The Center offers technical assistance in all aspects of designing, implementing and sustaining community schools to meet the unique needs and strengths of individual communities and larger systems of schools.

Click here to request any of our services, including a visit to one of our community schools in New York City.
Become a registered user of our web site to download free resources and receive our e-newsletter.

What services do you provide?

The Center builds local capacity in four key areas: Comprehensiveness, Collaboration, Coherence, and Commitment. We provide individualized on- and off-site consultation, carefully designed study visits to our New York City schools, presentations on multiple aspects of community schools, professional development activities, planning facilitation, and publications and tools to our clients. Our relationship with clients typically starts with an initial consultation that explores their goals and unique circumstances and leads to a co-constructed plan. Long-term and short-term services are available on a contractual basis.

Who are your clients?

We work with many different types of clients: individual schools, district administrators, funders, education reform leaders, community organizations, intermediaries, parent associations, policy makers, universities, research centers and others. To date, we have worked with over 150 adaptation initiatives nationally and internationally, in urban, suburban and rural settings.

Will you actually run our community schools for us?

Except for our schools in New York City, we don’t directly operate any community schools. Instead, we work with you and your community to build your local capacity and knowledge base. The Center draws on our experiences operating schools in New York City and providing technical assistance nationally and internationally and translates that experience into tools, materials and other useful services.