Skip to main content

Reading List: Community-school Collaboration

Community-school Collaboration

 

**Blank, M. J., & Shah, B. P. (2004, January). Community Schools: Educators and Community Sharing Responsibility for Student Learning. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Infobrief. Available at http://www.ascd.org/publications/newsletters/infobrief/jan04/num36/toc.aspx

 

This brief defines community schools and discusses how such schools target five specific conditions for effective learning that have been identified in cross-disciplinary research. The authors then consider how different institutions, such as local communities and state and federal government, can help to develop and support successful community schools.

 

**LaFrance Associates, Inc. (2007). Evaluation of Redwood City Community Schools. (Excerpt: Background and Evaluation Highlights, pp. 2-9). Not available online.

 

This evaluation of the collaborative work done by Redwood City 2020 (since 1995) provides background information about their partnership and highlights the results related to student academic results, parent involvement, decision-making among stakeholders. This overview also highlight several areas for improvement and provides general information about student demographics.

 

O’Brien-Strain, M., Barrat, V., Cotterman, C., & Gurantz, O. (2007). Youth Developments: Issues & Analyses in Youth Policy. Promoting Achievement through Mental Health Services. Stanford, CA: John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities.

 

This brief summarizes preliminary results of a study of the impact of school-based Family Resource Centers (FRCs) that provide family support services in Redwood City’s Community Schools. The FRCs provide mental health counseling, parent education, and home visiting programs. Based on one year of data (2004-05), the Gardner Center found that students served by the FRCs were of higher need than other students in the community schools and in other district schools. In addition, they found that students who received mental health services from the FRCs demonstrated improvements in English test scores compared to similar students at other schools.

 

Coalition for Community Schools. (2005). Community Schools: Promoting Student Success. A Rationale and Results Framework. Available at http://www.communityschools.org/assets/1/AssetManager/CS_Results_Framework.pdf

 

This document from the Coalition for Community Schools outlines the rationale used by community schools to increase student success, strengthen families and community, and the outcomes expected from them. It was written with the intention to provide a resource to policymakers and practitioners that want to explore the concept of community schools. It also provides a the “Community-Schools Framework for Student Success”

 

**This document is considered a priority reading.