Jan Resseger explains here why community schools may be the best post-pandemic strategy for reopening schools.
Jeff Bryant recently profiled Mary Parr-Sanchez, the current president of the National Education Association’s New Mexico affiliate, speaking about what education will be like after the pandemic: “‘I think we’re all going to be different after this… When I first learned of the community schools model, it hit me like a lightning bolt,’ she told me. ‘I loved it because it focused on the academic and nonacademic needs of children, and the focus was on learning and a culturally relevant curriculum, not just test scores.’ Now, she is convinced the community schools model is the most promising way forward for schools as they reopen to the new realities of recovering from the fallout of COVID-19.”
Here is how the New York City Children’s Aid Society’s National Center for Community Schools defines a full-service, wraparound community school: “The foundations for community schools can be conceptualized as a Developmental Triangle that places children at the center, surrounded by families and communities. Because students’ educational success, health and well-being are the focus of every community school, the legs of the triangle consist of three interconnected support systems: A strong core instructional program… expanded learning opportunities… and a full range of health, mental health and social services designed to promote children’s well-being and remove barriers to learning.”
Community schools are designed locally to meet the needs of the particular school community, but they share essential characteristics. The Children’s Aid Society explains that community schools are not mere ad hoc school community partnerships, but are instead the product of careful planning and staffing. A Community School Director—an administrator—partners with the principal to coordinate the social, medical and enrichment services housed in the community school with the academic program. Each community school has a designated lead partner agency, which “maintains a full-time presence in the school and engages in regular joint planning with the Community School Director, the staff, and the community.”
The goal is to meet all the needs of children, not just their academic needs.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I really wish people would stop brainstorming about how to reinvent schools.
Agreed!
Agree completely. Small schools, small classes, teacher autonomy with mentoring (and professional pay), access to food and safe environments, community-based (as Jan so rightly explains), arts and sciences, physical education, time to breath and play. It ain’t–and IS–rocket science.
and minimal screentime/testing
The reimaginers are just brainstorming how to make a fast buck selling chintzy tech products and suppressing unions. The reimagination package is polished sleaze.
With more than half of public school students living in poverty in the US, community schools with wrap around services make perfect sense. My former dentist hired a dental hygienist whose day job was working the the Paterson Public Schools. She told me that there was a rotating doctor and dentist that served the district. Some schools had washing machines in the school building. Each school had a nurse, and psychological services were available as well. This was, of course, before 2008. I do not know if these programs still exist today. Community schools are known to be a tremendous benefit to poor students and their families, but they require investment. If we have any possibility of helping poor students, we need to vote blue in November.
Don’t know if you saw this, Diane:
“Janeese Lewis George, a 32-year-old democratic socialist, decisively won an election in D.C.’s Ward 4 — the northernmost part of the city — despite facing weeks of attacks from her opponent that she was too radical on policing. She ousted the moderate incumbent, a protege of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, by a margin of 55-43 percent as of Thursday afternoon.
Democrats for Education Reform-DC, a pro-charter school advocacy group that endorsed Todd, sent out a series of mailers in the weeks leading up to the Tuesday election taking Lewis George’s comments out of context and smearing her as being anti-police. ”
This story is so, so important! Thank you so much for posting the link.
It has been clear to me for a long time that there is a direct link from the DFER/no-excuses charter propaganda that they have been promoting for years and the enabling of the ongoing brutality of the police.
The “successful” no-excuses charters that DFER loves and adores serve primarily African American and Latinx students. They often have white CEOs — who pay themselves very generous salaries — and are funded by white billionaires who sit on their boards and only value “results”. The method to get those results is irrelevant because the underlying idea is that those kids NEED that method (but their own privileged white children do not).
The very same Mayor Bloomberg who gave his favorite no-excuses charter free space in public schools was at the very same time promoting the lie that “stop and frisk” policing tactics were “necessary” to keep the peace and without “stop and frisk”, those neighborhoods would descend in chaos. And Bloomberg’s favorite white charter CEO was promoting the view that the only reason that her charters that have virtually no white students had to give out of school suspensions to huge numbers of 5 and 6 year old children was because those children were just so violent and without suspending all the violent 5 and 6 year old children, the school would descend into chaos.
What DFER’s rhetoric has always implied by innuendo is the racist idea that African American children are different than privileged white children and thus need a very different treatment. DFER never demanded that public schools look like the schools the most privileged white students go to — with small class sizes and lots of resources — but instead DFER promoted the notion that public schools were “failing” because they didn’t copy the no excuses discipline of “successful” charters who promoted the idea that their (non-white) students supposedly require that harsh discipline in order to learn.
In fact, the reason those students do well is because the harsh discipline is the excuse to force out every student who doesn’t do well. But DFER and charter CEOs like to pretend that without harsh discipline and humiliation and frequent suspension of the very youngest children, those children would be failures. And the police like to pretend that without “stop and frisk” and harsh police tactics that we have witnessed — aggressively and harmfully treating peaceful protesters as if they were violent criminals — those peaceful people would act out violently.
If DFER sent out that “law and order” mailing before the death of George Floyd, in order to attack a terrific candidate for office who didn’t agree with the racist view that harsh policing tactics are necessary, then I am thrilled that DFER was hoisted on their own petard.
They should just own it. DFER sides with the “law and order” view and always have when it comes to non-white children who are subject to aggressive discipline tactics in charters. And their justification is the same as the pro-police crowd — that the harshly treated kindergarten students and victims of police brutality were responsible for their own punishment. They asked for it by their “violent” actions.
I’m glad the DFER candidate lost. Because DFER represents everything that is wrong with the pro-law and order crowd.
“In fact, the reason those students do well is because the harsh discipline is the excuse to force out every student who doesn’t do well.”
Oldest trick in in the book. Coaches often try to run off all the talent that does not want to win by being so abrasive that the players solve the cognitive dissonance they feel by concluding that their participation in the sport is because they want to win and achieve. Works if your pool of talent is very broad and deep. Fails if you are in a position to need people. These coaches usually move around until they find a spot suitable for their little games.
This is very good for the coaches, but not so good for the sport.
Ministers do the same thing. They create draconian ideas that exclude those who do not accept them. Soon the church is filled with people willing to go to the wall for the minister. Others leave for other churches, forced out by philosophical rudeness.
This is very good for the Falwellian ministers, but not so good for Christianity, which has, like the schools, a mission for all the people.
While I agree with this post, I have to point out that many states have never funded schools to the level they did in 2008–and now the cuts will come fast and furious.
The public and the government expect schools to be all things to all people, but the truth is that teachers are EXHAUSTED and will have even higher demands placed on them this fall. I fully expect, for example, that many of us will be expected to do full “distance learning” days as well as full in-class days and will be paid less than we were paid this year. 16 hour days for the same salary. And don’t tell me to “call me union–” we don’t have them in my state.
Not to mention teachers and other school workers expected to literally put our lives on the line and get ourselves and our families exposed to COVID-19 just so that the, “economy can reopen.”
I’m tired of schools and teachers being expected to solve the world’s problems, when everyone else–districts, states, businesses, political “leadership,” and society at large–REFUSE to do anything to help children and schools. I’m TIRED of being expected to do more with less, and expect, as the district in which I teach so “helpfully” put a few days ago, “caring and sacrifice” to be the work of teachers and other school-level employees, but no one else, including districts and states.
Yes. This makes me think about a lot of things.
You are correct. Schools cannot become community schools without money, and teachers should not be expected to shoulder the burden of more intense program.
That said, the idea is good. Community Schools evolved in many parts of the country in past years. Old buildings built during this era survive, monuments to the value communities put on their youth and its development. The problem is that these youth grew up and moved to places where their fertile minds could produce our great nation. Then they forgot, and other communities were robbed of the needed funds to develop programs that would create a fertile ground for new generations.
The same political forces that have attempted to use charters to strip away the best students and let the others rot have robbed the majority of their opportunity for too long. Time to plow into the ground the nutrients for a new crop. It is spring.
The “Community School” idea mostly looks like a reincarnation of Kentucky’s schools under the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990, right down to that act’s Family Resource and Youth Service Centers, which were intended to provide lots of wrap-around services.
At least in some ways very pertinent today, Kentucky’s attempt didn’t work out. For example, white minus black achievement gaps on the NAEP have not improved and in some cases are statistically significantly worse today than in the early 1990s.
It sounds like an appealing idea, but Kentucky’s traditional public school system didn’t get it to work well, at least not for all students.
I wonder if anyone who did the reports on Community Schools that Ressenger mentions even knows about the Kentucky example. Neither the NEPC report nor the RAND report mentions Kentucky. As you have written in the past, these education ideas seem to resurface on a 20-year or so basis as the education community forgets its history.
I don’t think NAEP scores are the best measure of community schools. Suppose one did a study of ensuring that every child has food and medical care but it didn’t raise test scores (someone actually did such a study). Would you stop providing nutrition and medical care?
Well-fed illiterates can’t do much for themselves or society, either.
We need kids fed and educated.
In 2019 Kentucky’s black Grade 4 NAEP reading proficiency rate was only 14%, which isn’t statistically significantly different from the 8% rate posted way back in 1992. That performance needs to be part of the discussion. Maybe doing something different from Kentucky would work better, but if you don’t even pay attention to what Kentucky did, how would you know what to change? The reports cited by Ressenger never mention Kentucky.
Maybe I am misunderstanding, but are you saying that if feeding kids doesn’t produce higher test scores, they should not be fed at all?
Surely you can explain the very high correlation between family income and test scores.
Strong language, calling people “illiterates”. I don’t mean to be the language police; it’s just that I’m not really used to seeing that word used as a noun. Anyhow, there were other developments in education that had a significantly greater impact on the NAEP scores of Kentucky during the last thirty years than (probably underfunded) community schools. There was the NCLB, for starters. NAEP scores and so-called achievement gaps have generally worsened across the country since the proliferation of high stakes testing and privatization schemes, not to mention all the budget cuts. And the wealth gap — far more tangible and telling than the test score gap — has exploded in the last thirty years, having an overshadowing effect on the ability of young people to learn. It’s important to take in these factors.
My favorite “illiterate” was Mr. Gene. He planted miles of beautiful, yellow daffodils and gave me long lectures at my father’s barn about the ethic of hard work and honesty. Be honest, Mr. Innes. Nothing works perfectly immediately. Maslow pointed out the obvious: take care of the basics first, or the whole attempt will come down like a house with a poor foundation.
School are not producing a measurable product. Schools are producing fertility in the soil of society.
Cincinnati has been a leader in developing the Community Schools concept, and these schools, throughout the city, are now called Community Learning Centers.
The idea of reinventing schools is not inherently bad. A major problem is that billionaires think they should have freedom to be entrepreneurs with little or no involvement of the community. LeBron James’ public school in Ohio is a wonderful exception to the typical pattern.
Long before that example, Cincinnati began the more difficult task of providing so-called wrap-around services in schools. In the following series of films you will see a lawyer who has played a role in publicizing how the community learning center has developed in several of these schools.
The first was Oyler School in a neighborhood called Lower Price Hill, near the Ohio River and an environmental hazard site. For many decades, families from Appalachia have co-existed with African Americans…almost all of them desperately poor.
Several other schools are featured. One of them offers legal services to relieve the anxiety of children in immigrant families. In another, a parent offers some lessons on playing with very young children, for parents who do not speak English. Some schools offer afternoon and evening classes for parents and caregivers of students who are seeking an upgrade in skills for a job.
These schools are administratively structured to empower parents and students and teachers and to enlist as many others in the community as possible, extending even to Habitat for Humanity rehabs for first-time home owners.
https://futureforlearning.org/media/cincinnati-film-series/
Yes, the LeBron James school is what the pro-charter crowd opposes. That school is part of the public school system and looked for the most disadvantaged struggling students instead of using methods to discourage families from enrolling their kids or encouraging those families to pull their child out if the charter decided that the child’s performance would not enhance the charter’s reputation for success.
I suspect DFER and the pro-reform crowd will be looking to discredit the LeBron James school at the first opportunity.
Playing golf can be rewarding, if you don’t cheat at golf like the president. When you hit the ball, the club gives your hands feedback, and the ball as it flies through the air and rolls on the grass gives your eyes feedback. You learn to strike the ball straighter, and you sometimes learn to be more patient because neither the club nor the ball ever does exactly what you want it to do. But you get better, even with age. Teaching is like playing golf.
To all the techies trying to reimagine education by putting it online: teaching online is like playing a golf video game where the screen goes black every time you hit the ball. Instead of swinging the club, you click the button. You “hit“ a thousand “shots” an hour, all day long. You never see where the ball goes. It’s maddening.
“Teaching is like playing golf.”
Great. I have just wasted 40 years. I knew something was wrong. It’s just hard to putt up with.
Diane: RE: Your June 5, 2020 at 7:35 pm Comment. You are indeed misunderstanding. I said nothing about not feeding children who need it. My point is that feeding alone will not complete the mission of the schools, which is to educate. In general, a child who is starving isn’t likely to learn much, but just feeding that child isn’t educating him or her, either.
As far as the correlation between family wealth and test scores, please understand that a correlation does not establish causation. When we find examples of poor kids who never the less excel, and we certainly see some in Kentucky and I am sure you do in New York, we see that it is possible to do better and that this particular correlation does not need to be.
RE: RT, June 6, 2020 at 8:00 am The Kentucky education reform launched in 1990 has now run for 30 years. This isn’t just a short-term situation. And, in the beginning funding for public education in Kentucky went up about 50% between 1990 and 1995 and notable increases continued for quite a while afterwards. And, the increases were targeted so poor schools benefited more. It’s interesting to study.