Community Schools: Structures and Cultures for Collective Action

• In Event: Community Schools: Collective Trust, Collective Action, and Collective Impact

Abstract

Community schools are designed to create the structures and cultures of collaboration to help communities meet the needs of students and families. However, there has been little research about how systems of community schools have been organized at the initiative level. The objectives of this paper are:

1. To explore how community school systems have developed and are organized.
2. To investigate the variation and common elements of a system of community schools.

The presenter grounds the study in the literature about community schools (Blank, Berg, & Melaville, 2006).

Methods and Data Sources
In spring 2011 the researcher conducted site visits to four communities (Multnomah County, OR, Tulsa, OK, Cincinnati, OH, and Evansville, IN) that have implemented the community school strategy for at least six years. Data include semi-structured interviews and focus groups with over 100 key stakeholders across the four sites, including superintendents, community leaders, principals, parents, initiative leaders, funders, community partners, and others. Interviews were augmented by observations of approximately 15 meetings, site visits to over 10 community schools, and an analysis of pertinent documents. The researcher is compiling the data into four case studies as well as a cross-case analysis that will examine common themes (Merriam, 1998).

Initial Results
Initial results indicate that:

• These communities have developed collaborative leadership structures made up of partners (e.g., United Way, government agencies, CBOs, etc.) at the community and site levels that set the vision, identify funding, plan for sustainability and evaluate progress.
• Each of these communities started their community school initiative for different reasons and by a variety of actors.
• Subjects report that collective trust and collaboration are critical to starting and sustaining their community schools initiative.
• Initiatives are led by different organizations, either a school district, a county agency, or a community-based organization. However, each shares similar functions.
• Community school initiatives blend funding from a variety of public and private sources.
• Each initiative has developed a different model for their community school.
• Levels of implementation vary within each initiative.
• A school-site coordinator is crucial for high-implementing community schools.
• Community partners are essential to providing services at the school site-level and help set the direction for the initiative at the site and community levels.
• These community school initiatives are integrated and aligned with the school districts’ mission.

Significance
This paper will add to the limited literature on community schools and help frame future research of this growing strategy by clearly describing the common elements of a system of community schools. As it relates to the conference theme, the paper will help the growing number of practitioners developing community schools and other place-based initiatives (e.g., Promise Neighborhoods) learn how communities are using partnerships and collaborative leadership structures to integrate academic and non-academic supports.

Author

• Reuben Jacobson, University of Maryland