Community Schools as a Sustainable Comprehensive School Reform Strategy: A Mixed Methods Perspective

• In Event: 28.038 - Innovative Approaches to Measuring and Serving Students Experiencing Poverty

Abstract

Community schools are resurfacing in urban spaces as a mechanism for addressing the systemic and structural inequities plaguing low-income schools and communities. Advocates posit that increasing student achievement requires addressing the needs of the whole child. Viewing schooling through this lens offers an expanded vision of what public education should be for today’s youth. This research highlights the overall positive impact community school strategies have on student achievement. Using data from two cohorts of students (adoption and implementation), coupled with in-depth interviews from stakeholders in one long-standing community school, the authors detail evidence of overall increased student achievement for students who experienced longer exposure to community school supports. Supplemental interview data gives insight as to why this is occurring.

Authors

• Kathleen Provinzano, Drexel University

• Toni A. Sondergeld, Drexel University

• Whitney Impellizeri, Drexel University