The West Kern Consortium: A Case Study of Rural Community School Implementation

• In Event: Scaling and Sustaining Community Schools Through Systems-Level Support

Abstract

This paper highlights the unique cross-district collaboration of the West Kern Consortium (WKC), a consortium of small rural districts in the California Central Valley implementing the full-service community schools model. Community-based partnerships for school success is a core tenant of the community schools approach (Author 2017). In most urban and suburban contexts, community school partnerships typically include a wide range of community-based organizations and student service providers who collaborate with the school site or district to increase opportunities for students (Partnership for the Future of Learning 2022). However, rural school districts often face different opportunities and challenges related to community partnerships and student opportunities (Preston & Barnes 2017), making traditional approaches to community schooling somewhat impracticable.

The WKC consortium introduces a novel approach to community school partnerships, in which rural districts’ collaboration with each other becomes a core partnership and key driver for increased student opportunities and outcomes. This paper engages with literature on school improvement, school-community partnerships, collaborative school practices, and rural education to offer a compelling case study of cross-district partnerships as central to community school implementation in small- and rural-districts. Specifically, this paper describes and codifies critical cross-district collaborative practices and emerging outcomes for students and families.

Methods include three years of quantitative and qualitative research across the three primary districts, including interviews with school leadership, community school coordinators, parents, teachers, and community partners; surveys of district staff and parents; student achievement data (e.g. student attendance, academic performance, and behavioral outcomes), and administrative data on program participation (e.g. family participation in community events, referral data for support services). Emerging findings suggest that inter-district community school collaboration can:
- Significantly increase student access to county-level services (e.g. Medicare enrollment, access to behavioral health services)
- Increase the number of school support personnel available to serve students (e.g. school social workers.
- Increase retention and capacity of instructional staff (e.g. instructional coaches)
- Augment provision of and access to year-round services for students (e.g summer school)

Additionally, core cross-district collaborative community school practices include:

- Consistent (monthly) cross-district planning and improvement cycles, grounded in trusting relationships, shared goals, and data.
- Support from a backbone organization that facilitates coordination of multiple initiatives within and across districts
- Communities of practice among role-alike teams across schools, such as community school coordinators, coordination of services teams (e.g. MTSS, COST), school leadership teams, special education monitoring teams, and general certificated staff meetings.

This paper contributes to an emerging understanding of community school implementation in rural contexts. The WKC case study suggests that cross-district partnerships are an essential component of rural community school implementation. As nearly 30% of the nation’s students live and go to school in rural settings, understanding community school implementation in and adaptations to rural contexts is essential for policymakers, researchers, and practitioners alike.

References:

Partnership for the Future of Learning (2022). “What is a Community School?” Accessed June 22, 2022. https://futureforlearning.org/media/community-schools-animation/

Preston, J., & Barnes, K. E. (2017). Successful Leadership in Rural Schools: Cultivating Collaboration. The Rural Educator, 38(1), 6-15.

Authors

• Julie Boesch, California State University - Fresno
  Presenting Author

• Michael Figueroa
  Presenting Author

• Jaclyn J. Tejwani, WestEd
  Non-Presenting Author