Beyond Compliance: Reclaiming Governance through School–Community Partnerships and Culturally Sustaining Values

• In Event: Governing Democracy: School Boards, Elections, and Local Policy Responses

Abstract

This paper explores how school–community partnerships and culturally responsive-sustaining (CRS) commitments can reshape local education governance by challenging top-down, exclusionary decision-making. Rather than viewing CRS as a technical fix, the study frames it as rooted in community knowledge and cultural values. Using a multi-site qualitative case study in Oakland, Chicago, and New York City, it investigates how bottom-up governance centers family, student, and educator leadership. Data include interviews, field notes, and school documents. Findings show that when stakeholders are genuinely engaged, schools can become spaces of distributed governance and cultural restoration. Despite tensions with bureaucratic norms, leaders who supported participatory structures sustained CRS values. The study offers a justice-oriented vision of governance grounded in care and community memory.

Author

• La Toya Caton, Teachers College, Columbia University