Reimagining Neighborhoods Through Community Schools: Highlights Across Massachusetts

• In Event: Unpacking Place-Based Policies: Mechanisms, Spillovers, and Partnerships Shaping School Outcomes and Community Change Across Contexts

Abstract

Widening income inequality and growing income segregation make it increasingly difficult for Massachusetts to provide students with equal educational opportunity. The Community School model presents a long-term strategy to reduce the number of students learning in environments with highly concentrated poverty by bringing together families, educators, and community partners to provide high-quality academics, enrichment, and social supports.

Through structured interviews and document review, this study explores efforts in 10 cities across the US to utilize Community School frameworks to nurture the growth of mixed-income neighborhoods and schools. We begin by tracing the origins of these place-based neighborhood revitalization initiatives. We then analyze the functions, governance structures, and finances of the backbone organizations, including their roles in elevating resident voice, coordinating cross-sector partnerships, mobilizing public and private capital, and operating at small geographic scales with support from regional and national intermediaries. We conclude by describing nascent efforts to leverage state economic development resources to build sustainable mixed-income Community Schools in Massachusetts, and the ways in which pending school segregation litigation may influence policy debate.

This study shines a light on how state and local policy can respond to research findings that call for greater focus on centering neighborhoods as the unit of change to close opportunity gaps, build community wealth, and increase the performance of urban public schools. It calls attention to the difficult power dynamics place-based initiatives must balance as they work to empower residents and attempting to attract large volumes of private investment into the area at the same time. The findings also call attention to the difficulties these efforts invariably face when they attempt to interface with urban school districts to coordinate strategy, align resources, and promote resident leadership. They further underscore the importance of sequencing implementation, building durable governance structures, and developing sustainable financing models capable of supporting long-term, cross-sector collaboration at the neighborhood level, including strategies to generate revenue from real estate.

Author

• Benjamin Forman, MassINC
  Presenting Author