What are the benefits of a CLC for different groups of

stakeholders?

Who are Stakeholders?• Students themselves, as well as their families and

teachers. • Other school staff, community business owners,

police, faith-based institutions, universities and colleges, local health departments, health and mental health service providers, dentists, emergency medical services, educators of first-aid, departments of health, justice, education and social services, and other agencies that serve families have stakes in the well-being of the student population and school staff.

Student Benefits

• Research in Quebec: improvement in student literacy, participation & motivation in schools, self confidence, social skills, artistic and sports-related talents and academic competencies.

• Research in US: Parent involvement linked to higher student test scores & graduation rates; increased attendance, motivation and self-esteem; lower suspension rates and drug and alcohol use; decreased instances of violent behaviour; and greater enrolment in post-secondary education.

Parent Benefits

• Parent communication and relations with students and teachers improves.

• Improvement in parent attitude toward school personnel.

• Parents can improve their own self-esteem and levels of education through participation in their children’s schools.

• Increase communication with teachers to better communicate and provide community support.

Community Benefits

• Community agencies and organizations that provide services to children and families often gain a more visible profile when they become partners with schools.– Community is stronger – improved safety and connections

among people.

Reciprocal Benefits

• Schools have stronger staff and parent relationships, improved school climate and greater community support

• Businesses, the justice system, community health and safety systems, and others may benefit from a healthier population.

Our Synthesis of Community Schools

Community Learning Center CoordinatorsBy The MAG 7:

Kim, Sue, Phylicia, Valencia, Christian, Anthony & Clair

• It allows for ALL children regardless of their economic, racial or family circumstances to be exposed and have access to an array of opportunities that more well off families provide to their children.

• It allows schools to re-engage the broader public.

• It helps young people learn, stay in school and prepare for life.

What are the principal characteristics of a CLC?

• Expanded learning opportunities for students, parents and community as a whole.

• ….

What are the benefits?

• Adult education and workforce preparation• Community-based learning (service, civic,

experiential)• Community building• Comprehensive services: health, mental health,

prevention services and family support • Early child development• Family and community engagement• Increased learning time (after school, enriched

learning opportunities)

What are the services in a Community Learning Center?

• Stable leadership and long-term financing methods are vital to sustaining and expanding preschool-community initiatives.

• Diversified funding, careful site selection, visibility and organized constituent support are also important.

• Ensuring guiding principles and transforming schools, their partner institutions and neighborhoods.

• Successful expansion requires clear goals, good timing and sufficient funding and support to maintain essential program features during periods of rapid growth.

What are key factors that make a community school strategy successful?

• Community schools are designed to do a better job for children and families by using existing resources as efficiently and effectively as possible.

• Source: Learning Together: The Developing Field of School-Community Initiatives by Atelia Melaville.

• For additional information on the role of Community Leadership see, Growing Community Schools: The Role of Cross-Boundary Leadership. This resource highlights community schools work in 11 places.

What are key factors that make a community school strategy successful?

• "We tend to put considerations of family, community, and economy off-limits in education-reform policy discussions. However, we do so at our peril. The seriousness of our purpose requires that we learn to rub our bellies and pat our heads at the same time." – Paul Barton, Facing the Hard Facts in Education Reform.

• “The goal is open minds, not closed issues”

• “It takes an entire village to raise a child”

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

CLC’s

By: Gina, Pervana and Cynthia

What is a Community School?A community school is both a place and a set of

partnerships between the school and other community resources. Its integrated focus on

academics, health and social services, youth and community development and community

engagement leads to improved student learning, stronger families and healthier communities.

Schools become centers of the community and are open to everyone – all day, every day,

evenings and weekends.

Using public schools as hubs, community schools bring together many partners to offer a range of supports and opportunities to children, youth,

families and communities. Partners work to achieve these results:

What is a Community School?

Children are ready to learn when they enter school and every day thereafter. All students

learn and achieve to high standards.

Young people are well prepared for adult roles in the workplace, as parents and as citizens.

Families and neighborhoods are safe, supportive and engaged.

Parents and community members are involved with the school and their own life-long learning.

Benefits of a CLC to Stakeholders

Benefits of CLC to Stakeholders• Research has shown that the relationship

between parents and teachers can improve both children’s behavior and their academic achievement. When parents actively participate in their child’s school and interact with their child’s teacher, they gain a greater understanding of the expectations that schools have for students and learn how they can enhance their own child’s learning at home, according to a study of 1,200 New England urban students.3

Benefits of CLC to Stakeholders

% families reporting positive interactions with the school• Families feel more capable of contributing to their child’s

education when his/her school makes efforts to build cooperative, respectful relationship between the school’s staff and families. Studies show that when the school frequently communicates with parents and offers them meaningful opportunities to be involved, parents feel more connected to their child’s school. In one such study, each of nine middle schools showed that a school’s sense of community is strengthened when a principal acts as an effective leader and when teachers communicate effectively with parents about their students’ progress.4

Benefits of CLC to Stakeholders

% teachers reporting positive interaction with families

• Student success also relies on the positive interaction of teachers with students’ families. A study by Larueau showed that teachers tend to have higher expectations of students whose parents are more involved in schools; the same study also found that children whose parents are more involved tend to earn higher test scores.5

Benefits 1• Collaborating with the community leads to the

development of partnerships with selected community organizations and agencies. These partnerships promote the sharing of information and resources that are helpful to students and families. Community groups, cultural organizations, volunteer organizations, businesses, senior groups, and religious organizations can provide cultural, recreational, and extracurricular opportunities so that children's lives are enriched.

• A broad base of community involvement contributes to awareness and support for the activities and learning taking place in the school.

Benefits 1• The success of the action team's efforts to develop family-

involvement strategies is a barometer of whether the school climate welcomes parent participation in other decision-making roles. For example, the school can encourage families and community members to participate in decision-making activities through representation on various committees or local school councils. Families and community members can share ideas and help make decisions on school policies related to the budget, teacher and principal hiring, schoolwide plans, and parent involvement activities.

• Parent and community involvement in school-based governance makes the school more accountable to the community.

Benefits 2• "This vision of school improvement compels us to create a new

conception of the appropriate relationship between the school and its community, parents, and families. Pedagogically, as we have come to know the importance of rooting learning in children's real lives, we can no longer tolerate the artificial boundaries between the classroom and the home. Politically, as we move the authority for decision making down to those closest to children, we cannot afford to exclude parents and community members from the process of crafting new schools. Nor can we avoid being held more directly accountable to the immediate community constituency for decisions made at the school site. Practically, schools have no chance of enacting the fundamental changes on the reform agenda in the absence of whole-hearted support from the entire community--parents, citizens, and business.”

Benefits 2• By taking a collaborative approach to the development of a

family-involvement program, schools can form successful partnerships with families and community groups to improve the educational achievement of all students. The synergy resulting from such partnerships creates greater benefits than each group working individually.

• With frequent interactions between school, families, and communities, more students are more likely to receive common messages from various people about the importance of school, of working hard, of thinking creatively, of helping one another, and of staying in school.

• As a result, school-family-community partnerships enable students and families to produce their own successes.

Services Provided• Community partnerships also can help schools address

family concerns. Because growing numbers of children come from households in which all the adults are employed outside the home, families may be looking to schools for assistance with child-care needs.

• Community organizations can provide child care, after-school programs, assistance with homework, and parenting education programs. Often the living conditions of families are so severe that they must be addressed before parents have the time or energy to devote to school concerns.

• Partnerships with community agencies can make health and social services, such as medical care and counseling, available to students and families through the school.

Services

Key Factors that Facilitate Success• Developing a vital capacity to organize and

leverage resources to achieve shared goals on behalf of their clients—students, families and communities.

• CLC’s are bringing together public and private resources to meet the needs of the whole child. Through partnerships, hundreds of community schools are aligning and integrating strategies to support students, strengthen schools, engage families and help build entire communities where learning can happen.

The Best Powerpoint about CLCs Ever Made

By Nancy, Sabrina and Natasha

Why the Success of a CLC?• CLCs offer an integrated focus on academics, health and social

services, youth and community development and community engagement leads to improved student learning, stronger families and healthier communities. Schools become centers of the community and are open to everyone – all day, every day, evenings and weekends.

• Students become more engaged in their schools and community.• Parents are better able to support their children’s activities while

maintaining their schedule. Parents also have the opportunity to become involved in myriad of activities that promote educational and healthy initiatives.

• Increased interest in learning (both academic and life-long.)

What can you “C” at a CLC?

CLC Testimonials

• Through their community partnerships and public services, CLCs can address the needs of their families in ways that traditional schools can not, to ensure that students are prepared to perform to their full potential.

“My son never used to want to go to school, but now that he has karate class to look forward to, he begs me to get to school faster. I’ve seen a real improvement in his whole attitude.” – Mary, mother of 5th grader

CLC Testimonials

• A 2002 article in the American School Board Journal linked school vandalism to estrangement between students and their schools.

• “After our CLC developed the school’s Murale Project, vandalism and graffiti decreased by 90%.” -Principal

Credit: Coalition for Community Schools

Community Schools

Characteristics: A community school is both a place and a set of partnerships between the school and other community resources

Benefits:Children are ready to learn when they enter school and every day thereafter. All students learn and achieve to high standards.Young people are well prepared for adult roles in the workplace, as parents and as citizens.Families and neighborhoods are safe, supportive and engaged.Parents and community members are involved with the school and their own life-long learning

• Services:Community Schools or Learning Centers all vary in

their approach in enhancing the community in which they operate. Services can range from health and social awareness, to providing after school programs (perhaps tutoring, or sports). There is no ‘specific’ model for these centers. They all operate differently with whatever resources they have available. Look at the following examples:

Chicago

• Minimum of 12 hours of after school activities and usually run from 5pm-6pm. These activities focus around parent programming and health and social services

• Counteract the effects of a range of negative factors that contribute to students’ lack of opportunities and underachievement.

• Summer school activities to help reduce the drop-out rate of urban youth and reduce the phenomenon known as ‘summer learning loss’

Achievement Plus Schools, St-Paul Minnesota

• It is a public-private initiative that involves three schools in the region which are all located in the poorest region of St-Paul

• Achievement Plus applies a three-prong approach: rigorous academics, afterschool learning opportunities, and “learning supports,” or non-academic services

Children’s Aid Society Community Schools, New York

• Each full-service CAS community school partnership includes a core instructional program,

• afterschool learning opportunities that are integrated with the school-day curriculum,

• Saturday and summer programs, health and mental health services, adult education,

• and community events. The CAS Bronx Family Center provides students in the area

• with preventative and acute health care, dental services, and onsite family counseling and

• therapy. CAS also brings community members into the school by hosting large communitywide

• events such as the Dominican Heritage Celebration in Washington Heights.

Key Factors in making YOUR CLC awesome!

• Have an awesome coordinator. If you do have an awesome coordinator, fire the one you have, and hire a more awesome one.

• Partner with local organizations whose mandate it is to offer services to the community and it’s populace. Bribe them if need be.

• Judging by my awesome research, the coordinators of these centers/schools have great support from the Principals and the community organizations and from the different levels of governments. Often, other organizations will join in after programs have begun as to not feel left out and sad.

Key Factors will inhibit YOUR CLC’s success

• Not having an awesome coordinator• Apprehension and fear of change (or spiders)

from staff members and members of community organizations.

• Money. Creative ways of offering services must be thought of (by your awesome coordinator)

What are the “Key Factors” that facilitate success?

Stable leadership and long-term financing methods are vital to sustaining and expanding preschool-community initiatives.

Diversified funding, careful site selection, visibility and organized constituent support are also important.

"Going to Scale" depends not only on increasing the number of sites but also on ensuring that the initiative’s guiding principles penetrate and transform schools, their partner institutions and neighbourhoods.

Successful expansion requires clear goals, good timing and sufficient funding and support to maintain essential program features during periods of rapid growth.

“Key Factors”•

Foster strong partnerships -- Partners share their resources and expertise and work together to design community schools and make them work.

• Share accountability for results -- Clear, mutually agreed-upon results drive the work of community schools. Data helps partners measure progress toward results. Agreements enable them to hold each other accountable and move beyond "turf battles”.

• Set high expectations for all -- Community schools are organized to support learning. Children, youth and adults are expected to learn at high standards and be contributing members of their community.

• Build on the community's strengths -- Community schools marshal the assets of the entire community -- including the people who live and work there, local organizations, and the school.

• Embrace diversity -- Community schools know their communities. They work to develop respect and a strong, positive identity for people of diverse backgrounds and are committed to the welfare of the whole community.

What kinds of services do CLC’s provide?

•Quality education - High-caliber curriculum and instruction enable all children to meet challenging academic standards. The school uses all of the community's assets as resources for learning and involves students in contributing to the solution of community problems.

• Youth development - Young people develop their assets and talents, form positive relationships with peers and adults, and serve as resources to their communities.

• Family support - Family resource centers, early childhood development programs, coordinated health, mental health and social services, counseling, and other supports enhance family life by building upon individuals' strengths and skills.

• Family and community engagement - Family members and other residents actively participate in designing, supporting, monitoring and advocating quality programs and activities in the school and community.

• Community development - All participants focus on strengthening the local leadership, social networks, economic viability and physical infrastructure of the surrounding community.

…SERVICES The array of specific services that individual community schools offer varies extensively depending on the local environment and their needs. Some of the following services are provided by community schools;

•After School•Community Development•Community Engagement•Early Childhood Services•Family Involvement•Family Support•Mental Health•Physical Health•Youth Development•Adult Education

Community Schools

What are the key factors that inhibit success?

What Not to Do!

• Don’t assume you know everything your school needs just when you walk in.

• Don’t try to be the super coordinator. You can’t do everything alone.

• Don’t duplicate pre-existing services thinking yours will be more effective.

• Don’t take all the credit. There is a whole community behind you.

• Don’t try to start off with a bang. You will be more successful by taking small steps and developing slowly.

• Being too vague in your goals are, will not allow you to receive tangible results.

• Don’t fight the system. Find ways to work around any perceived obstacles.

What are the principal characteristics of a CLC?

SCHOOL

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP

FAMILY

CHARACTERISTICS OF A CLC

• Community Learning Centres are partnerships that provide a range of services and activities.

• The activities offered often go beyond the school day.• Community Learning Centres help meet the needs of

learners, their families, and the wider community.• Their aim is to support the holistic development of

citizens and communities.

• Community Learning Centres integrate learners, their families, and the wider community.

• CLC’s need safe and supportive conditions (school board, partners, MELS, community, families, students, etc).

• Set of partnerships between the school and other community resources.

• Long term sustainability.• Develop partnerships with community groups to serve

student, school and community needs.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A CLC

• Collaborates with the quality of life of students and their families.

• Leads to the improvement of students learning, stronger families and healthier communities.

• Schools become centers of the community and are open to everyone – all day, every day, evenings and weekends.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A CLC

• Using public schools as hubs, CLC’s bring together many partners to offer a range of supports and opportunities to children, youth, families and communities.

• A CLC makes families and neighborhoods feel safe, supportive and engaged.

• In a CLC, parents and community members are involved with the school and their own life-long learning

CHARACTERISTICS OF A CLC