For your drive! Hey, check out this track on SoundCloud: LatinX TalX: A Sharing LatinX Journeys Podcast Episode 14: Community Schools, Charter Schools & Cloaking Inequality chat with Will Ortiz-Febus and Dr. Julian Vazquez Heilig
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Is there a tried and true alternative to the privately-controlled for-profit and non-profit charter schools? Yes. I previously blogged about community schools in the post California NAACP calls for the choice of community schools. I was honored to volunteer to be on the recent NEA taskforce to design a new policy statement about community schools. Here is the policy statement that passed at the NEA RA few days ago. There is occasionally some “confusingness” about the community schools model, so read the statement below for an outline of the model.
Policy Statement on Community Schools
Introduction
Consistent with NEA’s core values that “public education is the gateway to opportunity,” and that “all students have the human and civil right to a quality public education that develops their potential, independence, and character,” and recognizing that opportunity gaps in our society have resulted in an uneven and unjust public education system where some communities have public schools that provide “individuals with the skills and opportunities to be involved, informed, and engaged in our representative democracy” and some do not, NEA believes all schools should use research-backed school improvement strategies designed to support a racially just education system that ensures that all students and their families have the support needed to thrive and grow. The Community School Model (CSM) has a strong track record of closing opportunity gaps, supporting a culturally relevant and responsive climate, and causing signifcant and sustained school improvement. NEA supports the use of the Community Schools Model in public schools where the local staff and community are supportive.
Definitions:
Public Community Schools: Public community schools are both places and partnerships that bring together the school and community to provide a rigorous and engaging academic experience for students, enrichment activities to help students see positive futures, and services designed to remove barriers to learning. Students engage in real-world problem solving as part of their curriculum. Community schools involve and support families and residents in the public school community and organize the wealth of assets that all communities have to focus on our youth and strengthen families and communities. Public schools become centers of the community and are open to everyone.
Community School Model: Any public school can use the community school model, which is intended to be tailored to the specifc needs of an individual school’s students, staff, families, and community members. The community school model advanced by NEA is based on Six Pillars of Practice as implemented through four key mechanisms.
Stakeholder: Stakeholder refers to anyone who is invested in the welfare and success of a school and its students, including administrators, educators, students, parents, families, community members, local business leaders, and elected officials such as school board members, city councilors, and state representatives. Stakeholders may also be collective entities, such as local businesses, organizations, advocacy groups, committees, media outlets, and cultural institutions, in addition to organizations that represent specifc groups, such as associations, parent-teacher organizations, and associations representing superintendents, principals, school boards, or educators in specifc academic disciplines.
Partners: Partner refers to external organizations and individuals that form informal and formal relationships with a school that is using the Community School Model to fll strategy needs. These organizations can include local businesses, advocacy groups, educator associations, parent-teacher organizations, religious organizations, schools, universities, nonproft organizations, and other types of organizations that local stakeholders determine fill a strategic need.
The Six Pillars include:
- Strong and Proven Culturally Relevant Curriculum: Educators provide a rich and varied academic program allowing students to acquire both foundational and advanced knowledge and skills in many content areas. Students learn with challenging, culturally relevant materials that address their learning needs and expand their experience. They also learn how to analyze and understand the unique experiences and perspectives of others. The curriculum embraces all content areas including the arts, second languages, and physical education. Teachers and ESP are engaged in developing effective programs for language instruction for English learners and immigrant students. Rigorous courses such as Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate are offered. Learning and enrichment activities are provided before and after the regular school day, including sports, the arts, and homework assistance. The needs of parents and families are addressed through English-as-a-Second-Language classes, GED preparation, and job training programs.
- High-quality Teaching and Learning: Teachers are fully licensed, knowledgeable about their content, and skillful in their practice. Instructional time focuses on learning rather than testing. Individual student needs are identifed and learning opportunities are designed to address them. Higher-order thinking skills are at the core of instruction so that all students acquire problem solving, critical thinking, and reasoning skills. Educators work collaboratively to plan lessons, analyze student work, and adjust curriculum as required. Experienced educators work closely with novices as mentors, coaches, and “guides on the side,” sharing their knowledge and expertise. ESP members take part in professional learning experiences and are consulted and collaborate when plans to improve instruction are developed. Together, educators identify the methods and approaches that work and change those that do not meet student needs.
- Inclusive Leadership: Leadership teams with educators, the community school coordinator, and other school staff share the responsibility of school operations with the principal. This leadership team ensures that the community school strategy remains central in the decision-making process.
- Positive Behavior Practices (including restorative justice): Community school educators emphasize positive relationships and interactions and model these through their own behavior. Negative behaviors and truancy are acknowledged and addressed in ways that hold students accountable while showing them they are still valued members of the school community. All members or the faculty and staff are responsible for ensuring a climate where all students can learn. Restorative behavior practices such as peer mediation, community service, and post-confict resolution help students learn from their mistakes and foster positive, healthy school climates where respect and compassion are core principles. Zero-tolerance practices leading to suspension and expulsion are avoided.
- Family and Community Partnerships: Families, parents, caregivers, and community members are partners in creating dynamic, fexible community schools. Their engagement is not related to a specific project or program, but is on-going and extends beyond volunteerism to roles in decision making, governance, and advocacy. Both ESP and teachers are part of developing family engagement strategies, and they are supported through professional learning opportunities. Their voices are critical to articulating and achieving the school’s overall mission and goals. When families and educators work together, students are more engaged learners who earn higher grades and enroll in more challenging classes; student attendance and grade and school completion rates improve.
- Coordinated and Integrated Wraparound Supports (community support services): Community school educators recognize that students often come to school with challenges that impact their ability to learn, explore, and develop in the classroom. Because learning does not happen in isolation, community schools provide meals, health care, mental health counseling, and other services before, during, and after school. Staff members support the identification of services that children need. These wraparound services are integrated into the fabric of the school that follows the Whole Child tenets. Connections to the community are critically important, so support services and referrals are available for families and other community members.
Public Community School Implementation: Implementation of the Community Schools Model requires that dedicated staff and structures use proven implementation mechanisms.
- Community School Coordinator: Every community school should have a community school coordinator that plays a leadership role at the school, is a member of the school leadership team, and is a full-time staff member. The CSC has training and specialized skills that supports building and managing partnerships in diverse communities, creating and coordinating an integrated network of services for students and their families, and optimizing both internal and external resources. The CSC connects students and their families with services in the community.
- Needs and Asset Assessment: The foundation for the community school model is a school-based needs and asset assessment that assesses including academic, social, and emotional needs and assets (including staff expertise and community supports of the school and surrounding community). The needs and asset assessment, facilitated by the CSC, is an inclusive process in which families, students, community members, partners, teachers, ESP, administrators, and other school staff defne their needs and assets. Problem-solving teams are established based on the needs determined in the needs and asset assessment.
- School Stakeholder Problem-solving Teams: Every community school should have teams of school staff and community stakeholders (families, parents) dedicated to solving problems that are identifed in the needs and asset assessment. The solutions identifed by the stakeholder problem-solving teams change the way things are done in and outside of school hours and, at times, involve partnerships with outside organizations and individuals.
- Community School Stakeholder Committee: The community school stakeholder committee (CSSC) coordinates between school staff, partners (organizations, businesses, town and city service providers), and stakeholders to ensure goals are achieved and obstacles are surmounted. The CSSC, which includes families, community partners, school staff, students, and other stakeholders from the school’s various constituencies, works in collaboration with the school leadership team and supports coordination across and among community schools within a school district.
The Role of the Association in Advancing the Community School Model
Awareness. NEA believes that there must be increased awareness among its members and the public about the large body of evidence that demonstrates the effcacy of the Community School Model in supporting racial justice in education and closing opportunity gaps to achieve measurable school improvement gains. NEA encourages schools and districts to use the community school model.
Advocacy. NEA has a responsibility to advocate for community school policies and procedures, legislation, and practices that will result in school improvement gains. As educators, NEA is in the best position to advance the adoption of community school policies.
There were a few amendments to the the statement designed by the taskforce, many of them were suggested by the the BAT teachers at the RA.
A1. Proposed Policy Statement on Community Schools
Amendment A-1
Amend page 5, lines 38 and 45 by addition:
Stakeholders may also be collective entities, such as local businesses, local unions, organizations, advocacy groups, committees, media outlets, and cultural institutions, in addition to organizations that represent specific groups, such as associations, parent-teacher organizations, and associations representing superintendents, principals, school boards, or educators in specific academic disciplines.
These organizations can include local businesses, local unions, advocacy groups, educator associations, parent-teacher organizations, religious organizations, schools, universities, nonprofit organizations, and other types of organizations that local stakeholders determine fill a strategic need.
A2. Proposed Policy Statement On Community Schools
Amendment A-2
Amend page 7, line 38 by addition:
Contract Integrity. NEA should ensure that decisions made by collaborative bodies do not abrogate the contractual protections of any NEA member.
A3. Proposed Policy Statement on Community Schools
Amendment A-3
Amend page 5, line 47 by addition:These organizations can include local businesses, local unions, advocacy groups, educator associations, parent-teacher organizations, religious organizations, schools, universities, nonprofit organizations, and other types of organizations that local stakeholders determine fill a strategic need and that align with NEA values.
A4. Proposed Policy Statement on Community Schools
Amendment A-4
Amend page 6, line 28 by deletion:
Negative behaviors and truancy are acknowledged and addressed in ways that hold students accountable while showing them they are still valued members of the school community.
A5. Proposed Policy Statement on Community Schools
Amendment A-5
Amend page 6, line 14 by addition:
Instructional time focuses on learning rather than testing and on the use of authentic assessment over high-stakes testing.
A6. Proposed Policy Statement on Community Schools
Amendment A-6
Amend on page 6, line 14 by addition:
Teachers are fully licensed, knowledgeable about their content, and skillful in their practice. Programs to hire, recruit, and maintain educational staff should focus on recruitment from surrounding communities and should strive for ratios that reflect student demographics. Instructional time focuses on learning rather than testing.
A7. Proposed Policy Statement on Community Schools
Amendment A-7
Amend on page 6, line 13 by addition:
Teachers are fully licensed, meet the highest standards that are established, maintained, and governed by members of the profession, knowledgeable about their content, and skillful in their practice.
A8. Proposed Policy Statement on Community Schools
Amendment A-8
Amend on page 5, line 45 by addition:
…can include local businesses, particularly locally owned businesses, advocacy groups, educator associations, parent-teacher organizations, religious organizations,…
Also, a shout out the community-based schools on the campus of Hawkins in Los Angeles. I recently had the opportunity to visit and came away impressed with their community-based efforts.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bim1FuoB9p6/?hl=en&taken-by=professorjvh
So let’s get to work and support community schools nationwide as an alternative to privately-controlled for-profit and non-profit charter schools.
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Yes, 2017 was a rough year for public school supporters, with the ascension of President Donald Trump and his Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, the continued underfunding and undermining of local public schools, and the increased attacks on teacher professionalism and students’ civil rights.
But there’s hope for 2018. The public has grown far more skeptical toward the movement to privatize schools through vouchers and charters. States are retreating from the notion that high-stakes test can measure “education effectiveness.” Citizen-led lawsuits and voter demands are pressuring more government leaders to increase school funding, and a growing movement for education justice is spreading across the nation.
The Progressive’s Public School Shakedown Education Fellows explain what to expect and what to push for in the year ahead.
Jeff Bryant
The Year Democrats Push an Alternative to ‘Reform’ is my 2018 prediction porn in The Progressive:
The well-documented failures of so-called education reform during the past two decades have prompted educators, students, parents, and politicians to question the reform agenda. The effort involves incentivizing the expansion of school vouchers and charters, using high-stakes testing to rate schools and teachers, and dictating school governance through top-down, private control. But the public image of these education reformers has wilted as Donald Trump, Betsy DeVos, and their allies in the Republican party have emerged as the movement’s most prominent cheerleaders. Recently, Democratic candidates have begun to use their opponents past support for education reform against them. In Virginia and Massachusetts, Democratic party candidates are speaking out about the growing lack of accountability and transparency in charter schools.
2018 should be the year that Democrats who support community empowerment—and those Republicans who truly value local control—embrace community schools.
What alternative should Democrats embrace? Community-based, democratically-controlled education is a direct affront to the Trump, DeVos and the Republican agenda. The Intercultural Development Research Association, a civil rights organization, supports community-based education, describing it as a system based on “valuing families and communities and [recognizing] that they are capable of initiating and sustaining involvement in educational change.” The organization argues for “broad-based local participation in comprehensive planning and decision-making at the local level as well as at the policy level.”
The California NAACP has resolved that community schools are a key alternative to privately-control charters. And recent public conversations—like those taking place in San Francisco—are calling for alternatives to the failure of privatization, especially in communities of color where it has colonized their schools and taken away community control.
2018 should be the year that Democrats who support community empowerment—and those Republicans who truly value local control—embrace community schools as a powerful alternative to failed top-down, privatization and private-control education reforms.
Go here to see all of the 2018 prognostication at The Progressive.
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You can also listen and download our Truth For America podcast from iTunes while you are on the road here.
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When the words school choice are said… what comes to mind? We know that the majority of charter schools are privately-managed. The evolution of the school choice movement has resulted in charter-management organizations (CMOs) coming on the scene and essentially franchising schools like McDonalds and Burger King all over the United States. Considering that charter schools are becoming less popular and they often neglect to deal directly with the challenges of inequality and poverty while subscribing to the achievement ideology… there are many people searching for alternative school models.
Are there democratically-controlled school choice alternatives to the private control that dominates the current education reform conversation (charters and vouchers) that address the needs of students faced with unequal conditions? YES! The California NAACP believes that community schools are one such option. At the recent California NAACP convention in Los Angeles, the following resolution was passed.
RESOLUTION 13. SUPPORTING COMMUNITY-SCHOOLS AS A COMPREHENSIVE SOLUTION FOR QUALITY EDUCATION
WHEREAS, in the American public education system, longstanding educational opportunity gaps have persisted in schools. These gaps are not a coincidence, as the United States has a long history of legislative, executive, and judicial enactments that have codified unequal provision of resources for schools.
WHEREAS, at a time when the nation’s K-12 students are now “majority–minority” and racialized gaps in student achievement, income, wealth are on the rise, the continued opportunity gap in schools has created a climate where communities are restless for alternatives.
WHEREAS, in some quarters this has manifested in increased political support for market-based approaches to education (i.e. school vouchers and charters) that are run by for-profit and non-profit organizations. The alternative to less direct democratic control of public schools is an increased role for democracy in neighborhood Community Schools.
WHEREAS, the roots of Community Schools go back to the early 1900s, when progressive reformers argued that bringing health and educational services to working families in urban neighborhoods would improve student success. More recently, one form of the model was popularized by Dr. James Comer who has focused on developing “the whole child” by linking academic growth with emotional wellness and social development in a collaborative school culture.
WHEREAS, research on Community Schools has demonstrated improvements in student achievement, dropout rates, student behavior, attendance, parental involvement, graduation rates, college going rates and school accountability ratings.
WHEREAS, a major challenge for the neighborhood Community School model has been implementation and the availability of resources to implement the elements demonstrated in the research to improve student and school success.
WHEREAS, Community Schools should be a part of a network that impacts the whole system and is supported by sustainable investments locally. Additionally, the authority of state legislative bodies should support and fund the planning, development, implementation and evaluation of Community Schools.
WHEREAS, Community Schools should include curriculum that is engaging, culturally relevant and challenging. A robust selection of classes and afterschool programs in the arts, languages, ethnic studies, AP, IB, and honors courses as well as services, for example to support special education students.
WHEREAS, Community Schools should include emphasis on high quality teaching and critical thinking, and not on high stakes testing. Community Schools focus on formative and summative teacher-driven assessments are used to help teachers meet the needs of students.
WHEREAS, Community Schools should empower educators with a real voice in professional development.
WHEREAS, Community Schools should have “wrap-around” supports such as health care, eye care and social and emotional services that support student success. These supports should be readily available before, during and after school and are provided year-round to the full community.
WHEREAS, Community Schools should have positive discipline practices such as restorative justice and social and emotional learning supports are stressed so students grow and contribute to the school community and beyond.
WHEREAS, Community Schools should promote authentic parent and community engagement so the full community actively participates in planning and decision-making. This process recognizes the link between the success of the school and the development of the community as a whole.
WHEREAS, Community Schools should have inclusive and diverse school leadership who are committed to making the Community School strategy integral to the school’s mandate and daily activities.
WHEREAS, Community Schools, if implemented properly, are comprehensive solution to problems facing public schools, especially in low-income communities. If scaled-up, Community Schools are a component of a viable long-term strategy to expand educational opportunities and promote neighborhood well-being. They also have the potential to realize the promise of developing a set of best practices to be shared locally, statewide and nationally that have been promised by school choice advocates.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED communities should have the primary voice in community schools and not non-profit and for-profit organizations.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the California Hawaii NAACP and its units support parents who desire community schools in their neighborhood.
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, the California Hawaii NAACP commits to helping local branches hold policymakers and districts accountable for providing the resources to implement neighborhood community schools.
There is also good news on community schools coming out of Houston!
In closing, remember the old political adage, “You can’t fight something with nothing.”
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The impending death of No Child Left Behind has the potential to create more space for community-based reform. As federal standardized tests have fallen out of favor, many states have explored alternative community-based measures to improve the success of schools, districts and students. For the past decade, the predominant NCLB-inspired educational policy discourse has focused on top-down policies. This webinar focused on introducing a set of community-based approaches for education reform.
During a recent Council of State Governments West eCademy webcast (available below), presenters reviewed alternative measures for school accountability, community schools, teacher quality assessment and student achievement assessment. A national cadre of experts discussed steps legislators and communities can take, from a policy standpoint, to encourage and support local assessment and accountability measures.
The facilitators of the discussion were:
Idaho Representative Wendy Horman, Chair, CSG West Education and Workforce Development Committee (welcome remarks and webinar background information)
New Mexico Senator William Soules, Vice Chair, CSG West Education and Workforce Development Committee (presentation of panelists)
Panelists:
Julian Vasquez Heilig, Ph.D., Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (School accountability)
Monty Neill, Ed.D., Executive Director, National Center for Fair & Open Testing (Fair Test) (Student assessments)
Cheryl Dultz, Teacher San Juan School District (Teacher evaluations – PAR)
Ken Zarifis, President, Education Austin (Community schools)
For more on community-based student assessment see EdWeek Series Beyond Rhetoric: If Not a Bunch of Tests… Then What Instead?
For more on Travis Heights and community-based charters see How to Create a Community-Based In-District Charter and Photo Essay: This Charter School is Lovely
For all posts on Community-Based (local) Accountability click here. Also read Accountability: Are you ready for a new idea? This was the first post where I publicly introduced the idea of bottom-up Local Accountability multiple-measure (dashboard) plans.
For more on evaluating teacher quality via Peer Assistance and Review check out Can we Evaluate #Teachers Without Using High-Stakes #Testing?
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