This paper summarizes and synthesizes perspectives gleaned from the literature on community schools. Basic characteristics of such schools are that community schools (1) have something for everyone, (2) provide opportunities for citizens to apply solutions to problems, and (3) help maintain open channels of communication with the community.…

Children living in poverty face many obstacles outside the classroom that can hinder their success in the classroom. Unaddressed health care needs interfere with learning and cause low attendance. Inadequate and inconsistent housing may deprive students of a safe and quiet place to study. The advent of accountability-based school reform has pushed…

In "Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1," a highly contentious and divided Supreme Court invalidated race-conscious admissions plans in two urban school systems, Seattle and Louisville. As such, "Parents Involved" was the latest chapter in the Court's almost 40-year history of reaching mixed…

The research presented in this study focuses on Educational Cultural Negotiators (ECNs). The participants were teachers, administrators, and graduate students in an after-school program in the Midwest and a community-based school/university partnership in the Western U.S. We posit that the roles of the ECNs function as advocacy leaders to invoke…

The Summer Language Academy (SLA) is an innovative and intensive summer program for high-school aged newcomers/new Americans, English learners, and emergent bilinguals, as well as for teachers working with them. In the SLA, students and educators collaboratively explore questions of identity, language, and culture through high-interest texts,…

Wide and persistent gaps in math achievement separate English learners from their English-proficient peers. The consequences of these gaps are severe and long lasting. Without a solid foundation in math, students are less likely to access and excel in college preparatory math and science classes in high school. Without high-level math classes in…

For children of Tibetan nomadic ("drokpa") families, it is often a struggle to attend school. The long distance from home to school, irrelevance of school learning to daily life and available jobs after graduation contribute to the choice by some parents to keep their children at home for domestic work. Although some parents consider…

The federal "Promise Neighborhoods" program underscores the importance of all children and youth having "access to great schools and strong systems of family and community support that will prepare them to attain an excellent education and successfully transition to college and a career." From this perspective, this brief stresses the importance…

With careful planning and slight additional cost, a school can be a community facility and deliver a composite of essential services to a broader range of citizens over a greater time period. (Author)

What's in it for you is the framework in which these authors describe the community school concept. They are careful not to claim community schools as the panacea to education's current problems, but they do have confidence in the future of the concept. (Editor)

Despite discouragement about what a couple of studies reveal about some administrators' views of community education, these authors are optimistic that the concept can help schools cope with today's problems and that, perhaps, it holds the key to positive change. (Editor)

The title coordinator today is preferred to director, the authors explain, because the principal is truly the director of the educational program that the community school embraces. They urge that this person be a member of the principal's administrative team. (Editor)

Components of community schools were isolated from the literature, and the extent to which these existed in the community schools of Alberta was measured. None were developed to the extent suggested in the literature; however, scores were higher than comparable noncommunity schools. (KR)

The essays in this collection describe the contributions of Frank Manley, widely acknowledged by education historians to be the founder of the modern community school movement. They review his leadership after he opened the first community schools in Flint, Michigan, and describe his later career as executive director of the Charles Stewart Mott…