Why Community Schools?

What Are Community Schools?

The Children’s Aid Society offers the following definition of a community school:

“Community schools sometimes ‘full service’ or ‘extended-service schools,’ are educational institutions that combine the rigorous academics of a quality school with a wide range of vital in-house services, supports, and opportunities delivered through school, family and community partnerships for the purpose of promoting children’s learning and development.”

Furthermore, community schools provide the resources and supports for not only students to develop socially, academically, physically, and emotionally, but also enable their families to thrive and thereby the broader community.

How Do Community Schools Contribute to Student Learning?

Although community schools are intended to benefit the entire community, the community school approach has shown to be particularly effective in promoting student learning and development. This understanding as well as the Coalition for Community Schools’ “Six Conditions for Learning” are the guiding principles for this toolkit. These conditions are:

1. Early childhood development is fostered through high-quality, comprehensive programs that nurture learning and development.
2. The school has a core instructional program with qualified teachers, a challenging curriculum, and high standards and expectations for students.
3. Students are motivated and engaged in learning—both in school and in community settings, during and after school.
4. The basic physical, social, emotional, and economic needs of young people and their families are met.
5. There is mutual respect and effective collaboration among parents and school staff.
6. The community is engaged in the school and promotes a school climate that is safe, supportive, and respectful and that connects students to a broader learning community.

Finally, community schools at their core, work to provide the services, supports and opportunities necessary for communities to further support student achievement and learning as well as provide a host of activities and efforts that contribute to building healthier communities. These two intentions are necessarily interdependent and both critical to the principles underlying this toolkit.