User:Aixle12/Full-service community school

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Full-Service Community Schools

A community school focuses on partnerships between a school and its community. It integrates academics, youth development, family support, health and social services, and community development. (Cite: CCS – results and framework) Community schools are organized around the goals to help students learn and succeed and to strengthen families and communities. Full-service community schools extend these goals further. They are centers of their communities that provide services to address the needs of student learners and build bridges between schools, families, and communities. (Cite: Varlas FSCS). They are schools that not only promote academic excellence, but they also provide health, mental health, and social services on the school campus. (Cite: Boyd, Breaking Bonds) The Coalition for Community Schools identifies five key areas that are necessary for a child to succeed: high-quality educational services, youth development programs, family support activities, family and community engagement, and community development. (Cite: Harris & Hoover, Overcoming Adversity)


Clarifying Terminology (Helpful? Placement in article is being considered)

Linked services involve collaborative strategies, in which partners can share a vision, establish goals, and use resources to implement and deliver the services. (cite: Boyd, Breaking Bonds) School-linked services involve coordination with schools, families, and agencies located at or near the school. School-based services are more directly linked—physically and fiscally—to the school campus. The school becomes the vehicle to mobilize its surrounding community.


The Problem (or The Need)

Students in the United States come to school with different circumstances at home in their community. Many students will leave school with unequal skills and abilities. Children differ on how ready they are to fully engage in school everyday. These differences are strongly influenced by their social class. Differences in social classes will result in differences in childrearing and children’s health. (cite: Rothstein, Equalizing Opportunity) Children in lower-income households: have poorer health; suffer from undiagnosed vision problems; lack adequate dental care; have poor nutrition; are more likely to develop asthma; and are more likely to be born premature or with low birth weights. In order to raise student academic achievement, lower-class children must live in better social and economic conditions. (How does the above section fit, especially with the last section more fleshed out?)


History of the Full-Service Movement (Would time period subheadings be helpful or are the unnecessary?)

In the early 1900s, children living in poverty in the U.S. were predominantly from immigrant families. (Cambell-Allen, 4) In 1889, Jane Addams established a Hull House in Chicago, which brought health and educational services to working families in immigrant neighborhoods. (Benson, 23) Addams’s work, based off of an English model, was founded on “the theory that social ills are interconnected and must be approached holistically.” (Benson 24) John Dewey was influenced by Addams’s work and adapted the social change philosophy to schools. Dewey stated, “The conception of the schools as a social center is born of our entire democratic movement.” By the early 20th Century, many cities began to recognize schools as social centers, and many states enacted legislation to allow communities to use school facilities more widely (e.g., as art galleries, movie theaters, local health offices). (Benson, 24)

During the Great Depression, schools were seen as an investment and school facilities continued to be used for multiple purposes. (Cambell-Allen, 4) In 1934, Leonard Cavello, an Italian immigrant living in East Harlem, established Benjamin Franklin High School and used the school community to address social problems, which was the first attempt to make the school the coordinator of social services. (Ibid, 4)

After World War II, the community school movement continued to expand, especially with the work of Charles Mott around bringing to youth recreation and school-linked health and social services to the school campus. Psychologists, school nurses, and social workers became an increasing part of the public school system between 1930 and 1960. (Ibid, 4) President Johnson’s Great Society initiatives focused on the country on the less fortunate, and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 increased the federal government’s role in education and education programming for the country’s neediest students. (Ibid, 4) The rise of Head Start in 1965, “was a tacit acknowledgement by the government that schools alone are not enough to address the underlying problem of social poverty.” (Ibid, 5) The passage of federal legislation in the 1970s—including the Community Schools Act of 1978—paved the way for state governments to focus legislative efforts on the creation of more community schools, which continued through the 1980s and 1990s. (Ibid, 5)

In the mid 1990s, several non-profit parties entered the political arena around full-service schools, including “Coalition for Community Schools (CCS), Communities in Schools (CIS), Schools of the 21st Century (an initiative of Yale University), the National Community Education Association (NCEA), and the Children’s Aid Society (CAS). (Ibid, 7) These entities worked with agencies and state governments to provide more services at local schools, gain further legislative support around community schools, and convert public schools to community schools. (Ibid, 9)


Partnerships in Practice --> (Placement!)

At the school site, the partnerships exist between principals, teachers, other school staff, and multiple community partners. Their goal is to create learning opportunities and services to help students develop academically, emotionally, physically, and socially. (citation: ?) Additional partners with school site personnel are volunteers from public agencies, local government officials, non-profit agencies, community-based and faith-based organizations, philanthropies, businesses, and higher education personnel. These partnerships and integrated focus lead to improved student learning, stronger families, and healthier communities. (Cite: cambell policy review and recommendations) Schools are the center of the community, and the shared resources allow schools to improved student learning, stronger families, and healthier communities. (cite: Blank, Financing CS)


Policy and Legislation

Federal legislation in 2009 (cite) increased the funding for after-school activities to $1.166 billion and appropriated $10 million to Full-Service Community Schools. The Full-Service Community Schools Act of 2009 amends the Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965 and draws more attention (and possibly funds). (Thomas.loc.gov) Federal legislation over the past decade—including Keeping Parents and Communities Engaged Act (Keeping PACE), Working to Encourage Community Action and Responsibility in Education (WeCare), the 21st Century Community Learning Centers, Time for Innovation Matters in Education (TIME) Act, the Teaching Fellows for Expanded Learning and After-School Act of 2007, and the Full-Service Community Schools Act of 2005—have put full-service community schools on the forefront of education policies and legislation. (Boyd, Breaking Bonds)

More details on...

  • The Full-Service Community Schools Act of 2009 amends the Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965 and draws more attention (and possibly funds). (Thomas.loc.gov)
  • Keeping Parents and Communities Engaged Act (Keeping PACE)
  • Working to Encourage Community Action and Responsibility in Education (WeCare)
  • 21st Century Community Learning Centers
  • Time for Innovation Matters in Education (TIME) Act
  • Teaching Fellows for Expanded Learning and After-School Act of 2007
  • Full-Service Community Schools Act of 2005


Community Schools as an Anti-Poverty Mechanism

Of all developed countries, the United States has the most children living in poverty, and the poverty in the U.S. leads to poor performance in schools. (Boyd, Breaking Bonds) Cambell-Allen et al. claim that at the base of the gap between academic achievement and opportunity is the fact that students “live and work in an unequal world with unequal services and opportunities which lead to a disparity among incoming students’ school readiness” (Cambell-Allen et al., 1).

Families living in poverty and middle-class families face differences in regards to childrearing and children’s health—including vision, hearing, oral health, lead exposure, asthma, use of alcohol, smoking, birth weight, and nutrition—and have difficulty attaining and fully utilizing government aid. (Rothstein, 45). While these differences, may not significantly impact the academic achievement gap between classes on an individual basis, “together, they add up to a cumulative disadvantage for lower-class children that can’t help but depress average performance.” (Ibid, 45) Full-service community schools act like a ‘one-stop-shop’ that provides the vital services to those who are most in need. “Only when schools are part of a larger enterprise committed to raising and educating children as part of the community can they adequately fulfill their role.” (Wilensky, 31)


Examples of FSCSs (Would this be helpful?)

  • Harlem Children's Zone
  • Chicago Public Schools
  • Children's Aid Society
  • Boston Public Schools

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The articles I will be using for my main project are the following:



Optional articles include:

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