The State of Community Schools

Transcript

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Dave: And so community schools really gives us and our members across the country something to really fight for, something to believe in and really captures the essence of why we became educators, what we want our schools to do, and to be able to fight for the schools that our students deserve, the schools that really reflects, or this idea of joy and justice and equity.

Natieka: Hello and welcome to School Me, the National Education Association's podcast, [00:00:30] dedicated to helping educators thrive at every stage of their careers. I'm your host, Natieka Samuels. Today, we're talking about community schools, and in case you've missed our previous episodes on the topic, the community schools model transforms traditional public schools into neighborhood hubs that mobilize students, staff, families, and community members to help reimagine education and co-construct a shared vision for their school and community.

And that model is catching on across the country, with NEA members standing at the forefront of this [00:01:00] exciting new way of approaching education. But where are these community schools, and what differences are they making for students and educators? Our guests today are Angelia Ebner and Dave Greenberg, senior policy analysts and program specialists who focus on community schools at NEA. Together, we'll discuss the state of the community schools movement and how you can take steps toward bringing community schools to your area too. Thank you, Angelia and Dave, for joining us today.

Dave: Happy to be here, Natieka. Thanks for the invitation.

Angelia: [00:01:30] Yeah, thank you so much for having us. We're excited to have this conversation.

Natieka: So Dave, let's start with you, and then we'll go to Angelia. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and your position at NEA?

Dave: So I, as well as Angelia, we have the fortunate position to be able to work with community schools all day, every day in our jobs, which I think is the coolest job in the world. Can't imagine being able to do anything else. It's a dream job because community schools, I think, is one of the most exciting things happening in education right now, [00:02:00] and we're fortunate to be able to be here to talk a little bit about it. I got my start in community schools when I was a teacher. I taught high school history in New Mexico. Actually, I was teaching close to the border in Southern New Mexico at a high school there, and probably the best job I've ever had, second to this job, was transformational experience.

Loved teaching, but was very cognizant of the systemic barriers that my students were facing and the systemic challenges in our education system. And around the [00:02:30] time when I was teaching, we had a secretary of education in the state that was instituting a set of top-down policies that were high stakes testing and teacher evaluations to test scores and a lot of policies that just weren't really recognizing the assets that our students and families bring. So in our community, we started organizing around community schools in Southern New Mexico and launched our first community school in 2017 in Southern New Mexico [00:03:00] at Lynn Middle School.

And I was fortunate enough to serve as the community school site coordinator there for a brief amount of time. And then, as we launched additional community schools, I was the director of community schools for our school district, Las Cruces Public Schools. And then took on a role at our state affiliate as we continue to expand community schools around the state of New Mexico in 2019 with a new legislation, the Community Schools Act in New Mexico. Started working at the state level to [00:03:30] scale that along with my colleague Mary Parr-Sanchez, who's now the state NEA New Mexico president. And then, about two years ago, was able to start working at the national level supporting our National Community School Implementation Institute here at NEA.

Natieka: And Angelia.

Angelia: Yeah. So super excited, was working in Arizona, and we were doing a lot of things to really support the community in our public school and fight back against charterization in our public school and trying to [00:04:00] be a community hub when we discovered that this thing community schools was a thing and it existed and there were resources and there was a network for it. And then, when I left my public school and was at the university, I got connected to Dave Greenberg and Kyle Serrette. And I was doing some of the Network to Transform Teaching work through National Board and some of the improvement science work with National Board.

And we got connected in that improvement [00:04:30] science piece and kind of found out that this network was even greater than what we already knew and decided that this really was where my heart and professional passion lied and wanted to be a part of this full-time and have the opportunity to come on board and was super excited that that opportunity came to be. And so, in November of 2022, got to come on board-full time with the staff here at NEA.

And now, like Dave said, this is [00:05:00] the greatest job ever. And we get to support this full-time coast to coast, border to border supporting folks who are developing their community schools within their public school system and really working to become the hub for their community, for all of their staff, for all of their students, their parents, and caregivers and their community at large, and really transforming their schools so that all folks can recognize the opportunities that are there and those opportunities can be accessed by all.

And so, it really is just the greatest [00:05:30] professional opportunity that I've ever had. Super excited to be a part of building this with my incredible team here at NEA and working again with educators, administrators, community members, parents and families, students, and staff. Just an incredible opportunity to develop the schools that we want that are working towards transformation.

Natieka: And community schools might seem like a new concept because NEA has been talking about it a lot recently. The buzz is a little bit new, but there are deeper roots to this model and [00:06:00] this movement. So can we give a little bit of a history lesson on how community schools came about?

Dave: Natieka, that's my cue. As a former history teacher, I am just so proud to say that NEA has been at the forefront of the community schools movement really since its inception. Often, we talk about the community schools movement in the United States really being launched in 1902 when John Dewey gave The School as a Social Center speech at our NEA convention in Minneapolis that year. And then, over the next a hundred years, NEA [00:06:30] has taken leadership over and over again in this movement. In 1912, at our annual meeting in San Francisco, we endorsed this concept of schools being the social centers of their community.

In 1938, we invited Leonard Covello, one of the most renowned community school principals over the past a hundred years, from Harlem in New York, to come speak at our convention. So over and over again, throughout the past a hundred and more years, NEA has been a leader in this movement. But as you said, Natieka, [00:07:00] in the past decades, NEA has really doubled down on our commitment to this. In 2018, we passed a national policy statement on community schools and then launched the Community School Institute, which supports now 600 participants from over 50 districts across the country in implementing community schools.

Natieka: Why is NEA so invested and involved in the creation of community schools throughout the country?

Dave: We are so often, unfortunately, [00:07:30] now in a position of having to defend against so many of these policies and kind of honestly attacks that are coming often from non-educators against our public schools in the form of voucher policies and privatization efforts and these attacks on honesty and education. So we're often having to defend against some of these ideas and policies.

And so community schools really gives us and our members [00:08:00] across the country something to really fight for, something to believe in and really captures the essence of why we became educators, what we want our schools to do, and to be able to fight for the schools that our students deserve the schools that really reflect this idea of joy and justice and equity. So I think that really taps into sort of the why of why we are so on fire about this movement.

Natieka: So where are community schools taking off across the country? I know that I've heard of certain states [00:08:30] being ahead of the curve on this. So where are the most community schools popping up these days?

Angelia: Community schools really are popping up everywhere. There is no hindrance to where community schools can pop up. And actually, we have a great way for community schools to pop up anywhere. But we do see community schools popping up in places like Jersey City, in places like Hillsboro, Florida, in places all over California. In places like New Mexico, yeah, [00:09:00] all over the place. And really, it's places that are ready for interest holders to come to the table and help develop and transform schools in the places where everyone has access to opportunities for success.

Natieka: What are some of your favorite examples of community schools' work and the outcomes that you're seeing from those sites?

Angelia: We are seeing incredible rates of teacher retention, staff retention at our community schools. We're seeing incredible student outcomes [00:09:30] at our community schools. We are seeing culture and climate strengthen at our community schools. We are seeing really incredible innovations take place at our community schools. And again, that process that Dave spoke about, the kind of through line for our community schools, this is how this happens. So if you see one community school, you've seen one community school because no set of activities or no set of projects or goals will ever be exactly the same because, again, [00:10:00] like we talked about, they are designed to fit the community that they exist within and for.

So, for instance, if you go to Jersey City and you visit Mahatma Gandhi School, they had to develop a health clinic. Through their needs and asset assessment, they found out that they were disproportionately underinsured in their community, and they did a lot to explore the reasons why and how they could figure out how to support those folks. And so, in community schools, we talk a lot about Maslow's to get to Blooms. So in order to meet [00:10:30] basic needs so that our kiddos can come to school ready to learn and also so our families are prepared in order to support our kiddos and our families have what they need so that they can be most successful, right. And our community schools model, especially through NEA, it's not a bandaid.

It's about disrupting these things and so that our folks can really start again to access these opportunities that are there. And so Mahatma Gandhi implemented a health clinic, making sure that folks had access to what [00:11:00] they needed in order to, again, be able to focus on these things that they needed in order to be most successful students in order to be most successful families, in order to be most successful community members and also staff members as well. And then they saw huge spikes in teacher retention, over 84% in teacher retention, things that were far outside the norm for the district. They implemented a house system at their school.

Again, huge strengthening of school culture and climate, kiddos have really invested in this. Family members have also invested in this. Their [00:11:30] turnout for family nights and events is huge. So these kind of things we see over and over again at our community schools that follow the process through the needs and asset assessment because this is also not a deficit model. This is about assets. How do we lift up assets that already exist in order to help disrupt the priorities that we need to disrupt in order for folks to be their most successful selves?

Natieka: And how about rural schools? Can rural schools also benefit [00:12:00] from this model, or is it primarily something that urban or inner-city schools can benefit from?

Angelia: Yes, rural schools can definitely benefit from this model. So we have also had in Deer River, definitely a rural area. They implemented through building relationships, especially with their indigenous population and families that were in the area. They built really strong relationships with folks. And through this, they started to unpack and understand some of the things [00:12:30] that were contributing to absentee rates for students, some of the reasons why they didn't even have really strong relationships with families.

And through their needs and asset assessment process, through these relationships that they were developing, they were able to begin improving their attendance rates. They began to develop and strengthen the relationships that they had, and they developed the secondary bus routes. So when students missed the first round [00:13:00] of buses, families were reaching out, students were reaching out and letting folks know that they needed a second pickup. And so buses go back out, they grab who they need, and kids are able to get to school, families are willing to make those calls.

So things like that are huge. Also, Roswell, New Mexico, but we have huge graduation rate increases in Roswell because of some of the relationships and the needs and asset work that they've done, they not only have been able to boost graduation rates from double digits [00:13:30] to now triple digits at the University High in Roswell, but also they have dramatically decreased substance abuse rates at the middle school and also at the high school, both through education programs that they're doing with students and also with parents.

And then they also have developed really incredible programs at University High for their teen moms. And they have 100% graduation rate right now for their Teen Parent Program. And [00:14:00] so just some really incredible outcomes Natieka for our folks that are in some of these rural communities as well. So yes, you do not need to be in a major metropolitan area. You don't even need to be in a major suburban area. But some of our really incredible stories with incredible student outcomes are coming from our rural community schools.

Dave: I would totally echo that and add that there is this misconception out there that this is how an urban strategy, and really absolutely want to correct [00:14:30] the record on that. And in fact, a lot of the early historical examples of community schools, like in Arthurdale, West Virginia, in Northern New Mexico, were in rural communities. And when you think about rural communities, the school often is a natural hub for the community, a gathering place. So it just makes so much sense in rural communities as well as in urban communities.

Angelia: Community schools is an equitable strategy for all schools, all public schools. This is [00:15:00] something that we truly believe in, especially through the NEA model. And to Dave's point, this is about creating what each community needs.

Natieka: Sometimes, when I hear people talk about community schools, the changes or the benefits that they talk about are mostly focused on helping lower-income families or disadvantaged students. So it brings forth this idea that community schools are only for reforming Title I schools or only for students living [00:15:30] in poverty. But is that true? Are there other benefits besides just helping families who can't afford certain services? What are the benefits beyond that?

Dave: Natieka, I'm so glad you raised this because this is something we've been working really hard to clarify across the field because a lot of people do associate community schools solely with wraparound services and supports, and sometimes it's even seen through a deficit lens like it is just for certain demographics, and it's really just [inaudible 00:16:00] [00:16:00] services to address needs. And that couldn't be further from the truth. It is an asset-based strategy. And like Angelia was saying, it's completely customized for every community.

And I think one of the reasons we get into this trap is this idea that community schools is sort of a service model, and we want to really shift away from that. And community schools is a community-driven model that is really about co-creating a vision for what schools [00:16:30] and communities should be and then galvanizing community resources to achieve that vision. And it's also a strategy that centers teaching and learning and shifting teaching and learning. And that's something that we make very clear in the NEA model. We center teaching and learning as some of our pillars. And so it's not just about having a health center or a food distribution or clothing closet.

It's shifting the way instruction and pedagogy looks so that it is more relevant, [00:17:00] engaging, centering real-world problem-solving, community-based learning. And that applies across any context, any school. So we really think that community schools, it's not something that should just be a program for some students, some families, it should be the way schools look. This should be a paradigm shift in the way we do school. To borrow from Oakland's term, "A way we do school," this should be the way we approach school. It's a collection of what we know works in public education. So this should be [00:17:30] something across the board.

Angelia: If I can piggyback on Dave, the way that we have seen schools use this to go to community-based or problem-based if you will, but community-based instruction to really strengthen what they're doing academically, and we have seen students soar as a result. And we're not talking just satellite data or antiquated data models, but even street data and what students are showing in regards to grit and their ability [00:18:00] to achieve and succeed even academically in college or in college readiness if you will. But this really is a model that is preparing students for now and for what they're being asked to do with things that are facing them now.

And it is allowing folks to be more adaptable because, again, we're not using models that may be antiquated to measure it by. We're looking at both those sets that are still generally expected [00:18:30] or needed in many systems, but we're also looking at street data. What is it that we know our students need to be able to do to be successful? And so to Dave's point, when folks are using community-based instruction or community-based elements to adapt and to strengthen what they're doing, students have that relevant instruction, that relevant pedagogy, and we're seeing that those outcomes are even greater as a result. So we like to use that word strengthen [00:19:00] as well because, again, it is an asset model, not a deficit model.

Natieka: Thanks for listening to School Me. And a quick thank you to all of the NEA members listening. If you're not an NEA member yet, visit nea.org/whyjoin to learn more about member benefits. So we were just talking about the way that the community school strategy interacts with the plans for teaching and learning. So can you go a little bit more into detail about how the strategy impacts both of those things?

Dave: This is something that's really sort of the cutting [00:19:30] edge of the community school's work is really getting into the pedagogy and the instruction. And our friend Jeannie Oakes from the Learning Policy Institute would say, "Community schools is not the donut that fits around the school, but it's actually a shift in the way classrooms look and the way we're approaching instruction." And so this idea of shifting towards a more community-based learning framework, which brings in local culture, knowledge systems, language to make learning more real-world relevant, [00:20:00] engaging to students, we're seeing that really transform classroom culture across the country within community schools.

I think Anaheim, when they did their needs and asset assessment at one of their schools, they learned that immigration was a challenge that was on minds of students and families. And so they brought in legal aid services to support Know Your Rights presentations for families. But then, the seventh-grade educators thought about how to integrate immigration into their lesson [00:20:30] planning and did a whole unit where students explored immigration, developed soapbox speeches, and actually presented their thoughts and their feelings on immigration and was able to then get involved in different civic engagement opportunities. So community-based learning, we're learning skills, academic skills, rigorous content, but also learning how students can be active, engaged community members in a democratic society.

Natieka: And what are some of the core elements of community school [00:21:00] strategy that have led to all of these successes?

Angelia: So we talk about this process. Our core elements really start with co-creation and this vision element. So when folks come into this, there's not dragging people along with you, but how do you start by bringing folks together and start with this visioning process? And for a lot of folks, this might be the first time that they've been invited into this process. This starts with trauma repair or building trust [00:21:30] for the first time for a lot of folks. So bringing folks together and starting with this co-creation of vision. And then, it moves into mapping, and this is part of the assets element of community school.

What and who exists within the space that we can really start to lift up as assets and bring in as partners in this work of building from assets? And then looking at the needs and further examining the assets that do exist, both the needs [00:22:00] that we need to disrupt or maybe address as priorities, but also further examining the assets that we may want to leverage and further examine. Then we get really curious about why those things are existing, especially those needs, and start to think about what are those potential solutions. And none of this is done in isolation. This is all done as community school teams or as goal teams if you will.

And as often as possible, we include students, all staff, parents and caregivers, and community members. [00:22:30] So again, this is a very transparent process through and through. We make the data transparent, we make the next steps transparent, and we identify potential solutions altogether. And then we start to work on this, and we work on this through a continuous improvement or an improvement process. And we explore what we can do. And we do this in fairly rapid cycles. These are not school year-long cycles, but these are several weeks long, if you will. And then synthesize the learning, and we determine what we can adopt in new [00:23:00] ways and maybe scale up or share aloud.

What do we maybe need to adapt? Maybe we need to fix it up a little bit before we try it again. Maybe more learning needs to be done, or what do we need to abandon? What do we need to let go of? We thought it was going to be a good idea, but we just need to let it go. And then we try it again. We go into a new learning cycle, and this is at a continuous improvement. And every year, we're in a new needs and asset assessment process. It might not be as deep as the first one. That first year is usually 75 to 100% of all interest need [00:23:30] to be heard from in some way, shape, or form, and that includes all subgroups because, again, if we're missing an entire subgroup, then we have not heard from everyone.

But every year, we're learning, and we're taking in the information to ensure that our next are being done in the right way. And then the entire way through this process, we are looking at the through line. Are our goals lining up with our vision? Are our outcomes lining up with what we set out to do? Are we thinking about how we're going to measure this? Are we thinking [00:24:00] about how we're going to tell our story? Really thinking about this again from start to finish and looking at the outcomes as we're working forward to make sure that our data is moving us in the right direction and that none of this is just kind of random moves in the dark if you will.

Natieka: So where does the money for all of this come from? How are community schools funded?

Dave: So there's lots of different opportunities for funding. I will say that folks, that's their first question for us. So the one caveat [00:24:30] I'll say is that while funding is important, the first step is to raise awareness and cultivate a deep community vision and engagement and structures around the community school strategy. Because sometimes, especially now where there's so much funding for community schools, we encounter folks who just get funding but they don't even know what a community school is. They learn, "Okay, we just got a grant for community schools. Now we have to figure out what this is and how to do it."

So before you even start looking for funding, [00:25:00] you're in a great position to continue to learn about the community school strategy and build momentum around that. Once you are at a point where you're looking for funding, there are lots of federal funding streams. And that funding has increased dramatically over the past several years under the Biden administration. It was 17.5 million in 2019. It's now $150 million federally. So that's in this past round of funding that was announced in December, which is $74 million [00:25:30] for 30 different grantees, that's serving over 200,000 students throughout the country.

So there are federal funding streams available for community schools. And then states like from California to Florida to Maryland, New Mexico, New York are creating state funding streams. And then there are lots of local funding streams. When I was in Las Cruces, New Mexico, we created a joint powers agreement where the city and the school district came together and created a [00:26:00] joint funding stream for community schools. So the City of Las Cruces actually provided funding to the school district to support this work. And we've seen other cities and philanthropic entities like community foundations provide funding for this.

And then we've even seen places like Philadelphia pass the soda tax to fund community schools. So there are really innovative ways to fund this. Bargaining is something that is many of our listeners might be interested in. We've seen collective bargaining [00:26:30] for community schools be a really successful tool. So funding is definitely something that we're in a very fortunate position where there's many avenues to fund community schools.

Natieka: What does NEA do to support community schools now?

Dave: NEA has something called the Community Schools Implementation Institute.

Natieka: Mm-hmm.

Dave: We support over 600 individuals community school practitioners from over 50 different school districts in two major ways. We support best practice implementation. So [00:27:00] we have structures. Like just this past year rolled out something called Benchmark Academies, which provide tools and resources for community school practitioners to understand the best practices for community school implementation, which NEA has spent years studying and researching. So we have invested many, many years learning from the best community schools in the country and distilling a set of benchmarks to guide community school progress.

And we have a curriculum [00:27:30] that is free. Anybody who's listening to this can access our Best Practice Community Schools syllabus and curriculum, which is a big compilation of community schools resources. And then we also seek to forge connections and relationships across community school practitioners. And we do that through a number of ways as well. We have communities of practice where we bring different community schools, practitioners, principals, coordinators, educators, ESPs, parents, students [00:28:00] together around specific topics like how do we measure impact in community schools.

How do we support community schools funding? How do we transform teaching and learning in community schools? We're sort of practice implementation in community schools. So we have a whole suite of different communities of practice topics. And then we also have peer connect networks because, frankly, it can sometimes be lonely to be a community school practitioner. And we have lots of places where the community school coordinator or the community school principal is the only person doing that role in their entire district.

So we [00:28:30] want to connect them with each other to build stronger relationships. So we have peer connect networks, which bring first-year coordinators together with other first-year coordinators, principals with other community school principals, high school community school practitioners with other high school community school practitioners, educators, and so on. So they're role-like spaces. And we have quarterly network meetings. We have in-person convenings. So we have just lots and lots of robust support.

Angelia: We know that this can all sound overwhelming as well. So we offer some orientations throughout [00:29:00] the year that give folks a bird's eye glance at what we offer and kind of ease everyone into this as well. And so we offer orientations that are set up for everyone. And then we also offer some union-specific orientations for our union leaders as well. And so we really want to make sure that we are trying to customize this. And again, as Dave talked about, network folks together in just the right ways, because we know that networking spurs innovation.

And really that's our goal is that by bringing folks together, the [00:29:30] thoughts and the expertise that folks have to offer that that's going to really catch, right, and that that's going to spur the thoughts and that's going to help drive the movement. And so we really just want to find the right ways to bring everyone in. And when you feel overwhelmed, the best thing to do is find a buddy. And so we want to help folks find that early and often.

And then, we want to help ease everyone in through the orientations that we offer. So we offer those multiple times a year. And then, for our union leaders, we try to offer one in the fall and one in the spring. And so anyone can reach out to us, Natieka, [00:30:00] and we'll get them connected, and we'll get it on their calendar. And so you don't even have to worry about it. We'll get you calendared, and all you have to do is just show up and let Dave and I help support.

Natieka: If someone listening right now is interested in the idea of community schools, likes what they hear, and they're like, "Maybe I could do that. Maybe I could be a part of that in my neighborhood or in my community." What can they do right now to start this process of bringing community schools to their area?

Dave: Thanks to you, Natieka, and our fantastic Comms [00:30:30] Department at NEA. Shout out to Christiana and the whole team. We have a wonderful web page on NEA community schools, and there are steps, and we have something called the Community School Five Step. It's a systematic approach to building momentum around community schools for locals and members out there who are wondering where to start. And so the first step is to build, and our leader Kyle Serrette at NEA coined this term Community Schools IQ. So building the [00:31:00] community school IQ of the executive board of the local leadership to understand the community school strategy is step number one.

So that could be passing an executive board resolution. And then step two is going to the membership and making sure that there's a shared understanding of community schools across the membership that could be at your rep council meeting. So step two is educating our members. Step three is going to the community and making sure that we have a shared understanding with the community, making sure families and students and nonprofit organizations, [00:31:30] partners all understand the community school strategy as well. So this could be public town halls and other ways to spread the word. And then it's important to connect with the district.

Once there is a shared understanding among student, staff, families, community members of what this is, and there's a level set to approach the district and help the district understand what the strategy is all about and forge an agreement with the district. It's not about saying, "Here, district, go do this. This is what we want." It's about forging [00:32:00] an agreement with the district to do this collectively to work with student, staff, families, and community members to co-create what community schools looks like in the district.

And then lastly, step five is to create a structure to actually realize that co-creation process. So that could be a district-wide steering committee or some sort of structure that brings students, family, and community to the table with district representatives and other partners to create an implementation plan for community schools in the district. And then, you can apply to the Community School Implementation Institute. And there's also a link [00:32:30] on the website to do that. And we would love to support you with your community school implementation work.

Natieka: That's great. Well, thank you so much, Angelia and David, for joining us today. And I hope that anybody who's listening has all the information they need to get started because we really want community schools to take over.

Angelia: We do. We really do.

Dave: Absolutely. Thanks. This was great.

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