Publications

Spring 2004 Newsletter

Create Schools That Are Centers Of Community

NSBN is pleased to reprint this opinion piece written by Barbara Diamond, Program Director of the KnowledgeWorks Foundation. This piece originally appeared in the School Board News, a publication of the National School Board Association.

Public schools are living through a crisis of confidence. Teachers, once among the most honored members of society, face increasing disrespect. School boards struggle to balance budgets and depend on voter support for levies that often is not forthcoming.

The nation has embraced a powerful new goal -- that all children can and must learn -- but a key mechanism for accomplishing it is to label some schools as "failing." It is easy to imagine that there may soon be radical changes in the great American invention of universal public education.

Until now, public schools have continued to honor Horace Mann's vision of equal opportunity, Booker T. Washington's commitment to racial solidarity, and John Dewey's understanding of the need to match schooling to the child.

For better and occasionally for worse, public schools have given children the common experiences that have served as the glue for a diverse democracy. Unless schools are re-envisioned, these values may be weakened or even lost in the tide of change.

I am firmly convinced that schools can deepen these traditional values while meeting today's challenges by becoming the "centers of their communities." This descriptive phrase encompasses many different elements. It means, at its most basic level, that school buildings will be open for children, families, and communities outside normal school hours.

This is not a new idea, as the proponents of "community education" will tell you.

What is new, however, is: (1) the urgency of the programs that can be made available to children and families, and (2) a new understanding of the impact of schools on the vitality of communities.

Over the past several decades, American education has gyrated between two extremes. In the 1960s and 70s, the public school was called into service to solve major societal problems. Sometimes without receiving additional resources, the schools became responsible for functions previously neglected by society or reserved to families.

In recognition that children cannot learn when they are hungry, the school lunch and breakfast programs were initiated to offer what are frequently the only two meals that poor children receive each day.

Schools added sex education, drug and alcohol education, environmental education, violence prevention education, and other such courses of study. Schools became responsible for providing educational and other services to a wide range of disabled students.

In the 1980s and 90s, the nation, prompted by the business community, turned its attention to the achievement of educational standards to ensure the nation's international economic competitiveness. In that period, there was a backlash, if not to school lunch and breakfast or to education of the disabled, at least to additions to the curriculum that were now seen as "extra."

The "back-to-basics" movement, culminating in the No Child Left Behind Act, persuaded school leaders that they needed to redirect their energies to core academics.

The fact remains, however, that it is very difficult for children to learn if they suffer from mental or physical illness, or their teeth ache, or their homes are chaotic, or their parents or caretakers never read to them or show up at school.

Children who face these difficulties need more than breakfast, lunch, and special education if they are to learn even the basics, to say nothing of the higher-order thinking skills required for success in college or for careers in today's economy.

The beauty of the "schools as centers of communities" model is its premise that the whole community bears responsibility for meeting these challenges.

Community partners come into schools to provide social and health services that are integrated with school and after-school programs.

Parents and caretakers, drawn into the school building by courses and recreational programs, attain the comfort level and confidence to get involved in their children's schooling. Such parent involvement is a proven factor in student success. Local employers offer internships that motivate students by offering "real world" contexts for learning.

Schools need to make the investment in a staff member to coordinate resources provided outside school hours, but community partners share the responsibility for ensuring that children are able to accomplish the academic goals of the schools.

This vision extends beyond social, medical, and mental health service providers. Parents, senior citizens, business leaders, community members, and even local governments can help schools carry out their mission.

This kind of community participation dates back to the time of the one-room schoolhouse, when farmers supplied wood for the stove, parents built desks and cleaned schools, and teachers rotated among households for their board and lodging.

Contrary to the impression held by some school leaders, people are still willing to help. According to a 2003 poll of Ohioans by the KnowledgeWorks Foundation, 68.7 percent of respondents said they felt personally responsible for improving their local public schools.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents said their local public schools faced urgent problems that required them to participate in school improvement efforts, and 71.6 percent said their local schools would not continue to improve unless citizens like them got involved.

The relationship between communities and schools must be a two-way street if it is to thrive. The role of schools in strengthening communities goes beyond the well-known correlation between real estate values and test scores.

Schools that seek to become centers of community do not simply receive from their districts; they also give to their communities.

Obviously, the most essential gift is the basic fact of offering a good education to the children in the district. But schools also can provide a wider array of activities and facilities, ranging from access to facilities such as gyms, tracks, libraries, computer centers, or theaters, to programs offered by partners such as recreational programs, adult classes, health clinics, and senior citizen centers.

Even beyond these programmatic features, a renovated or newly built school can serve as the anchor for new housing and business in a neighborhood. The siting of a school or the preservation of a historic school can fight sprawl and minimize transportation costs.

Schools can serve as places for people to meet and work or play together, and thus help to bind people into communities by rebuilding the social capital that is at risk in this day and age.

While there are many models of the "school as a center of the community" concept, this concept still is not the norm. One reason is that school leaders, acculturated to handling issues using their specialized, professional knowledge, do not ask the public what kinds of schools they want.

Again, the KnowledgeWorks Foundation Poll gives a clue to what the public thinks: A majority of respondents favor a comprehensive after-school program (91 percent), opening school buildings for services outside school hours (84 percent), and locating services for children in schools (62 percent).

School districts that engage their communities in conversation about their aspirations for their schools can create their own local vision of a school that is a center of community.

To be effective, these conversations must be authentic. They must involve all sectors of the community, influence official decisions, and consist of more than one meeting.

Such authentic two-way conversations create community ownership of decisions about schools as centers of community and translate into community support for schools.

It is time for school boards in the United States to take a close look at the benefits of making their schools into centers of community and to undertake the exciting work of engaging their communities in creating this new kind of school. The result could be higher levels of student achievement and stronger community vitality.

You can read more about the National School Boards Association by visiting their website at www.nsba.org.