Community schools: bridging educational change through partnerships
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Community schools: bridging educational change through partnerships Helen Janc Malone1
© Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract As we look ahead to the next 20 years of educational change, I argue that broader community contexts interplay with students’ in-school learning, and thus, we, as an educational change field, ought to examine more deeply the role school–family–community partnerships play in the students’ holistic development. This consideration is particularly relevant in the environments where inequities in the access to resources and opportunities for many students persist. Through an examination of community schools strategy, I offer considerations school–family–community partnerships have in facilitating positive conditions for learning. I close with a call for broadening the educational change discourse to be inclusive of community partnerships. Keywords Community schools · Educational change · Equity · Families · Whole child · Teaching and learning The Journal of Educational Change has made a significant impact in the global discourse on the factors that play a role in student achievement and school- and systemlevel improvements. Equity has been a part of this dialogue, particularly in how educational change and social movements interplay to support increased opportunities for learning and student success in schools (see illustrative Journal article contributions by Ainscow 2012; Burns 2008; Oakes and Lipton 2002; Oakes and Rogers 2007; Rincón-Gallardo 2016; Shirley 2009; Skerrett 2008). The Journal’s global footprint has made research accessible and sparked knowledge transfer in ways that have advanced the field, invited collaboration, and pushed our collective thinking on the future possibilities in education. As we look ahead to the next 20 years, the Journal has a unique opportunity to further a holistic view of educational change that is inclusive of an examination that equity has in the change process, and within, the importance of * Helen Janc Malone [email protected] 1
Research and Innovation, Institute for Educational Leadership, 4301 Connecticut Ave., Suite 100, Washington, DC 20008, USA
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Journal of Educational Change
school–family–community partnerships as a vehicle to promote conditions for learning (Lynch and Baker 2005). Multidisciplinary literature, namely from adolescent development, out-of-school time learning, family engagement, community development, and integrated services, has for decades pointed to the importance of local actors as key partners in student development and learning (i.e. whole child). Literature cited in the reference section offers an introduction to this body of scholarship, which has informed the school-external partnership practices, specifically, the optimization of conditions and equitable opportunities for learning through partnerships. In this article, I offer an introduction to the importance of local learning environments on students and focus attention on the community schools strategy, a long-standing approach to educationa
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