Duncan and Blair Speak Out on Community Schools

"The interesting thing about education reform is that we actually do know what works," former Prime Minister Tony Blair said during an event at the Center for American Progress yesterday. "The difficulty is in implementing it."

Blair was speaking about Britain's decision to convert all of its 23,000 public schools into community schools, which stay open longer and provide a range of activities and support to their local communities, between 2004 and 2011. Legislation enacted in 2004 provides over $3 billion in start-up-funds to help schools create partnerships with community organizations during the 8-year transition period. Blair spoke with confidence about Britain's educational change, stating that he never regretted making bold decisions when it came to education reform.

The United States is host to a small number of community schools, but there has been little effort or support to scale-up successful community school programs. However, a number of current policy developments-- the Obama administration's Promise Neighborhood program, prospective funding through Race to the Top grants, and community school legislation recently introduced in the House by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and in the Senate by Ben Nelson (D-Neb.)-- suggest that community schools are gaining momentum on this side of the pond as well.

There is no single model of a community school, but all of these schools seek to improve the quality of education by partnering with community organizations to provide resources and services, such as health care, school facilities, and parental involvement, that schools often lack. Though the range of services provided by community schools varies, many feature on-site Early Head Start or Medicaid programs. Having schools co-located with these programs can help leverage federal and other funding streams that are available to both the partnering organization and the school, such as Medicaid funding. No extensive research has been conducted on the extent to which community schools have succeeded in improving the lives of their students, though anecdotal reports are promising.

Community schools have real potential to improve PreK-3^rd alignment and early education opportunities for disadvantaged youngsters. Aside from the obvious benefits of co-locating Early Head Start, Head Start, and preschool providers with elementary schools, schools that are able to connect children and their families with medical, mental health, and social services can more effectively support the development of "the whole child"--which is critical during the preschool and early elementary years. Community schools that offer parenting and adult education classes on site may also be better able to engage parents who would not otherwise have the time or transportation resources (or, for that matter, babysitters) to access several different community programs. And that increased parental education and engagement in turn produces benefits for children.

At the event yesterday, Blair and Secretary Duncan discussed the merits of community schools as opportunities for improving students' lives and maximizing the potential of school and community resources. Duncan drew heavily on his experience creating community schools in Chicago to speak about how the transitions to community schools can be made in the U.S. "I don't know why we continue to build Boys & Girls Clubs and YMCA's," Duncan said. "I think we should put these scarce resources straight into schools."

Duncan also spoke about community schools as a mechanism for increasing parental involvement. "We are not welcoming parents into schools," he said. "They're supposed to drop them off in the morning, and pick them up later. This is a fundamental change." Often times, community schools, like those Duncan supported with the Chicago Public Schools Community Schools Initiative, offer adult education and/or ESL classes to parents.

Congressman Hoyer, who has been working to expand funding opportunities for community schools for over 15 years, expressed hope that community schools will gain more support from policymakers in the coming years. Yesterday, he remarked, "My expectation is that under President Obama's leadership, and Secretary Duncan's leadership, we will start making much more progress." We at Early Ed Watch hope that Hoyer and other community schools proponents will keep a strong focus on early ed, ensuring that expansion of community schools also brings expansion in children's access to high-quality early learning opportunities aligned with the public elementary schools.