Community Schools, Community
Learning Center, Community Education
Connection: Concepts to Practices
for Your Programs
Presented by:
Dan Kuzlik,
Katy Kramer &
Julie Kosher
What is a
Community School?
Community School….
“Individual community schools may offer
different program elements or teaching
styles, but the basic philosophy of the
community school model is simple:
Educational excellence, combined with
needed human services, delivered through
school, parent and community partnerships.”
Building a Community School
Community Schools
In a community school, youth, families and
community residents work as equal partners
with schools and other community
institutions to develop programs and
services in five areas:
• Quality education
*Youth development
• * Family support
* Family and community engagement
* Community Development
Key Ingredients of a Community School
•
•
•
•
Education First
Collaboration
Partners not tenants
A long term
commitment
• Integrated Services
• High Level of Parent
and Community
Involvement
• Extended School Day
• A Focus on
Community Strengths
•Starting Fresh….not a band-aid for a
program that’s broken and needs
fixing…
Community School
The array of specific services that individual
community schools offer varies extensively by
site. An analysis by the Coalition shows activity in
the following areas. Too many schools have
services in these various areas but
no plan for how to integrate those
services to achieve specific results.
A coherent plan is essential for
a successful community school.
Comparing The Differences
Time
 Traditional School
 Community Schools
• 5 Days per week
• 7 Days per week
• 6-8 hours per day
• 10-12 hours per day
• 180 days per year
• 220+ days per year
• 50 minute classes
• Extended blocks of
time
• Very limited after
school programs if
any at all.
• Extensive after school
program
Comparing The Differences
Space
 Traditional School
 Community School
• Education takes place
inside the four walls of
the classroom.
• Education takes place
throughout the
community.
• Limited community
access to facilities.
• Facilities are used for
a wide range of
community activities.
Comparing The Differences
Family and Community Involvement
 Traditional School
• Involvement limited
to parent participation
in activities such as
open houses and
parent conferences.
 Community School
• A comprehensive
process of family and
community
involvement in a wide
range of programs
and activities.
• Partners in Education
Developing Community
 “No child can escape his community. He may not
like his parents, or the neighbors, or the ways of
the world. . .The life of the community flows about
him, foul or pure; he swims in it, drinks it, goes to
sleep in it, and wakes to the new day to find it still
about him. He belongs to it; it nourishes him, or
starves him, or poisons him; it gives him the
substance of his life. And in the long run, it takes
its toll of him and all he is.
Joseph K. Hart, 1913
Community
Education
Community
Education
is the
vehicle
to create a
Community
School!
“Community Education
advocates and supports the
creation of innovative programs
and collaboration between all
members of communities for
the purposes of advancing
community learning and
sustainability.”
Community Education
• DPI Recognized
• Supported by State Association-Wisconsin Community Education
Association
• Model used by ~70 districts around
the state.
• Supported by National Community
Education Association
Wisconsin Model
Wisconsin
Model of
of Community
Education
Community Education
Principles of
Community Education
 Lifelong Learning
 Community
Involvement ***
 Efficient Use of
Resources ***
 SelfDetermination***
 Self-Help
 Leadership
Development***
 Institutional
Responsiveness
 Integrated Delivery of
Services ***
 Decentralization
Life-long Learning
 Implementing the principle that learning
continues throughout life.
 Providing formal and informal learning
opportunities.
 Offering programs and services for all
community members, often in an
intergenerational setting.
Community Involvement
 Promoting a sense of civic responsibility.
 Providing leadership opportunities for
community members.
 Including diverse populations in all aspects of
community life.
 Encouraging democratic procedures in local
decision making.
Efficient Use of Resources
 Using the community's
physical, financial, and
human resources to
address the
community's needs.
 Reducing duplication of
services by promoting
collaborative effort.
Self-Determination
 Local people have a right and a
responsibility to be involved in
determining community needs
and identifying community
resources that can be used to
address those needs.
Self-Help
 People are best served when their capacity to help
themselves is acknowledged and developed. When
people assume responsibility for their own well-being,
they build independence and become part of the
solution.
Leadership Development
 The training of local leaders in such skills as problem
solving, decision making, and group process is an
essential component of successful self-help and
improvement efforts.
Institutional Responsiveness
 Public institutions exist to serve the public and are
obligated to develop programs and services that
address continuously changing public needs and
interests.
Integrated Delivery of Services
 Organizations and agencies that operate for the public
good can meet their own goals and better serve the
public by collaborating with organizations and agencies
with similar goals.
Decentralization
 Services, programs, and other community involvement
opportunities that are closest to people's homes have
the greatest potential for high levels of public
participation. Whenever possible, these activities
should be available in locations with easy public
access.
Research Shows
In Community Schools. . .
 Schools have greater community support.
 Parents and other community members trust
schools, school boards and superintendents.
 Communities support referenda.
 Community members are more informed
about their schools.
The Research Study:
Measurable Impacts of
Community Education on K-12
By
Bill Morris,
Decision Resources, Ltd.
Community Education program users rate the
quality of education provided by their school
district higher than non-users.
Perception of District Quality of Education
Program Non-Users
20%
Program Users
36%
50%
0%
15%
7%
36%
22%
6% 6%2%
10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Excellent Good Only Fair Poor Unsure
Community Education program users have more
favorable impressions of both the Superintendent /
Administration and School Board than non-users.
Favorable Ratings of District Administration and School Board
53%
Program Non-Users
38%
61%
Program Users
47%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
Superintendent/Administration
50%
60%
70%
School Board
In the case of the School District’s Superintendent and
Administration, Community Education program users post an
average increase of 9% in the favorable rating.
For School Boards, the average increase is 8%.
Community Education program users are
more positive than non-users about their
School District’s financial management.
District Spent Tax Money Effectively & Efficiently during Last 2 Years
Program Non-Users
Program Users
44%
37%
59%
19%
30%
11%
Agree Disagree Unsure
The fiscal credibility of a School District receives a boost
of 15% among Community Education program users
when compared with program non-users.
Community Education program users are
stronger supporters of referendum proposals.
Level of Referendum Support
Program Non-Users
53%
Program Users
28%
67%
0%
10%
20%
30%
19%
21%
40%
Support
50%
60%
Oppose
70%
80%
12%
90% 100%
Unsure
Community Education program users are 14% more supportive of referendum
proposals than non-users. These gains are also realized among all age groups and
household types. More striking, though, Community Education program users are
three times more likely to be “strongly” supportive of referendum efforts. In fact,
among seniors over the age of 65, a solid majority of program users support referenda;
among non-users, seniors oppose referenda by a two-to-one majority. Community
Education program users are stronger supporters of referendum proposals.
Community Education program
users are better informed about their
School District than non-users.
Feeling Informed about School District
51%
32%
49%
Very/Somew hat Informed
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
68%
60%
70%
80%
Program Users Program Non-Users
By an almost 20% margin, Community Education program
participants feel well informed about their School District.
How could
Community Education
be funded?
Fund 80
Fund 80 Statutory Authority
Statutory Authority: 120.13(19) Community Programs
and Services - "A school board may establish and
maintain community education, training, recreational,
cultural or athletic programs and services, outside the
regular curricular and extracurricular programs for
pupils, under such terms and conditions as the school
board prescribes. The school board may establish and
collect fees to cover all or part of the costs of such
programs and services. Costs associated with such
programs and services shall not be included in the school
district's shared cost under 121.07(6)."
Potential Uses for Fund 80
This fund is used to account for activities such as adult
education, community recreation programs such as
evening swimming pool operation and softball leagues,
elderly food service programs, non-special education
preschool, day care services, and other programs which
are not elementary and secondary educational programs
but have the primary function of serving the community.
Expenditures for these activities, including cost
allocations for salaries, benefits, travel, purchased
services, etc., are to be included in this Fund to the extent
feasible. The district may adopt a separate tax levy for
this Fund.
The definition of
Community Education
is uniquely dependent upon
where the program and/or process
is based.
WHAT COLUMBUS
COMMUNITY LEARNING
CENTER OFFERS:
• Youth Services--tutoring, after school
services-homework help, lab and IMC
open.
• Youth Outreach and Enrichment--Early
Release day activities, Art and Chess Club,
Arts Night, Tae Kwon Do
WHAT WE OFFER cont.’d
• Adult/Community Learning Opportunities- Adult Enrichment classes-art, computers,
knitting, yoga, Spanish, I-Safe, CPI
• Family Activities and Outreach--Early
Learning Celebration, Parenting Education,
C-Fin webpage and lending library,
Playgroup
Cornell/Lake Holcombe
st
21 Century CLC
Cornell/
Lake
Holcombe
21st
Century
CLC
Schools as an Island
Many schools are like islands, set apart from the mainland of
life by a deep moat of convention and tradition. A
drawbridge is lowered at certain points of the day in order
that the part-time inhabitants may cross over to the island in
the morning and back to the mainland at night.
Why do these young people go out to the islands? To learn how
to live on the mainland. When they reach the island they are
provided with excellent books that tell about life on the
mainland.
Schools as an Island - continued
Once in a while as a special treat, a bus takes a few of the
young people off the island during the day to look at
what happens on the mainland.
When everyone on the island has left in the afternoon, the
drawbridge is raised. Janitors clean up the island and
the lights go out. No one is left except perhaps a
watchman keeping a vigil along the shoreland.
The island is lifeless.
Schools as an Island - continued
Once a year people from the mainland visit the island to
watch graduation, after which some islanders depart
never to set foot on the island again. After graduates leave
the island for the last time, they are bombarded by
problems of life on the mainland.
Occasionally one of them can be heard to say to another:
“I remember reading something about that
when we were on the island.”
Linking Schools With Life - William Carr - USA - 1942
Thank You
Dan, Katy and Julie