Community Schools: An Intentional Partnership Strategy

Dr. Helen Malone is the Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at the Institute for Educational Leadership. She also serves as co-chair of the GELYDA Advisory Board (USA).

Over the past 25+ years in the field, I have been encouraged by the growth of two movements–community schools and extended learning (in the U.S. also known as out-of-school time learning)–their natural intersection and the opportunities the post-pandemic years have created to more intentionally link schools, families, and communities. These connections are vital to expanding learning opportunities and services that help students prepare for a rapidly changing future. In this piece, I offer a brief overview of the community school strategy, the opportunities it provides to extended learning, and emerging questions for a global discourse. 

Decades of research and practice affirm that students thrive when supported by both schools and communities, through positive relationships and enriching, opportunity-rich environments. Recent OECD data on student well-being reveal that academic performance alone is insufficient; the quality of one’s material and psychosocial opportunities matters greatly. Indices, such as the Opportunity Atlas and Child Opportunity Index reinforce this point, providing longitudinal data across educational, social, and economic dimensions.

The COVID-19 pandemic served as both a pause and an exclamation point, exposing the pressing needs of students and families–from access to essential services (internet, transportation, food, child care) to the social and mental health challenges shaped by digital life. Fragmented systems and piecemeal supports were failing many learners. Longstanding disparities in access and opportunity, amplified by the pandemic, galvanized educators and communities to rethink how to integrate partnerships and create seamless learning and developmental experiences. For our most vulnerable populations, it became clear that we need a both/and strategy–one that unites services, learning opportunities, and family and community context to support the whole child.

One such approach is the community schools strategy. Originating in the early 20^th century in the United States, it has expanded nationally and globally over the past three decades as a holistic framework for building school-family-community partnerships that help all learners thrive. 

Community schools are an evidence-based strategy that position schools as hubs for collaboration, ensuring every child, youth, and family succeed. Deeply connected to the principles of extended learning and youth development, the strategy rests on 6 key practices:

1. “Expanded, enriched learning opportunities

2. Rigorous, community-connected classroom instruction

3. A culture of belonging, safety, and care

4. Integrated systems of support

5. Powerful student and family engagement

6. Collaborative leadership and shared power and voice.”

These practices distinguish community schools from traditional models through several key features, among them: 

• A coordinating function–a community school coordinator–who serves as a liaison across school and public and private partners to support whole child development;

• A shared decision-making body that includes teachers, staff, students, families, and community members are at the table making decisions through collaborative leadership structure; and 

• Access to services, opportunities, and learning experiences that meet local needs. 

Together, these elements foster a shared vision, relational trust, and alignment between a school’s internal culture and its external partnerships. 

Every community school is unique because it is responsive to its local context. From a partnership perspective, one school might, alongside extended learning, also offer health services, a food pantry, a community garden, and adult education community programs. Another might partner with local businesses to provide Career and Technical Education programs, family engagement programs, and on-site childcare. The central idea is that schools can leverage community partnerships to create authentic supports for student learning and development–transforming both the school culture and its role as a community hub. 

This is especially significant for extended learning. Rather than treating afterschool programs as siloed add-ons or vendor services, community schools integrate them as essential components of a student’s educational experience. 

There are thousands of such schools across the United States, with growing national adoption–from Quebec’s Community Learning Centre to Australia’s The University of Melbourne’s Building Connections initiative, and education-led programs in places such as American Samoa, the UK, and Germany. For example, in Australia, the focus began with designing physical spaces that foster partnership and collaboration. In Quebec, community schools were built around both cultural and linguistic needs of their students. 

Growing evidence links the community schools strategy to improvements in attendance, academic performance, well-being, and a sense of belonging. The Learning Policy Institute has documented wide-ranging impact of community schools. Its recent study of the California’s statewide investments found reduction in chronic absenteeism and gains in student achievement. 

As the strategy expands globally, two common areas call for further exploration. Partnerships lie at its core, yet many education and youth development leaders receive little training–either pre-service or in-service–on how to work effectively with families and communities. Universities and intermediary organizations can play a key role in building these skills and dispositions. And, community schools often serve as hubs for essential resources–food, transportation, healthcare, and mental health support. As such efforts continue to scale, what roles can cross-sector and interagency collaborations play in this process? 

Dr. Malone is the Co-Chair of the GELYDA Advisory Board and Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at the Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL), home to the Coalition for Community Schools (circa 1997). The views expressed here are her own.