Twenty-one schools in Detroit 12 hours a day, seven days a week, providing more than just K-12 education for students, the district announced recently.
The 21 schools are shifting to a 鈥渃ommunity schools鈥� model, or sites that provide wraparound services like health care, parenting classes, and digital resources for students and their families.
Each school site is also getting a coordinator who will work with school staff to determine what services to provide and how best to leverage local partnerships to do so; all selected schools already have some existing community partnerships in place, .
Also in community schools news, , an organization that works with schools and localities to implement community school models, winners of its excellence awards.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, N.C.; Kalamazoo, Mich.; Charleston, S.C.; and Wayne County, Ind., were recognized as leading communities, and schools in Washington state, Nevada, Texas, South Carolina, and North Carolina were named as top community school sites for their 鈥渆xemplary work in the schools and communities where they are making a difference.鈥�
Education Week鈥榮 Commentary section also has a piece out this week on community schools. According to authors Cheryl D. Hayes, president of the , a research organization, and Richard R. Buery Jr., president and CEO of the in New York, at least 50 cities have established systems of community schools that serve more than 5.1 million students. They attribute the model to helping schools improve graduation rates and reduce achievement gaps.
In addition to referencing the positive effects of two community schools in New York, the authors say community schools can provide a $10.30 return on every dollar spent at the elementary level and a $14.80 return at the intermediate level鈥攚hat they view as a cost-effective investment for districts and communities to make.
鈥淓ducation reform clearly needs a new direction,鈥� the opinion piece says. 鈥淚n an era of tight budgets and growing public skepticism, community schools are an investment lead worth pursuing.鈥�