“That’s a stain on all of us. Let’s create more community schools, more partnerships between schools and services and nonprofit organizations. Let’s pledge that we’ll give children who need it the mental health services that they deserve,” Clinton said…
Advocates for equity in education favor a community schools approach because, by including social services and health services within or near the school building, educators can better address social factors outside of the school’s control. For example, if a student wants to speak with a mental health professional, they can go to an office nearby…
Cincinnati has long been a model of a large-scale community school approach, although schools there are labeled “community learning centers.” One example is Oyler Community Learning Center, a pre-K through 12th grade school. Since it became a community school three years ago, Oyler has graduated more students than in the entire 85 years the school has existed. The school was considered in “academic emergency” from 2006 to 2007 school year was on “academic watch” from 2007 to 2009 — now, it’s in the “continuous improvement” stage.
“Cincinnati is interesting because they have this data system to really track what types of programs and services children were receiving within a given school, and connecting that back to third grade test scores or teacher reports based on behavior and attendance,” said Laura Bornfreund, director of early and elementary education policy at New America. “They were attempting to connect services and outcomes.”
Many of these Cincinnati schools also help close the “homework gap,” a concept that Clinton mentioned in her speech for the AFT. It’s tougher for low-income kids to finish their homework because their homes may not have reliable internet access, something that schools can address by keeping their computer labs open after school…