Connecting Families, Schools, & Communities

Phi Delta Kappan featured an article that delves into why community schools serve as the hub of their communities. “It takes a community: Community schools provide opportunities for all” is authored by Reuben Jacobson and José Muñoz, who lead IEL’s Coalition for Commuity Schools, and Coalition Steering Committee leaders Lisa Villarreal and Robert Mahaffey. The […]

“Learning matters when it is personal and when students have an opportunity to use or share what they are learning and what they know,” wrote IEL senior fellow and former president Martin J. Blank in two blogs about the teaching of Judy Ellsesser and Cyndy Hykes at South Webster High School, in South Webster, Ohio.

The Learning Policy Institute and the National Education Policy Center recently released a report, Community Schools as an Effective School Improvement Strategy: A Review of the Evidence. The report concludes that well-implemented community schools lead to improvement in student and school outcomes and contribute to meeting the educational needs of low-achieving students in high-poverty schools.READ

IEL’s Coalition for Community Schools and partners came together on September 25-29 for the first Coordinators Appreciation Week. There were almost 1,000 #CoordinatorsRock tweets that reached over 700,000 people—from funny gifs and ice cream socials to flowers and heartfelt handwritten notes—that celebrated and thanked their community schools coordinators. READ MORE…

IEL’s Family and Community Engagement (FCE) Network Spotlight is an opportunity for the FCE community to learn from their peers’ successes. In this interview, Allison Buzard, Equity and Diversity Coordinator at Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS), talks about her work with Equity and Diversity University (EDU), a professional development program for school professionals. Sessions cover

District Leader Landon Mascareñaz discusses his Family Empowerment Team in the Office of Family and Community Engagement in Denver Public Schools (DPS). He shares their mission of developing engaged and empowered parents who are academic partners at three levels, including the home, school, and district, and how they carry out their mission at each level.

IEL’s Coalition for Community Schools (CCS) highlighted evidence and inspiring stories of opportunity and support at its bi-annual Community Schools Awards for Excellence Symposium on June 5, 2017 at the National Press Club. This year’s community school initiative winners are Community Achieves (Nashville, Tenn.), and NYC Community Schools Initiative (New York). For the first time

IEL’s Coalition for Community Schools is working with community school initiative leaders to enhance local capacity to make schools and communities healthier places for all by bridging the gap between the health and education sectors. Leveraging Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) support with a focus on creating a Culture of Health, the goal of our

Now that states have the authority under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to determine how to improve struggling schools, many state chiefs are looking for a whole-child approach with deep community engagement to counter the more technical models required under the previous School Improvement Grants program. In response, the IEL’s Coalition for Community Schools released

Sometimes you need to see strong healthy living partnerships in action. IEL’s Coalition for Community Schools recently organized site visits for members of its Community Schools Leadership Network. Participants visited two Bay Area community schools to see how their partnerships focused on physical and mental health have positive impacts on students. These schools were Cherryland