Community Schools 3.0: A tangible response to inequity, poverty and improved educational outcomes

COVID-19 has exposed long-standing inequities in our schools and communities, and reveals the systemic disadvantages that exist for many students. It is time to take a new look at the Community School concept as a practical and tangible solution as civic and education leaders seek new strategies for addressing these challenges in their cities and schools.

Community Schools 1.0: This concept has been part of the landscape of American public education for decades, with small community based initiatives following in the footsteps of Jane Addams’ Hull House in Chicago in the 1890’s. During the Great Depression, educators embraced the democratic ideas of John Dewey in an effort to create a stronger community-wide fabric in low income communities centered around public schools. In the immediate years after WWII, the Mott Foundation helped to lead the expansion of community schools.  

Community Schools 2.0: In the early 1990’s new efforts to develop a more holistic child development approach to education began to emerge. In New York City, the Children’s Aid Society and the Beacon Schools linked social service agencies and public schools together. These efforts were sustained and encouraged by then U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley, who called on the nation to “create schools as centers of community” in response to record breaking school enrollment as a result of the Baby Boom Echo. 

Riley went on to organize and convene the first National Summit on School Design, leading to the publication of  Schools as Centers of  Community: Citizen’s Guide to Planning and Design, which outlined six key design principles. Reimagine America’s Schools recently talked with former Secretary Riley about his community schools initiatives and this interview can be found here. 

In the years that followed, the American Architectural Foundation (AAF) continued to build on this momentum by hosting four additional national summits on school design and launching a Community Schools recognition program named for Secretary Riley. 

And now, with the Forum, Reimagine America’s Schools seeks to build on those previous accomplishments, picking up the work initiated by AAF with the launch of Community Schools 3.0.