Engaging community members in improving educational outcomes is key. Both federal and local levels seem to agree that extensive government intervention in the “how to” community engagement process is not the answer for local implementation of new educational reform policy initiatives. The challenge is to develop a comprehensive community engagement approach in order to convert policies to the best practices that yield desired results.
As communities are engaged, identifying who to engage and providing clarity around tasks are critical first steps. Initially, there are two groups that should be identified for engagement: grassroots and grasstops.
The grassroots are the local informal community leaders with prolific social capital in the community and a dynamic social network that can engage community members who feel left out of the decision making process. These informal leaders are savvy with the amplification of information via technology or persuasive dialogue; most importantly, they can quickly mobilize community members. The grasstops leaders are the local business and policy partners with key access to legislative and monetary structures. The grasstops leaders can help advocate for and sustain the long term goals of the local initiatives, even as local and federal leadership structures change. Engaging both grassroots and grasstops groups can create a robust driving force to amplify local initiatives any time and any place.
The initial phase of this robust community engagement process is being implemented by EDWorks New Start partner Central Collegiate Academy, a Detroit public high school recently featured by the U.S. Department of Education. The work at the local level by Detroit Public Schools is designed to build capacity and sustainability from a combination of community members and business partners. Implementing such a community initiative requires the development and cultivation of authentic collaborative relationships across all formal and informal groups.
In Detroit, like many other communities across the country, schools are synergy of the local community. At Detroit’ Central Collegiate Academy, the school made it a goal for students to engage their community by applying what is learned in school to help solve a local problem. The school hosted a summative performance-based assessment gala with their various community engagement partners so students could showcase their efforts. They combined both grasstops organizational leaders (St. John Hospital, Detroit Parent Network, United Way, Sodexo USA and Focus Hope) and grassroots leaders (students, parents and community advocates).
The students provided academic tours and demonstrated how they applied what they learned in school to enhance their greater Detroit community. Students provided performance-based demonstrations of their work with local homeless families, alternative and sustainable energy resources in Detroit and genetics and family health services in Detroit. Additionally, St. John Hospital provided a tour of the new health facility inside the school, designed for students and families to have access to quality preventative health care screening. Detroit Parent Network, Focus Hope, United Way and Sodexo were able to engage parents and families with the daily services they provide in the school for families daily.
The reason why the school was able to have such a success in their community engagement process was due to their block-by-block approach. The school identified every community membership group in each block of the school’s attendance zone. The school recruited both grassroots and grasstops members into the school to develop a sustainable private-public partnership that is built to last.
{ 8 comments }
Reynoldsburg City Schools conducted an extensive campaign to hear the community’s voice regarding high school expansion. We passed a bond issue to build a new building due to an overcrowded facility. We promised to discuss the possibilities of high school redesign as an option to a second traditional high school. Thirty-three meetings in 60 days led us to study two concepts: a 9-10/11-12 split and small interest-based academies. We opted for the latter and are now organized on two campuses with two academies on each campus. On Lvingston Avenue, we have the BELL Academy (business, education, law and leadership) and HS2 (health and human services). On the Summit Road campus, we have eSTEM (environmental science and engineering) and Encore (arts). We also engaged the community, students and teachers in the identification of academies via small group meetings in a process designed to gain input using the Ohio career strands. The entire effort became known as Reynoldsburg Reach, a powerful display of community outreach.
Project GRAD Knoxville also had the pleasure of funding EdWorks support for a couple of years at one of our district’s turnaround high schools, Austin-East. Ed Works, particularly Dr. Samson, is a jewel! Since 2001, GRAD Knoxville has partnered with our community in a number of ways–our Board, by design in our bylaws, has general community members; our Parent Board of Trustees represents all our 14 GRAD-supported schools; through our College Board, our college scholars shape support programming for our students in higher education and connect via all social media; we have periodic “Call to the Village” community meetings; an annual Parent Conference planned and presented by parents; early college awareness events presented in partnership with other local college access partners; periodically present training for our after-school partners; the community attends the annual celebration of graduates qualifying for the Project GRAD scholarship; and the community generously funds this initiative. We are presently exploring how we can support our district’s planned implementation of Community Schools. The community is essential to the success of our youth! We have found they are very willing and often just need some guidance on how they can help within their various means. Respect them–they’ll be there for you!
The International YouthCan conference out of New York city is another venue for students to participate in community improvement learning projects that then can be shared at the conference hosted at the American Museum of Natural History. It encourages both grassroots and grass tops involvement. Students at Casey Middle School in Boulder Colorado have been regular attenders. It is truly a wonderfully organized and powerful event to prepare for and be a part of.
I love the idea of a community involvement promoting student achievement. Our school is working on implementing senior project requirements for students. Projects involve students going into the community and utilizing community resources to complete their senior research projects. The initial projects are meant to create lasting relationships between the school and business community in the hopes of being able to build upon these partnerships for future endeavors. Additionally, as a sponsor of the Beta club, I am currently working on branching out to the local middle and elementary schools and creating partnerships with their afterschool programs to set up tutoring/mentoring relationships between our honors students and their at-risk students in the hopes of providing some positive role model reinforcement into their daily lives, while giving our honors students a chance to give back to the community.
Actually getting into the community has been a challenge thus far because of the mentality at the school board level. Their ideology has yet to allow for such personable relationships, but we are working on this.
Shauna LeBlanc
Schools must engage parents where they “consume” information. This means Twitter, Facebook, email, RSS feeds, Feedburner, web page, and emerging media must be part of any districts comprehensive plan. Traditional media plans are still important, but they can be reduced. We’ve moved to postcards from news letters; we have drastically reduced our direct mailing.
The story of Detroit’s Central Collegiate Academy is an inspiring one! It serves to remind us that community engagement and involvement is key to the success of the people in that community. When I was a child, I lived near my very large extended family, I had my very own community of support with models of a wide variety of careers and activities. As families are more mobile and children aren’t surrounded by aunts, uncles and cousins, the community must become this family. Sometimes it is as simple as recognizing the talents on the block and inviting them in! Not only is Central Collegiate Academy building support for their students, they are insuring these students will grow up and give that support right back to the next generation of students!
HYPER. LOCAL. The Block-by-Block, Grasstops/Grassroots approach is paramount to the advancement and growth of our communities, schools, and small businesses longer term. This project fosters leadership development in our youth by instilling the values of hard work, service, teamwork, and citizenship at a critical juncture in their young lives which will have a tremendous impact on our nation longer term. HYPER. LOCAL. Never in the history of our world have we been able to connect and influence change from the grassroots level at the speed by which we are able to today. When additional efforts of this project are powered and enhanced by emerging digital, social, and mobile echniques and strategies, the efforts will explode thus impacting more schools, more communities and more businesses at warp speed. HYPER. LOCAL.
I work with high school students with special needs. Most of my students will go to college and will hold down jobs in the competitive market. Because many of them will need extra time to do the perfect job, they need a little extra in order to be marketable in the community post graduation. In addition to their full time general education, my students prepare for job interviews, work volunteer positions for credit and learn to dress and carry themselves for success. We do this in through the help of the community – by the generous support of local businesses and families of our students. We have to take the time to make ourselves visible and, more often than not, go above and beyond expectations for our community help projects. My students receive help by helping others! The community response has been overwhelming and although we are closing out our first year, next years’s support pledges and requests are almost more than we can handle. My students will rise to meet the challenge!