The groundwork for community schools began at the turn of the 20th century, modelled after settlement houses in London and major cities within the UnitedStates, and John Dewey’s argument for “the school as social centre”. Community schools provide an integrated focus on child, family, and community whereby what occurs outside the classroom is understood to be as important as what occurs inside. To address this, community schools mobilise out-of-classroom support systems so that all youth can succeed, whatever their family’s assets and/or challenges. Examples of these supports include before, after, and summer school programming; physical and mental health services; family engagement; mentoring and more. The first step is a needs assessment so that supports are individually tailored to the unique needs of each school community. University-assisted community schools (UACS), a concept developed at the University of Pennsylvania, United States, utilise institutions of higher education as lead partners in community schools, mobilising the resources of area colleges and universities to support and lead local community schools.
This presentation will highlight how UACS can be a strategy for any institution of higher education to transform education in their local neighbourhoods. Specific examples of roles of undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff, and administrators in supporting UACS will be given, and short and long-term outcomes of UACS will be shared. The development, implementation, and evaluation of this effort at Binghamton University Community Schools will be delineated as a case example in upstate New York, including how this work has been implemented at the Malawi Children’s Mission in rural Africa.
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