It takes a village to improve schools, says Ed Department initiative
Communities and parents will be getting more involved in improving low-performing schools in their area if the Department of Education has its way. The federal department has partnered with the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) to launch a new effort to promote community and parental engagement in reforming the nation’s low-performing schools. The Together for Tomorrow project will help combine proven techniques with the intimate knowledge of a student population that only local groups and parents would have, explains the nation’s schools chief.
“Community and family involvement can be the make or break factor in successfully turning around low-performing schools,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in a press release. “Together for Tomorrow will provide real-life examples of how to effectively transform our struggling schools, and build a community-to-community support system that can help take this critical work to scale.”
Starting in six “demonstration sites,” the new program will highlight family and community partnerships that promote and result in “measurable outcomes” in the ABCs: Attendance, Behavior, Course performance, and College access, which the Ed Department calls “the ABCs of improving low-performing schools.”
The initiative will also look at programs proven to manage partnerships between schools, parents and community groups. Together for Tomorrow will also provide technical assistance and guidance to programs and partnerships on how to get federal, local and grant money. The goal of the initiative is to create a “community culture where education improvement is viewed as everyone’s responsibility,” as described by an Ed Department press release.
“Together for Tomorrow is aimed at changing the relationship between schools and community partners so everyone feels a shared responsibility to improve low-performing schools,” said Joshua DuBois, special assistant to the president and executive director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. “Every child deserves an education that will enable them to succeed in a global economy. Faith and community groups are critical partners in this all-hands on deck moment.”
