The following resources might be helpful to school districts and the community partners who work with them.

Grow Your Own Consortium  Applications are now open for the Fiscal Year 2018 Grow Your Own Teacher Education Initiative (GYO). The goal of GYO is to recruit and prepare parent and community leaders and paraeducators statewide to become effective teachers in hard-to-staff schools serving low-income students.

New Report Points Way to “School Choice” Policies that Can Better Serve All Families  The Trump administration’s focus on expanding “school choice” has thrown into high relief the issue of charter schools and private school vouchers, but those are not the only “school choices” available to U.S. families. U.S. students and families have many educational options open to them, the vast majority of which are operated by public school districts.

Community Schools as an Effective School Improvement Strategy: A Review of the Evidence Community schools represent a place-based school improvement strategy in which schools partner with community agencies and local government to provide an integrated focus on academics, health and social services, youth and community development, and community engagement. Many operate year-round, from morning to evening, and serve both children and adults. The authors synthesized the findings from 143 research studies on the impact of community schools on student and school outcomes, concluding 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. The research highlights the efficacy of integrated student supports, expanded learning time and opportunities, and family and community engagement as intervention strategies. Promising evidence supports the positive impact of the type of collaborative leadership and practice found in community schools, although little of this research has been done in community schools. (Learning Policy Institute and National Education Policy Center)