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Over the past few years, COVID-19, school shootings, systemic racism, and other crises have upended schools and made one thing epically clear: Returning to business as usual is not an option. This impact report reflects LPI’s efforts to inform practice and policy that can reinvent and redesign schools to enable equitable and empowering learning for each and every child.
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In 2021, California committed to providing universal prekindergarten to all 4-year-olds and income-eligible 3-year-olds by 2025–26. Melanie Leung-Gagné and Hanna Melnick write about how schools and districts across the state are progressing on the planning and implementation for this ambitious expansion.
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California has invested billions in community schools strategies in the past several years. In addition to leveraging these state funds, blending and braiding local, state, and federal funding sources may help to sustainably finance a community schools strategy in the long term.
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Many students across the country don’t have access to opportunities to learn that prepare them for post-secondary life. Linda Darling-Hammond and Byron Ernest elevate examples from California and Indiana to illustrate how state boards of education can create innovative and equitable education models.
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Across the country, many schools have adopted restorative practices in an effort to improve school climate and student outcomes while reducing exclusionary discipline. Restorative practices improve students’ academic achievement and decreases suspension rates and disparities.
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Infrastructure at Oakland Unified School District helped to successfully implement a community schools approach by centralizing processes and systems and providing support for family engagement and professional learning and development.
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Fremont High School in Oakland, CA, is among the many schools seeing benefits from adopting restorative practices in place of exclusionary discipline policies such as suspensions and expulsions, which disproportionately impact students of color and students with disabilities. Since implementing these policies, Fremont has reduced suspension rates and increased enrollments.
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Exclusionary discipline (suspension and expulsion) increases risks of student misbehavior, dropout, and incarceration—and Black students are 4 times more likely than White students to experience such discipline. An alternative to exclusionary discipline, restorative practices address root causes of misbehavior and can improve academic, disciplinary, and school climate measures and reduce racial disparities.
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Oakland Unified School District's long-standing community schools initiative offers lessons for districts implementing a community schools strategy, illustrating an approach focused on integrating whole child educational practices and providing sustained support through centralized district infrastructure.
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Examining how Oakland Unified School District successfully implemented a community schools approach, researchers found structures that support effective partnerships, Coordination of Services Teams, community school managers, professional learning and development, and family engagement.
