Accelerating Learning Recovery Through Community Schools
This post was originally published on November 18, 2025 by Forbes. It is part of the Transforming Schools series, which shares effective practices and foundational research for educators, students, families, and policymakers who are reimagining schools as places where students are safe and can thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.
The long-lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to shape education in the United States and around the world, as family and societal trauma combined with unstable access to school have produced substantial learning setbacks for children.
Earlier this year, new reports of ongoing declines and widening inequalities in reading and math scores among U.S. 8th-graders on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress echoed a global pattern of sharply declining achievement documented on the 2022 international Programme for International Student Assessment tests.
These trends have been attributed not only to disruptions to in-person education that occurred in 2020 and 2021, but also to ongoing problems with chronic absenteeism, mental health challenges, and, in the United States, food, health care, and housing insecurity that accompany growing poverty.
A Pathway to Learning Recovery
Amidst these troubling trends there are bright spots that signal both signs of recovery and strategies that are making a difference.
California’s 2025 results provide one case in point: After years of disruption, students made noteworthy academic gains in every subject (math, English language arts [ELA], and science) at every grade level and for every student group. In addition, all of the state accountability indicators improved, chronic absenteeism rates and suspension rates went down, graduation rates went up to their highest level ever, and the proportion of students who demonstrated college and career readiness increased. Progress was especially strong for Black and Latinx students and in districts like Los Angeles, Compton, and Sanger—places that serve many of the state’s most vulnerable children.
Behind these numbers are statewide strategies that have contributed to recovery. These strategies, which research shows can support greater learning and greater equity, include universal transitional kindergarten for 4-year-olds; a wide range of investments in literacy, including literacy coaches and reading specialists; expanded learning time; and grants for learning acceleration, including tutoring.
Beyond these investments—which have no doubt made a difference—a recent large-scale study shows that high-need schools that also received state grants to launch community school initiatives made significantly stronger gains than similar schools that did not receive such grants. The California Community Schools Partnership Program (CCSPP) enables schools to integrate all of these other initiatives in ways that multiply their effects while explicitly putting students, families, and communities at the center of learning.
The Contribution of Community Schools
The state’s $4.1 billion initiative now supports nearly 2,500 schools with a four-pronged strategy:
- integrated student supports that remove obstacles to learning, including health, mental health, nutrition, social services, and academic supports;
- expanded learning opportunities, including before- and after-school programs, as well as summer academic support and enrichment;
- family and community engagement drawing on the resources of dozens of community organizations, as well as authentic partnerships with families; and
- collaborative leadership that enables shared decision-making among educators, families, and partners to evaluate and provide what is most needed for students.
These four pillars, which emerged from decades of research identifying how community schools produce positive outcomes, are part of the state’s framework. They are coupled with rigorous classroom instruction that is frequently connected to community concerns through relevant projects and experiential learning opportunities. The supports offered by community schools don’t replace academic rigor; they enable it by ensuring that students are healthy, supported, and connected to caring adults, and by promoting challenging applied learning in ways that are meaningful.
The statewide initiative, which reaches most of the state’s highest-need schools (those with the greatest numbers of students from low-income households, English learners, and students in foster care) just completed its second year of implementation and is already paying off. A recent Learning Policy Institute study of the first cohort of grantees showed significant improvements in student attendance, achievement, and engagement beyond those experienced by schools serving comparable students, including:
- 30% greater reduction in chronic absenteeism
- 15% greater reduction in suspensions
- The equivalent of 36 extra days of learning in ELA and 43 extra days in math, which was larger still for English learners and Black students; Black students, for example, experienced gains equivalent to more than two thirds of a grade level in math and ELA
While the statewide gains were impressive, the results in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) were even more striking. The district showed stronger gains in achievement for community schools relative to other schools serving similar students within the district. A study of LAUSD community school practices found that, in addition to general supports, the district intently supported community schools to implement both restorative discipline practices and rigorous, project-based learning—along with community- and career-connected learning at the high school level. These efforts produced changes in practice that educators felt contributed to tangible gains in outcomes.
LAUSD CCSPP Schools Outperform Non-CCSPP Comparison Schools After Implementation Grants, Controlling for Student and School Characteristics
Since the pandemic, Los Angeles Unified has outpaced average gains on state and national tests, benefiting in part from this initiative’s strong impact on its highest-need schools.
Why and How Community Schools Work
Companion studies show how community schools work to leverage resources and opportunities. Community school coordinators who are part of the school leadership team are a key component. They work with educators, families, and community organizations to identify both local needs and resources, and then to tap and orchestrate these resources so that coherent programs of support are created and individual needs of students are readily met, without bureaucratic barriers.
A study of community schools that had dramatically reduced chronic absenteeism found that the combination of strong relationships with families, connectedness for students at school, restorative practices that increased community and reduced bullying, and the ability to tap supports for health, housing, nutrition, transportation, and other needs were all part of the solution. Reductions in absenteeism in community schools were even more strongly tied to achievement gains than in other similar schools because the schools were poised to build on these assets more productively.
The success of community schools rests in the trust and relationships they are able to build with families and communities—including those without economic advantages and those whose prior relationships with public schools have been strained—which, together, multiply the resources available to serve students’ needs and the shared knowledge needed to do so effectively.
The strategy aligns educational practice with basic human needs—belonging, purpose, and contribution—creating shared responsibility among students, families, educators, and communities. It expands learning time and instructional practices to link schoolwork to students’ experiences, interests, and needs, building on what we know about how people learn and develop.
This approach matters especially in the current social context in which fear, isolation, division, and economic vulnerability increasingly shape students’ lives and learning. These challenges show up in classrooms every day—as stress, chronic absences, disengagement, and dysregulation. Schools alone can’t solve all societal problems, but with the dismantling over time of other social safety nets, they carry the lion’s share of the burden. The community schools strategy is an intentional effort to connect schools to our society’s broader assets and enable them to meet these challenges successfully.
The Broader Payoff: A Stronger, More Equitable System
By coordinating services and using local assets, community schools are cost-effective public investments in at least two ways. First, as they build connections to community organizations and government agencies, accessing resources and orchestrating their effective use, community schools substantially multiply the value of services available to their students. Second, community schools foster long-term benefits to society of students who graduate with stronger abilities at higher rates, paying greater taxes and reducing costs of social welfare and incarceration, producing a return on investment conservatively estimated as 3 to 1.
In addition, these school models have been found to strengthen school climate and teacher morale by supporting teachers’ participation in decision-making and their ability to serve students well. The schools support family stability and well-being, and they model democratic participation for students, families, and educators alike.
Many states (including CA, FL, ID, KY, MD, NM, NC, NY, and VT) have launched initiatives to expand community schools. New York and Maryland now support them in high-need schools as part of their school funding formulas. Because the approach is based on assessing and meeting local needs by tapping local resources, along with state and federal funds, it is inclusive and flexible, proving adaptable for urban, suburban, and rural communities.
Looking Forward: Community Schools as a Sustainable Model in a Divided Time
The gains noted in California are early but promising. They are not unique. Recent studies of longer-standing community schools in New York City have documented similar progress over multiple years and cohorts.
The community school model is not an idealistic solution to every challenge, but a pragmatic, evidence-based way to enable schools to function as engines of both learning and connection.
When schools are connected to the lives of children, families, and neighborhoods, learning deepens and communities thrive. But to be sustainable and widespread, education leaders will need to learn from what’s working, fine-tune successful models, and expand community schools initiatives as a blueprint for rebuilding trust, connection, and opportunity in public education.
The lesson is not that schools can solve every social challenge, but that when they are designed to meet the broad needs of children and families and harness the rich assets of the community, learning flourishes. In a divided, disconnected time, that’s a model worth sustaining.