California's students face persistent opportunity gaps rooted in poverty, racial inequality, and unequal access to educational resources. This report examines how and to what extent California community schools are working to close these gaps, with particular focus on the state's historic $4.1 billion investment in the California Community Schools Partnership Program (CCSPP), the largest state-level community schools initiative in the nation. Drawing on a convergent parallel research design that integrates a quasi-experimental statewide impact study with a qualitative multisite case study of two established local initiatives, the report finds that California's investment is yielding meaningful returns in its earliest stages of implementation. The statewide analysis using a matched difference-in-differences finds that CCSPP schools newly adopting the community schools model demonstrated significantly greater reductions in chronic absence and suspension rates than matched comparison schools, along with meaningful gains in math and English language arts achievement. Impacts were largest for Black students, English learners, and socioeconomically disadvantaged students, suggesting community schools are a particularly effective strategy for addressing long-standing opportunity gaps.
Data on two community school initiatives extend these findings by examining mature initiatives that predate the CCSPP and received state funding to deepen and expand their work. Quantitative analyses show that both initiatives diverged positively from high-need comparison schools at the outset of their local programs, with gains accelerating substantially after CCSPP support arrived. Qualitative findings illuminate how LEA leaders used community school resources to advance high-quality instruction and address chronic absence, providing concrete evidence of how community schools are producing measurable improvements in student outcomes. The report concludes with implications for policymakers and LEA leaders committed to sustaining and expanding community schools in California and beyond.
This report is part of Getting Down to Facts III: A Comprehensive Review of California's PreK-12 System—an independent body of research conducted through the SCALE Initiative at Stanford University. The full collection is available at gettingdowntofacts.com.
This research was supported by the Stuart Foundation and the Youth Thriving Through Learning Fund. Core operating support for the Learning Policy Institute is provided by the Heising-Simons Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Raikes Foundation, Sandler Foundation, Skyline Foundation, and MacKenzie Scott. The ideas voiced here are those of the authors and not those of our funders.
