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Integrated learning environments can lead to academic and social benefits for children, yet most early childhood education programs are remarkably segregated due to both neighborhood segregation and policy decisions. New research shows how state policymakers can design policies that foster integration rather than segregation.
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Summer programs, whether focused on academic acceleration, enrichment, or career development, help support the whole child during the months when school isn’t in session. States play a key role and can take actions to strengthen and sustain summer programs, from empowering leaders and engaging coalitions to ensuring sustainable funding and equitable access.
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COVID-related federal recovery funds enabled many states to invest at unprecedented levels in summer learning programs, creating opportunities to learn from the initiatives developed during this funding window. Discover how three states implemented summer learning initiatives designed around academic acceleration, enrichment, and career development.
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Research on emergency hires of teachers during the pandemic highlights challenges in teacher effectiveness and retention. Investing in well-funded, high-retention pathways like teacher residencies can support a diverse, well-prepared teaching force, addressing teacher shortages and improving student outcomes in the long run.
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Many states are considering community schools as a way to address student mental health and chronic absenteeism and support learning recovery. Aided by the federal Full-Service Community Schools grant program, states can support systemic approaches to expand community schools by leveraging a range of federal, state, local, and private funds.
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Using federal, state, and local funding sources, Buena Vista Horace Mann K–8 Community School’s approach supports students’ physical and emotional well-being in myriad ways, including offering the school as an overnight shelter for families experiencing homelessness.
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While most school leaders manage countless priorities, William Smith High School explores what can happen when the focus is deliberately refined to the essentials, such as building community, exploring project-based learning, and integrating professional learning into the school’s culture.
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In 2021, the California Community Schools Partnership Program (CCSPP) was launched to support the implementation of community schools across the state. The UCLA Center for Community Schooling provides a first glance at the progress of approximately 450 schools that are supported through CCSPP implementation grants.
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In a growing number of neighborhoods and school districts across the U.S., community schools are transforming public education for the better and providing a strategy for helping to tackle our country's most serious problems, including extreme inequality and racial injustice.
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After nearly five years of community school implementation, supported by an infusion of state funds, a consortium of small rural districts in California’s Kern County is seeing significant academic growth and attendance rates far higher than the county average.
