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The science of learning and development reveals how to design high schools so that learners can thrive in environments that support individualized development; where they have strong, supportive relationships; and where their social, emotional, physical, and cognitive needs are met.
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In 2022, nearly 13.8 million students were chronically absent—missing 18 days of school or more. Students miss school for a wide range of reasons, and frequent absences can cause students to fall behind. Community schools are a research-based strategy that schools can adopt to address the issues underlying chronic absenteeism.
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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.
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A rise in the number of school shootings over time has driven increasing attention to school safety, but the policies states might enact to promote safe schools are hotly debated. With two broad approaches—increasing physical security and building supportive school communities—it's imperative to review what the evidence shows as effective.
