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Small Schools and Race
VUE Number 2, Fall 2003
An interview with Warren Simmons,  Audio Clip 2
Executive Director, Annenberg Institute for School Reform
Is there more that schools can do to engage the community more effectively?
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TEXT VERSION:
I think more work needs to be done on the specific kinds of strategies school leaders are using to engage the broader community. For instance the Bay Area Coalition of Equitable Schools and the Los Angeles Education Alliance for Achievement are very explicit about designing schools in partnership with community-based organizations, about developing data on school progress using indicators that are not only important to the educational leaders of a particular school but indicators that are also important to community, to the extent to which the school provides access not simply to the parents of the students, but to organizations and youth and adults that are not directly served by the school educationally. Because in many distressed communities, in particular, a school building is one of the more viable settings for social activities, for faith activities, and for community building.
So being much more explicit about and providing examples of how school leaders can partner with community-based organizations, community development corporations, faith institutions, that make it apparent that small schools will continue to be anchors for community development and that the values and aspirations of the surrounding community are considered when the educators are thinking about curriculum development, assessment development, and the kind of things the learning activities will be organized around.
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