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Voices in Urban Education
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Community Partners
VUE Number 7, Spring 2005
| VUE Home | Archives | Order Print Copy |
Expanding Opportunity: Partners for Learning
By Robert Rothman
Robert Rothman is a Principal Associate & Editor of VUE at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform. > Author's biography
When President George H.W. Bush unveiled an education plan in 1991 known as “America 2000,” he focused one plank on what he called “the other 91 percent.” Noting that an eighteen-year-old will have spent only 9 percent of his or her life in school, the President's plan included a proposal for building “communities where learning can happen,” in addition to the proposed initiatives for strengthening schools and school systems. This proposal was essential, the plan noted, because even if all the other plans were enacted, “we still will not have done the job.”
In recent years, educators, policy-makers, and community leaders have paid renewed attention to "the other 91 percent" and to forging links between schools and agencies or organizations outside of schools. There appears to be a growing recognition that improving schools is not enough; learning at high levels requires support for students that schools alone cannot provide.
Schools have long had links with businesses, museums, and other organizations, and students have been participating in after-school programs at YMCAs and Boys and Girls Clubs for decades. But not everyone has had access to these resources, and the inequitable distribution of out-of-school learning opportunities follows a predictable pattern. Those who have advantages that enable them to perform well in school – educated parents, books in the home, and so forth – also tend to be the ones who engage in stimulating after-school programs, attend museums, and know adults in professional jobs. Those who lack the in-school advantages lack the out-of-school resources as well. The gaps in opportunity widen.
Consider the two children whose days are charted in Dennie Palmer Wolf's article in this issue. One child spends her time after school at home, attending to her family. The other spends her time in a community center, practicing with a choir, and in a library, seeking books on "courage." Both are good students who do well in school. But which child is likely to have a brighter future?
To ensure that all children have the learning opportunities that can enhance what schools can provide, schools, school systems, and communities have begun to forge systematic links between schools and other agencies and organizations. These partnerships take many forms. In some cases, schools and private organizations are working together to build curricular programs that draw on the resources and talents of the partners. In others, municipal leaders are spearheading efforts to place schools at the center of learning communities, in which a variety of civic agencies and organizations support student learning and the schools stimulate economic and community revival.
This issue of Voices in Urban Education spotlights some of these efforts. In an introductory essay, Hal Smith lays out a vision for an "education system" that includes, but is not limited to, schools. Such a system looks more like a web, with multiple connections among the partners, than a wheel with schools at the hub.
> Excerpt
Other authors describe local attempts to create such systems. Elana Koropkin describes the Urban Assembly School of Law and Justice in Brooklyn, New York, where the school has formed a partnership with Cravath, Swaine, and Moore, one of the nation's most prestigious law firms, to develop a curriculum designed around law and social justice.
> Full Text with audio clips
Giselle Antoni writes about a partnership between the City of Dallas, the Dallas Independent School District, and local cultural institutions to ensure that all students have equitable access to the wealth of arts and cultural resources in the city.
> Excerpt
Laraine Duncan and Donna Loomis describe the successful effort by Mayor Don Plusquellic of Akron, Ohio, to secure public approval of a tax increase to rebuild schools as community learning centers. They also discuss the challenges of forging a partnership between the city and the schools.
> Excerpt
Dennie Palmer Wolf outlines a plan by officials and community leaders in Birmingham, Alabama, to rebuild a neighborhood by creating a learning zone centered around historic Philips High School.
> Excerpt
Early evidence from some of these efforts suggests that they are paying off in improving results for students. Whether they will reach their more ambitious goals of revitalizing communities remains to be seen.
If they are successful, though, these kinds of community partnerships will also do something else: redefine "education" and who is responsible for it. At a time when schools are accountable as never before for improving academic achievement, those who have made a commitment to create education systems are challenging us to recognize that we all have a stake in the success of our youth, a role to play in ensuring that success, and a duty to hold ourselves accountable for the results.
Archives
Community Partners
VUE Number 7, Spring 2005
| VUE Home | Archives | Order Print Copy |
Expanding Opportunity: Partners for Learning
By Robert Rothman
Robert Rothman is a Principal Associate & Editor of VUE at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform. > Author's biography
When President George H.W. Bush unveiled an education plan in 1991 known as “America 2000,” he focused one plank on what he called “the other 91 percent.” Noting that an eighteen-year-old will have spent only 9 percent of his or her life in school, the President's plan included a proposal for building “communities where learning can happen,” in addition to the proposed initiatives for strengthening schools and school systems. This proposal was essential, the plan noted, because even if all the other plans were enacted, “we still will not have done the job.”
In recent years, educators, policy-makers, and community leaders have paid renewed attention to "the other 91 percent" and to forging links between schools and agencies or organizations outside of schools. There appears to be a growing recognition that improving schools is not enough; learning at high levels requires support for students that schools alone cannot provide.
Schools have long had links with businesses, museums, and other organizations, and students have been participating in after-school programs at YMCAs and Boys and Girls Clubs for decades. But not everyone has had access to these resources, and the inequitable distribution of out-of-school learning opportunities follows a predictable pattern. Those who have advantages that enable them to perform well in school – educated parents, books in the home, and so forth – also tend to be the ones who engage in stimulating after-school programs, attend museums, and know adults in professional jobs. Those who lack the in-school advantages lack the out-of-school resources as well. The gaps in opportunity widen.
Consider the two children whose days are charted in Dennie Palmer Wolf's article in this issue. One child spends her time after school at home, attending to her family. The other spends her time in a community center, practicing with a choir, and in a library, seeking books on "courage." Both are good students who do well in school. But which child is likely to have a brighter future?
To ensure that all children have the learning opportunities that can enhance what schools can provide, schools, school systems, and communities have begun to forge systematic links between schools and other agencies and organizations. These partnerships take many forms. In some cases, schools and private organizations are working together to build curricular programs that draw on the resources and talents of the partners. In others, municipal leaders are spearheading efforts to place schools at the center of learning communities, in which a variety of civic agencies and organizations support student learning and the schools stimulate economic and community revival.
This issue of Voices in Urban Education spotlights some of these efforts. In an introductory essay, Hal Smith lays out a vision for an "education system" that includes, but is not limited to, schools. Such a system looks more like a web, with multiple connections among the partners, than a wheel with schools at the hub.
> Excerpt
Other authors describe local attempts to create such systems. Elana Koropkin describes the Urban Assembly School of Law and Justice in Brooklyn, New York, where the school has formed a partnership with Cravath, Swaine, and Moore, one of the nation's most prestigious law firms, to develop a curriculum designed around law and social justice.
> Full Text with audio clips
Giselle Antoni writes about a partnership between the City of Dallas, the Dallas Independent School District, and local cultural institutions to ensure that all students have equitable access to the wealth of arts and cultural resources in the city.
> Excerpt
Laraine Duncan and Donna Loomis describe the successful effort by Mayor Don Plusquellic of Akron, Ohio, to secure public approval of a tax increase to rebuild schools as community learning centers. They also discuss the challenges of forging a partnership between the city and the schools.
> Excerpt
Dennie Palmer Wolf outlines a plan by officials and community leaders in Birmingham, Alabama, to rebuild a neighborhood by creating a learning zone centered around historic Philips High School.
> Excerpt
Early evidence from some of these efforts suggests that they are paying off in improving results for students. Whether they will reach their more ambitious goals of revitalizing communities remains to be seen.
If they are successful, though, these kinds of community partnerships will also do something else: redefine "education" and who is responsible for it. At a time when schools are accountable as never before for improving academic achievement, those who have made a commitment to create education systems are challenging us to recognize that we all have a stake in the success of our youth, a role to play in ensuring that success, and a duty to hold ourselves accountable for the results.
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