Community Schools

Community Schools are places where educators, local community members, families, and students work together to strengthen conditions for student learning and healthy development. This framework for Community Schools includes the key practices, supportive infrastructure, enabling conditions, essential players, and guiding vision for all students to thrive. Developed by the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution, the Children’s Aid National Center for Community Schools, the Coalition for Community Schools at the Institute for Educational Leadership, and the Learning Policy Institute as part of the #CSForward project.

Visit the Community Schools Forward Essential Resources for more information.

Better education starts with community engagement

For youth to succeed, learning must be paired with family and community engagement as well as genuine collective efforts to improve school climate and culture. That’s what Community Schools do. In this strategy, community partners collaborate with educators and parents to ensure that students and their families secure what they need. Services may include:

  • Mental, dental, and basic health care
  • Extended-day learning activities
  • Tutoring and mentoring
  • College and career prep
  • Preschool learning
  • Adult education
  • Parent engagement programs

They bring community partners together to ensure students and families get the supports they need to help their children with learning, graduate from high school, and enter the world prepared for college and careers.

Community schools bring community partners together to ensure students and families get the supports they need.

Outcomes and Indicators for Community Schools: A Guide for Implementers and Evaluators

Based off of the Brookings Institution's Guide for Implementers and Evaluators, IUPUI offers a set of specific outcomes to be achieved and measurable indicators of the outcomes that can be used to monitor short- and medium-term progress toward locally determined goals. They also can provide data to guide continuous improvement of the local Community School strategy.

Community Schools in Indiana

215Indiana schools practicing Community Schools strategies

108,396Hoosier children and their families served

77of the 215 schools are located in Indianapolis

Let us help you get started

We offer an array of services to help schools, neighborhoods, institutions of higher education, and other key stakeholders implement community school strategies.

We can help you by offering:

  • Customized workshops and training
  • One-on-one consultations
  • Project evaluation
  • Connections to health, human services, and workforce readiness opportunities
  • Asset/needs assessment

To find out more, contact Jim Grim, Director of University/Community School Partnerships, at jagrim@iupui.edu.