Transforming Out-of-School Challenges Into Opportunities: Community Schools Reform in the Urban Midwest
For more than three decades, community schools have aimed to improve education and neighborhood outcomes in low-income, urban communities of color. In this article, we position community schools as a place-based reform strategy that pushes back on top-down accountability systems. While most research on urban school reform focuses on improving in-school factors, this study shifts the research lens to out-of-school factors that shape low-income, urban school-community contexts. The purpose of this study is to examine the out-of-school challenges that instigated a neighborhood-driven community school implementation in a racially diverse and low- to working-class community in the urban Midwest. Drawing on interviews and archival data, critical urban theory is used to guide our analysis. This case study details the political and socioeconomic out-of-school forces that preceded a community schools implementation. In doing so, we consider how school leaders can confront out-of-school challenges across similar urban contexts, and conclude with implications for future research.
Green, T. L., & Gooden, M. A. (2014). Transforming Out-of-School Challenges Into Opportunities: Community Schools Reform in the Urban Midwest. Urban Education, 49(8), 930–954. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085914557643
Critical Perspectives on the Contexts of Improvement Research in Education
Critical Perspectives on Educational Innovation and Improvement Science
Transforming Out-of-School Challenges Into Opportunities