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Community Schools 101

Community Schools: Rural Solutions for and with Rural Communities

Empowering Local Communities, Strengthening Rural Schools

Rural schools have always been the heart of their communities, playing a central role not only in education but also in shaping the future of the entire community. The community school model builds on these inherent strengths, helping rural schools improve current programs and expand learning opportunities through closer collaboration with local families, community partners, and other stakeholders.

The community school strategy aligns perfectly with the values that matter most in rural places: local control, strong relationships, and practical solutions that come from within the community.

The Community School Movement is an Opportunity to:

  • Prioritize Local Needs: Rural schools can focus on the unique challenges their students and families face and tailor programs that reflect these needs.
  • Co-create Solutions: Together with families, community partners, and local leaders, schools can craft initiatives that draw from the community’s deep well of experience and insight.
  • Honor the Inherent Strengths of Our Communities: The relationships, traditions, and local knowledge that make rural communities strong are the foundation for building even better schools.
  • Address Rural Equity Issues: Rural schools often face unique challenges in accessing resources. By adopting the community school model, they can ensure equitable access to essential supports and opportunities.

A Model Rooted in Local Control

Community schools aren’t a “one-size-fits-all” solution. Instead, they adapt to the specific needs and strengths of each community. In rural areas, this means the community school strategy isn’t about replacing what already works—it’s about enhancing it. It allows schools to build on existing strengths, such as the close-knit relationships and local knowledge that already exist in many rural communities. Decisions are made locally, ensuring that solutions reflect the values and priorities of the people who know the community best.

Building Stronger Partnerships

Through the community school model, rural schools can develop deeper partnerships with local agencies, businesses, and families. These partnerships help address broader community needs, such as healthcare, economic development, and youth programming, all while enhancing student outcomes.

Why Community Schools?

Research shows that well-implemented community school strategies lead to:

  • Improved student attendance
  • Meaningful family engagement
  • Enhanced academic performance
  • Reduced risky behaviors

By bringing together community resources—such as health services, extracurricular activities, and family engagement programs—community schools ensure that rural students and their families have the supports they need to thrive.

The California Community Schools Framework defines a community school in the following way:

"A community school is any school serving pre-kindergarten through high school students using a 'whole-child' approach, with 'an integrated focus on academics, health and social services, youth and community development, and community engagement.' As a school improvement strategy, community school initiatives enable the local educational agency and school to work closely with educators, students, and families to understand and address the unique needs, assets, and aspirations of the school community. Community schools then design their own curricula and programs to support the whole child and partner with community-based organizations and local government agencies to align community resources to realize a shared vision for success. They improve student outcomes by addressing students’ academic, cognitive, physical, mental, and social-emotional needs. In addition to orchestrating governmental and community resources, community schools meet the needs of children and youth by building a positive school climate and trusting relationships, along with rich learning opportunities that prepare all students to succeed in college, career, and life.”

The Four Pillars of Community Schools

In order to achieve these transformational outcomes, The CCSPP Framework leans heavily on the four established pillars of the community schools movement. Current statute regarding the CCSPP aligns well with the research. Specifically, community schools are defined in statute as public schools with “strong and intentional community partnerships ensuring pupil learning and whole child and family development,” including the following features.

The Four Key Conditions of Learning

To strengthen their core instructional programs and achieve school transformation, today’s community schools are guided by the emerging consensus on the ‘science of learning and development’ (SoLD) which synthesizes a wide range of educational research findings regarding well-vetted strategies that support the kinds of relationships and learning opportunities needed to promote children’s well-being, healthy development, and transferable learning into a developmental systems framework.

These key conditions for learning provide the foundation for the four pillars described above. The SoLD framework posits that the following are necessary for student learning and development:

The Four Cornerstone Commitments

While recognizing and appreciating the vast diversity of our state in every way, the CCSPP is an explicitly equity driven initiative in statute, principle, and practice. As such this Framework also identifies the following four commitments as essential components to all California community schools. These commitments are aligned with consistent themes expressed in the initial phase of our community engagement process. 

The Four Proven Practices

As school districts and school sites have implemented versions of community school approaches across the nation, there are an array of approaches and practices that have been successful in diverse communities and school sites. California community schools should both attend to research and listen to interest holder voices to confirm appropriate best practices rooted in the ethos of the specific school community. There are a small set of proven practices that all California community schools should adopt and adapt to meet the needs of their school: