Community schools are an educational reform that involves a partnership between the neighborhood school and community organizations to reduce the opportunity gap, strengthen children and families, and increase learning.
Although no two community schools are exactly alike, they share four common features
- extended learning,
- in-school mental and physical health services,
- family engagement, and
- family support and connection to social services.
The goal of this report is to describe the community school model, present research on the effectiveness of the key features of this model, describe findings from evaluations of national and state community school models, examine the status of community schools and the key components of these schools in Connecticut and outline key policy recommendations.
