Community Schools: Reform's Lesser-Known Frontier

By Sarah M. Fine

When it comes to the battle of ideas that has dominated the school reform stage for the past decade, 2010 may be opening on a hopeful note. The Obama administration has taken up the task of settling the debate over whether America’s schools should be reformed by raising standards or by expanding community-based supports. The verdict? A resounding yes to both sides. No-excuses steps to ensure accountability are a necessary component of school reform, say the president and his advisers. But so too is an approach that takes into account the myriad non-academic needs of students, families, and communities.

The administration’s plan is not so much a compromise as a two-pronged strategy. The first prong, involving a continued focus on accountability, is already well under way. Efforts to create voluntary national “common core” standards—spearheaded not by the federal government but by a coalition of national groups—are moving forward. Experiments with merit-based pay for teachers have proliferated. And the U.S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top initiative promises to inspire yet more data-driven innovations.

But when it comes to linking schools with networks of social support, lawmakers have barely made it past the starting line. The administration requested $10 million to help organizations develop proposals for “Promise Neighborhoods,” place-based anti-poverty programs modeled on the Harlem Children’s Zone, but implementation will...