Community Engagement

BigIdeas0926 Bushweller
Illustration by Emily Wright for Education Week + Getty
School & District Management Reported Essay It's Not About Being Nice. Fearless Leadership Requires Curiosity and Candor
Just ask the leader mediating an ugly school mascot fight or restructuring a once-segregated school.
Kevin Bushweller, September 8, 2026
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14 min read
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School & District Management Opinion For This School Board President, Leadership Starts With Humility
Amid a big transition, active communication helped this leader hold the community together.
Mark Qual, September 8, 2026
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4 min read
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Natalie Behring for Education Week
School & District Management Opinion ‘Our School Leaves Town Every Day’: A Story of Rural Resilience and Survival
For more than a year, this town’s only school has stood empty. The spirit of community endures.
Steven L. Johnson, September 8, 2026
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7 min read
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Natalie Behring for Education Week
School & District Management Opinion When Your District Goes Through Big Changes, Relationships Are Critical
A neighboring school closed. His district embraced a reorganization. It was a lesson in leadership.
Justin Fryer, September 8, 2026
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4 min read
big ideas jones
School & District Management Opinion The Question That Guided This School District Through an Impossible Decision
Declining enrollment reshaped her district. This school board member has lessons for other leaders.
Chelsey Jones, September 8, 2026
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5 min read
Collage-style illustration with a photo looking down a road surrounded by fields on either side, with squares of other images on top. The squares show two signs: one that reads "Lisbon" and another that reads "Fort Ransom." Pieces of these signs are coming together in the squares and stacking on top of each other in the center of the frame. Some squares off to the edges are blank.
Illustration by Emily Wright for Education Week + Photos by Natalie Behring for Education Week.
School & District Management Two Districts Pave a Road Toward a Shared Future and Survival
A rural school district was facing the urgent threat of dissolution. Its leaders found another way.
Elizabeth Rich, September 8, 2026
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2 min read
Cassatt mural on February 2026.
The reimagined “Modern Woman” mural, inspired by artist Mary Cassatt, is seen in February 2026 at Aveson’s temporary campus in Pasadena, Calif. Created by students displaced by the Eaton fire, the mural incorporates imagery from their former Altadena campus and serves as a symbol of healing, memory, and community after the wildfire.
Studio Tutto
Families & the Community Their School Burned Down. Then They Picked Up Their Paintbrushes
A group of 15 students in California used art to celebrate and grieve the school they lost to fire.
Olina Banerji, April 20, 2026
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4 min read
A sanitation worker picks up trash next to a mural of César Chavez in Bakersfield, Calif., Thursday, March 19, 2026.
A sanitation worker picks up trash next to a mural of César Chavez in Bakersfield, Calif., on March 19, 2026. Schools around the country are weighing how to respond to new allegations about the labor leader.
Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP
Families & the Community Schools Named for César Chavez Face Renaming Debates After Assault Allegations
Dozens of schools named for the labor leader are weighing how to respond to new allegations.
Evie Blad, March 19, 2026
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6 min read
Heather Nicholson, a Moonshot teacher, talks with Shyanne Schaefer, a student in the program during an art lesson at California New Area Elementary School in Coal Center, Pa., on May 16, 2024.
California Area Elementary School teacher Heather Nicholson talks with student Shyanne Schaefer during an art lesson as part of a competency-based learning program in Coal Center, Pa., on May 16, 2024. The district designed the program, which eschews conventions like traditional lesson plans, letter grades, and age-specific classrooms, with a grant from Remake Learning, an organization that encourages schools and community organizations to innovate and design new learning opportunities. A new national commission will explore how to encourage such "learning ecosystems" in other communities.
Jaclyn Borowski/Education Week
Families & the Community A New National Effort Aims to Spread Learning Beyond School Walls
A new commission will explore strategies for schools to collaborate with their communities.
Evie Blad, March 5, 2026
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4 min read
Panelists from left: Carlos Gonzalez, superintendent of the Roma Independent district in Texas; John Skretta, superintendent of Lincoln, Neb., schools; Joe Gothard, superintendent of Madison, Wis., schools; Ben Master, a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corp. speak on summer learning and student success at the National Conference on Education in Nashville, Tenn. on Feb. 13, 2026.
School superintendents, from left, Carlos Gonzalez, of Roma Independent in Texas; John Skretta, of Lincoln, Neb., and Joe Gothard, of Madison, Wis., along with Ben Master, a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corp., discuss summer learning and student success at the National Conference on Education in Nashville, Tenn., on Feb. 13, 2026.
Kaylee Domzalski/Education Week
Student Achievement These Districts Turned Summer School Into an Inviting Destination for Students
Community partnerships helped with scheduling challenges. Themed programs heightened student interest.
Caitlynn Peetz Stephens, March 2, 2026
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6 min read
Cougar Mountain Middle School was built next door to Timber Ridge at Talus, a senior living community. It’s resulted in an intergenerational partnership between students and the senior residents. Pictured here on Oct. 30, 2025, in Issaquah, Wash.
Cougar Mountain Middle School in Issaquah, Wash., was built next door to Timber Ridge at Talus, a senior living community. It’s resulted in an intergenerational partnership between students and the senior residents, pictured here on Oct. 30, 2025.
Kaylee Domzalski/Education Week
Student Well-Being & Movement Download Want to Start an Intergenerational Partnership at Your School? Here's How
Partnerships that bring together students and older adults benefit both generations.
Elizabeth Heubeck, February 2, 2026
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1 min read
Students at Glover Middle School in Spokane, Wash. sing karaoke during Falcon Time on Dec. 3, 2025.
Students at Glover Middle School in Spokane, Wash., sing karaoke during Falcon Time on Dec. 3, 2025. The district has gone all-in on engaging extracurriculars and activities.
Kaylee Domzalski/Education Week
Student Well-Being & Movement One District's Battle to Curb Cellphones and Get Kids to Engage in Real Life
Spokane's leaders are pushing extracurriculars to help students strengthen in-person social skills.
Alyson Klein, January 26, 2026
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12 min read
Cougar Mountain Middle School was built next door to Timber Ridge at Talus, a senior living community. It’s resulted in an intergenerational partnership between students and the senior residents. Pictured here on Oct. 30, 2025, in Issaquah, Wash.
Seventh grader Tori Thain, 12, talks about chess with Bob Fritz, a resident at the Timber Ridge senior living community and a VOICE mentor at Cougar Mountain Middle School in Issaquah, Wash., on Oct. 30, 2025. These intergenerational relationships have been found to boost students' social-emotional skills.
Kaylee Domzalski/Education Week
Student Well-Being & Movement Want to Improve Tweens' Social Skills? Enlist Older Adults' Help
When a middle school was built adjacent to a retirement community, unlikely friendships grew.
Elizabeth Heubeck, January 26, 2026
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9 min read
Edenton, N.C. - September 5th, 2025: Sonya Rinehart, principal at John A. Holmes High School, stopped to briefly speak with former student (graduated) Jataziun Welch that is working with a local business downtown Edenton.
Sonya Rinehart, the principal of John A. Holmes High School in Edenton, N.C., stopped to briefly speak with former student Jataziun Welch, who is working with a local business in downtown Edenton on Sept. 5, 2025. School leaders have been viewed as community leaders, too. Here are five ways they can embrace the role.
Cornell Watson for Education Week
Families & the Community Five Ways Principals Can Act Like Community Ambassadors
Here are tips for how principals can best support their community.
Jennifer Vilcarino, November 26, 2025
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3 min read