CA Community Schools
CCSPP Overview
What is a community school?
"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 education agency (LEA) and school to work closely with educators, students, and families to understand and address the unique needs, assets, and aspirations of the school community.”
What is the HESD vision & mission?
The HESD Community Schools envisions a future where the school is the hub of its community, practicing collaborative leadership through family and community engagement, caring for the whole person, and co-creating meaningful learning opportunities.
The HESD Community Schools' mission is to grow and empower school and district teams to co-create community schools. This is achieved by communicating with care, building trusting relationships, and providing quality support.
The Four Pillars of Community Schools
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"Integrated student support can help students succeed by meeting their academic, physical, social-emotional, and mental health needs. The statute defines this as including the “coordination of trauma-informed health, mental health, and social services.” Effectively supporting students also requires that they be well-known to be well served.”
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"Extended learning time and opportunities include academic support, enrichment, and real-world learning opportunities (e.g., internships, project-based learning). Statute refers to these opportunities as both “extended learning” and “expanded learning” and defines them as including “before and after school care and summer programs.” Expanded learning opportunities can also include tutoring and other learning supports during school hours.”
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"Family and community engagement involves actively tapping the expertise and knowledge of family and community members to serve as true partners in supporting and educating students. The statute defines this as including “home visits, home-school collaboration, [and] culturally responsive community partnerships.” Learning opportunities for family members and structures and opportunities for shared leadership are other important elements of authentic family engagement.”
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"Collaborative leadership and practices for educators and administrators that establish a culture of professional learning, collective trust, and shared responsibility for outcomes in a manner that includes students, families, and community members. Statute defines this as “professional development to transform school culture and climate that centers on pupil learning and supports mental and behavioral health, trauma-informed care, Social Emotional Learning [and] restorative justice.”
The Four Key Conditions for Learning
"As a critical part of the evolution of community schools, today’s community schools are taking to heart an essential lesson learned—a good student support system cannot compensate for a weak core instructional program[1] that is not responsive to individual student development and learning needs (including social, emotional, and cognitive). 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.[2] These key conditions for learning provide the foundation for the four pillars described below."
"Supportive environmental conditions that foster strong relationships and community. These include positive sustained relationships that foster attachment and emotional connections; physical, emotional, and identity safety; and a sense of belonging and purpose.”
"Productive instructional strategies that support motivation, competence, and self-directed learning. These curriculum, teaching, and assessment strategies feature well-scaffolded instruction and ongoing formative assessment that support conceptual understanding, take students’ prior knowledge and experiences into account, and provide the right amount of challenge and support on relevant and engaging learning tasks;”
"Social and emotional learning (SEL) that fosters skills, habits, and mindsets that enable academic progress, efficacy, and productive behavior. These include self-regulation, executive function, intrapersonal awareness and interpersonal skills, a growth mindset, and a sense of agency that supports resilience and productive action.”
"System of supports that enable healthy development, respond to student needs, and address learning barriers. These include a multi-tiered system of academic, health, and social supports that provide personalized resources within and beyond the classroom to address and prevent developmental detours, including conditions of trauma and adversity."