Community Schools and Collective Impact

Posted by on April 07, 2014

Please join PHENND’s K-16 Partnership Network for the fourth University Partners meeting of the year.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014
3:30-5:00 PM
at the School District of Philadelphia
440 N. Broad Street, Room 1075

We will hear from Jessica Strauss, Executive Director of Baltimore’s Alliance for Community Teachers and Schools (ACTS).

ACTS’ work revolves around the following key concepts:
Community Teachers – educational leaders who skillfully nurture the growth of academic identity
Community Schools – communities where we collaborate to be sure that children thrive and grow
Communities of Practice – shaping collaborative work to solve problems and transform our world

ACTS is also the organizational home of CUE, the Consortium for Urban Education.  Under CUE, area institutions of higher education have come together with Baltimore City Schools to advance the development and implementation of productive partnerships that benefit children. ACTS serves as the convener and facilitative intermediary for the Consortium, providing a structure, managing reliable communications, shaping and refining content, and advancing the mission. Members work in a set of content-focused work groups to advance teaching and learning, student support services, family and community engagement, and academically-based community service. Additionally, the CUE collaborates with other city organizations to connect interested members to existing conversations and groups.

We will also hear preliminary research findings on Community Schools in Philadelphia from Amelia D’Angelo, Katie Englander and Eliana Machefsky, from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. They will present on the successes and challenges of efforts to transform neighborhood schools in Philadelphia into community schools via the PCAPS’ community schools campaign. Through a comparative study of similar efforts, their goal is to determine which practices and strategies would help strengthen PCAPS’ community schools campaign as it moves forward.

RSVP here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDJqbU5Qd055VzhoLUxGdHp4bnBmdnc6MA#gid=0