Developing Community Schools

This report takes stock of the implementation of the New York Community Schools Initiative (NYC-CS) as of the 2016–2017 school year by analyzing data from the first two full years of program implementation.

There are three primary goals for studying the early implementation of the NYC-CS: (1) describe the extent to which the core structures and services of the NYC-CS have been implemented as intended across the 118 schools that were involved in the initiative since its inception, (2) understand how the schools have been developing their capacity in four core areas — continuous improvement, coordination, connectedness, and collaboration — through estimating composite scores that capture schools' capacity as of SY 2016–2017, and (3) analyze some of the factors that were associated with observed variation in schools' capacity development.

The findings of this report will inform district decisions regarding the priorities and support needed to sustain the NYC-CS long-term, and they may be useful for other practitioners and policymakers interested in developing or refining holistic school-based programs that support students' and communities' academic, social, and emotional well-being. A follow-up report on the impact of the NYC-CS on student and school outcomes is set to be released in 2019.

Key Findings

Six Core Structures and Services of the NYC-CS Are Being Implemented Across Virtually All Community Schools in the Study

• The schools have shown a marked increase over time in the prevalence of these components since the onset of the initiative in 2014.
• There is also substantial variation in the format and degree of program components that schools have in place.

Schools Were More Developed in Their Initiatives Related to Coordination and Connectedness, Compared with Continuous Improvement and Collaboration

• The largest share of schools indicated that they were in the "maturing" stage, suggesting schools are progressing toward implementing the full community school model.
• Although the exploratory analysis of the capacity index scores shows variation in schools' development, we found no consistent relationship with structural characteristics such as grade configuration and building colocation status.
• That aspects of schools' cultural climate were positively associated with capacity development.

NYC-CS Is Providing Complementary Supports for the Schools That It Also Designated as Renewal Schools

• This is a concurrent school-improvement initiative. Many school leaders expressed optimism about the transformative potential of the community schools approach because it both injects new services into the school setting and changes the social fabric of the school community, for both students and adults.
• Many school leaders said that the programs and services related to the NYC-CS were helpful complements to the academic-oriented supports of the Renewal School Program, in which many of the study schools also participate.