Sustainable Community Schools
Sustainable Community Schools are a community-led, community-driven approach to educational justice and equity.
These schools bring students, parents, educators, school staff, community members, and service providers together in a coordinated effort to promote neighborhood health and well-being.
The 6 Pillars of Sustainable Community Schools:
Curriculum that is engaging, culturally relevant, and challenging
High quality teaching, not high stakes testing, is emphasized
Wrap-around supports such as health care, eye care and social and emotional services are offered to assist learning.
Providers are accountable and culturally competent.
Transformational parent and community engagement is promoted so the full community actively participates in planning and decision-making.
Inclusive school leadership who are committed to making the Community School strategy integral to the school’s mandate and functioning.
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Sustainable Community Schools as Part of a Broader Equity Vision
The push for Sustainable Community Schools is part of a larger grassroots-driven vision called Equity or Else Quality of Life Platform. Developed by Journey 4 Justice, this platform was built by parents, educators, students, and community members organizing together to challenge systemic inequalities in public education and beyond.
Within this vision, schools are not isolated institutions, they are community hubs that reflect and respond to the needs of students and families as a whole.
Sustainable Community Schools advance this vision by:
Strengthening neighborhood public schools instead of privatizing or closing them.
Centering the voices of Black, Brown, and Indigenous students, families, and educators in decision-making.
Ensuring students receive the academic, social, and emotional supports they need to thrive.
Sustainable Community Schools advance this vision by:
Strengthening neighborhood public schools instead of privatizing or closing them.
Centering the voices of Black, Brown, and Indigenous students, families, and educators in decision-making.
Ensuring students receive the academic, social, and emotional supports they need to thrive.
Studies show: Sustainable Community Schools WORK!
As a response to the inequity and suffering in California’s schools exposed by the COVID-19 Pandemic, California made a historic investment in the California Community Schools Partnership Program.
By investing in Sustainable Community Schools, the state wanted to fundamentally change how students, families, and communities related to their public schools.
The results were, and are, overwhelmingly and consistently positive. After the first full year of implementation:
Chronic absences were significantly reduced.
Suspension rates went down by an average of 15%.
Students at sustainable community schools had higher average test scores, equivalent to an additional 43 days of learning.
The initiative effectively served diverse, and often marginalized students across California: the average participating school served 90% low-income, English Language Learner, or foster care students.