Developing Community-Empowered Schools

"Very thoughtful and practical, providing well-grounded strategies for effective implementation of community participation."
Gini Doolittle, Assistant Professor
Department of Educational Leadership, Rowan University, New Jersey

Create environments for learning through school-community partnerships!

Burke and Picus make a case for improved learning through school-community partnerships. Drawing from their twenty years of experience working with parents, community volunteers, teachers, and school site administrators, the authors present a concise, easy-to-understand approach to building and working with these powerful alliances.

Developing Community-Empowered Schools is structured to give the reader a clear overview of the necessary components and strategies to understand and develop these critical partnerships. Highlights include: Defining community-empowered schools Assessing your school′s strengths and weaknesses Identifying stakeholders and their roles Establishing policies and procedures that support school and community partnerships Empowering and training staff for effective school and community partnerships Recruiting and training volunteers Creating a family literacy program Building community collaborations for added resources Viewing schools as economic solutions to communities Examining the future of community-empowered schools

Handy overheads, training worksheets, sample memos from teachers to students′ families, and enough material for a one-day teacher-training workshop make this a practical, accessible, and valuable resource. In addition, in-depth information is provided on how to seek funding to sustain a school-based community program. Developing Community-Empowered Schools is an all-in-one guide and an essential desk-top reference for bringing all stakeholders together to create optimal learning environments.