Building Successful Community Schools: Resources and Lesson Plans

What is a community school? A community school is a public school that partners with local organizations to deliver services students and families need (health care, meals, family support, expanded learning time) alongside regular instruction. The goal is to remove the barriers that keep students from showing up and learning. The AFT describes community schools as a paradigm shift rather than a program, because the partnerships are built into how the school operates.

How is a community school different from a regular public school? A community school is a regular public school with coordinated services built in. The difference is coordination and accountability: rather than referring a family to an outside agency, the school brings partners into the building, aligns their work with classroom instruction, and tracks whether student outcomes improve. Most community schools have a dedicated coordinator managing those partnerships.

How do I find out whether my school is already a community school? Start with the AFT's "Is My School a Community School?" checklist, free in this collection. It walks through the essential components of the model and takes about fifteen minutes. Many schools discover they are already running several pieces informally, which makes it easier to build the rest deliberately rather than starting a new initiative from nothing.

Are these resources free? Yes. Every resource in this collection is free with a free Share My Lesson account. Share My Lesson is created and maintained by the American Federation of Teachers and has never charged educators for resources. Many of the webinars also carry free continuing-education credit for participants.

What does family engagement look like in a community school? Family engagement in a community school means families are partners in decisions, not an audience for announcements. In practice that looks like home visits, family resource rooms, translated communication, and families sitting on school leadership teams. This collection includes National PTA's National Standards for Family-School Partnerships and the Dual Capacity-Building Framework, the two most widely used guides for doing it well.

Who is this collection for? Classroom teachers, paraprofessionals and school-related personnel, specialized instructional support personnel, school and union leaders, and families and community partners. Several resources are tagged specifically for PSRPs and SISPs, who deliver much of the direct family and student support in a community school. Resources span PreK-12 plus professional learning.

What evidence is there that community schools work? The AFT publishes case studies from community schools in Albuquerque, Baltimore, Chicago, Minnesota and St. Paul documenting what each site changed and what followed. Schools most often report gains in attendance and family participation first, since those are what the model addresses most directly. The blogs in this collection add firsthand accounts from Pittsburgh, Rome N.Y., and rural districts.

Where should I start if I want to build a community school? Start with the checklist to see what you already have, then read one or two case studies from a district that resembles yours. The AFT's "Stronger Together" guide covers how the pieces fit together. Community schools are usually built over several years through existing partnerships rather than launched all at once, so the first step is inventory, not a plan.