April 14, 2014
The key to ensuring access to educational opportunity for each and every child is to build a strong public school at the heart of every community.
Across the nation, advocates are beginning to use the idea of a "community school" as a model for improving their local education systems. At the Community Schools National Forum in Cincinnati last week, top educators from the US and abroad learned about this powerful new model and how it could be scaled up nationally.
Infographic: #Communityschools, not privatization or closure, are best way 2 ensure #Opp4All http://t.co/38QejCL3J1 pic.twitter.com/VIXlxWyrhx
— Opportunity to Learn (@OTLCampaign) April 9, 2014
Community schools are successful because they focus on educating the "whole child" by turning the physical school building into a community center that offers wraparound resources and opportunities for students and their families. For example, the school building can house everything from free health and dental clinics to pre-k programs, after-school tutoring and mentoring, and English language classes for parents.
Members of the OTL team were able to attended the conference – check out some of the pictures and resources from the event on Twitter with hashtags #communityschools and #opp4all.
You can learn more about community schools and which cities in the US are already implementing them by visiting the Coalition for Community Schools. Don't miss this great coverage about the national forum from Cincinnati's local news station NLWT: