+ University-Assisted Community Schools: Effective Partnerships for Connecting Higher Education, School, & Community Resources Coalition for Community Schools National Forum May 2012 The Netter Center for Community Partnerships Team: • Sterling Baltimore, Site Director, Lea Community School • Patrice Berry, Site Director, University City High Community School • Cory Bowman, Associate Director • Rich Liuzzi, Site Director, Wilson Community School
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University-Assisted Community Schools: Effective Partnerships for Connecting Higher Education, School, & Community Resources
Coalition for Community Schools National Forum
May 2012
The Netter Center for Community Partnerships Team: • Sterling Baltimore, Site Director, Lea
Community School • Patrice Berry, Site Director, University
City High Community School • Cory Bowman, Associate Director • Rich Liuzzi, Site Director, Wilson
Community School
+ The Netter Center for Community Partnerships
Our Mission: Founded in 1992, the Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships is Penn’s primary vehicle for bringing to bear the broad range of human knowledge needed to solve the complex, comprehensive, and interconnected problems of the American city so that West Philadelphia (Penn’s local geographic community), Philadelphia, the University itself, and society benefit.
Core Propositions:
Penn’s future and the future of West Philadelphia/Philadelphia are intertwined.
Penn can make a significant contribution to improving the quality of life in West Philadelphia/Philadelphia.
Penn can enhance its overall mission of advancing and transmitting knowledge by helping to improve the quality of life in West Philadelphia/Philadelphia.
+ Academically Based Community Service
Addresses universal problems as they are manifested locally through collaborative problem-solving, K-16+
Service rooted in and intrinsically tied to research and teaching
Aims to bring about structural community improvement (e.g., effective public schools, neighborhood economic development)
Designed to improve the quality of life in the community and the quality of learning and scholarship in the university
Helps students to become contributing, creative, democratic citizens
+ The Vehicle for Change:
University-Assisted Community Schools
Guiding Principles
Open doors to all before and after school, weekends, & summers
Serve educational, social service, health, and recreational needs
Focus on the school as the core institution for community engagement and democratic development
Link school day and after school curriculum to solving real world, community problems
Engage youth as deliverers not simply recipients of service
Engage universities as lead partners in providing intellectual, human, and material resources
Employ site director as primary liaison between university, school, and community resources
Develop and coordinate programs
Serve as member of school leadership team
Ensure mutually-beneficial partnerships
+ K-16+ Partnership Approaches
Activities should be aggregated and integrated for change Lack of coordination of efforts
Efforts are geographically and topically scattered
K-12 and higher ed education have similar needs that should be addressed in and through collaboration
Civic education and democratic development
Real-world problem solving, collaboration, and communication skills
Partnerships should be integrated with the core missions – teaching and learning – of both institutions Partnerships as “service” not connected to research and teaching are
less mutually beneficial and sustainable
+ University City High Community School
UCHS priorities
Enhanced learning experiences
Extended academic support
College and Career Readiness
Human capital
Penn partnerships Expanding learning opportunities
Academically Based Community Service Courses (ABCS) in STEM, Evaluation, Community School Organizing, etc.
Wharton-Netter program supporting business education
Providing human capital
Community Schools Student Partnerships
Leonore Annenberg Teaching Fellows
Penn Medicine, University City District, Agatston Urban Nutrition Initiative, and others
+ University City High (cont’d) Community Schools Student Partnerships (CSSP)
A student-run organization
Members are volunteer, and work study undergraduate and graduate students
At UCHS, CSSP Students:
Act as during-school and after-school academic tutors, and CACR mentors
Are matched with teachers to provide classroom tutoring support
Provide ongoing one-on-one college and career readiness mentoring in partnership with
Philadelphia's Graduation Coach Campaign
Philadelphia Youth Network (PYN) WorkReady
21st-century skill development curriculum
During-school, after-school and summer internship opportunities that offer students access
to mainstream career experiences
UCHS’s WorkReady Implementation:
Weekly Educational Entrepreneurship and CSSP Graduation Coaching (12th grade)
Leaders of Change: Social and Educational Entrepreneurship (11th grade)
Business partners include: Children's Hospital of PA, Hospital of University of PA, Day and
Zimmerman, Medicaid and Medicare, The Wharton Business School, Mercy Hospital,
Motivos Magazine, Martin Chan LLC, University City District
+ Wilson Elementary Community School
Project-Based Learning (PBL)
Experiential learning learning through doing, collaboration, research
Teacher as guide / facilitator
Project planning & lesson planning
We are ALL scholars
After-School Program
Scheduling Project Cycles 6 weeks long / 4 to 6
cycles per school year
1 hour per program day (4:45 pm – 5:45 pm, 5 days per week)
Daily PBL Themes: M & W: Social & Emotional Learning
Tu: Civics, Service, Social Justice, Cultural Studies
“Healthy Schools” - Prof. Mary Summers & Prof. Jane Kauer
“The Biology of Food” - Prof. Scott Poethig
“Community Based Environmental Health” - Prof. Richard Pepino
Other Penn Partnerships @ Wilson Community School
Community Schools Student Partnerships (CSSP)
Agatston Urban Nutrition Initiative (AUNI)
Penn Science Across the Ages (PSAA)
Financial Literacy Community Project (FLCP)
Bootstrap (computer programming program)
Senior Service Interns Program (SSI University City High Community School)
+ Lea Community School
Supporting Principals, Teachers, & Support
Staff
School Action Plan
Professional Development, particularly through
ABCS
Grant Writing and Collaboration
Technology Support
Media and Marketing
In-school Tutoring that focuses on Individualized
Learning Plans
After-School Program Tutoring and Mentoring
Community Service Days for students groups: this
could be an opportunity to finally paint the
cafeteria or school yard!
+ Lea (cont’d)
Parent Outreach
After-school parents are required to attend monthly meetings, which
typically brings in a lot of participants.
School administrators and staff can participate in the meetings or add
agenda items to reach a population of parents that they don’t normally
capture.
UACS frequently network with other organizations and therefore can
streamline resources to parents during those monthly meetings.
Specific Program Examples
Black Wall Street
Mural Arts
Structured Lunch & Recess
+ University-Assisted Community Schools National Replication
1993-2004: 23 higher education-school-community partnerships across the country adopted model; additional 75 teams trained
2008-present: Regional Training Centers
University of Oklahoma-Tulsa
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
Ongoing Training & Technical Assistance
Site Visits
Conferences
+ Tapping your Local Institutions of Higher Education
Campuses have various offices that coordinate their community partnership activities. To start, we suggest contacting:
Any office with “community,” “service-learning” or “civic engagement” in its title
Service-learning coordinator
Interested Faculty in Related Disciplines
Office of Campus Ministry
Student Life – Volunteer Center
Co-ops/Internships/Career Office
Federal Work-Study Office
+ Tips for Higher Ed Partners Build off existing relationships between your institution and school partners.
Reach out to school principals and teachers to explore potential partnerships.
Spend time at the school and in the community to get to know the staff and culture.
Involve school administration, teachers, students, and community residents in collaborative efforts from the beginning (e.g. a community asset mapping project).
Start with a core group of teachers who are enthusiastic about the initiative and willing to incorporate problem solving learning into their curriculum. The hope is that their positive experience leads other teachers to be open to university partners in their classrooms.
Consider linking ABCS courses to school day curriculum and/or after school enrichment programs.
Courses take many forms: pilot course, independent study course, elective course, course that fulfills distributional, course that counts towards the major
Undergraduate TAs
Federal Work-Study & Internships
Special considerations:
Transportation for getting university faculty and students to/from school sites
University calendars (semesters and holidays) and school calendars (professional development days and testing schedules)
+ Conclusion
Universities have enormous resources to be partners for long-term positive change in the community, as well as at the University.
Mobilize talents of faculty, staff, students
Integrate with Core Mission of educational partners
Research, Teaching, and Service
Development of graduates who are actively engaged in collaborative, real-world problem solving
Root in Academically Based Community Service Courses (ABCS) that implement projects and generate and support other outreach efforts
Sustainability achieved through mutually-beneficial approach that is integrated with core mission
