First-Ever California Community Schools Empower Summit
On Friday, June 16, over 1,000 teachers, students, community partners, and education leaders from across California came together in San Francisco for the first-ever California Community Schools Empower Summit.
Attendees spent the day learning from each other, networking, and being inspired to transform educational outcomes for public school students.
The Community Schools Summit offered networking, workshop, and planning opportunities for California educators, community partners and students.
Hosted by the State Transformational Assistance Center (S-TAC), a California Department of Education-funded coalition led by the Alameda County Office of Education (ACOE) in partnership with Californians for Justice, the National Education Association (NEA), and the UCLA Center for Community Schooling, the Summit featured 47 breakout sessionscentered around four key values: Shared Decision Making and Participatory Practices; Powerful, Culturally Proficient and Relevant Instruction; Racially-Just and Restorative School Climates; and Assets-Driven and Strength-Based Practice.
“The Summit’s programming intentionally emphasized the defining vision for community schools: equitable outcomes for students who have been historically underserved by the public education system, inclusionary practices that bring new voices to the table, and partnerships with other agencies and community-led organizations because schools can and should be at the heart of a dynamic, vibrant neighborhood,” said Alameda County Superintendent of Schools Alysse Castro.
“Events like the Summit bring people together to get energy from one another and, having met colleagues from different parts of California, they leave with a sense of being part of a greater initiative,” said Karen Hunter Quartz, Director of the UCLA Center for Community Schooling. “As a researcher, I’m excited to see us thinking about different ways to measure the success of this work and what local communities value, and how to lift that up as evidence that community schools are making a difference.”
Community schools are public schools designed to increase equitable student learning outcomes by addressing the conditions for teaching and learning, and centering community, family, and student engagement.
A community school brings services such as integrated health, mental health, social services, and expanded learning opportunities onsite by partnering with education, county, and other nonprofit entities.
“This is the first time that I’ve seen NEA and the California Teachers Association (CTA) put these sorts of resources into supporting the implementation of this truly transformational system,” said Grant Schuster, President of the Anaheim Secondary Teachers Association. “We’re lifting up voices that haven’t been heard from in the past, and focusing on instruction and supporting students, their families and communities to build schools they all deserve.”
In community schools, students, families, and community members are embraced as full partners in every aspect of decision-making that affects the conditions for teaching and learning.
Student advisory was critical to the Summit’s development, with youth leaders serving as the event’s MC, one of the keynote speakers, workshop facilitators, as well as sharing powerful testimony during an afternoon panel session.
Student leaders spoke on their classroom experiences, the importance of student voices and shared power, and the opportunity for community schools to address issues stemming from systemic racism. Parent leaders also shared their experiences navigating the educational system and helping to establish positive relationships in schools.
Kejuan Montgomery, a rising senior at Cabrillo High School in Long Beach Unified School District, is part of a Californians For Justice-led school design team with fellow students, staff and parents focused on addressing equity and improving school community and students’ sense of belonging.
Student and parent panelists offered perspectives on how to improve CA public schools.
“While being on the design team, we struggled with racism at the school. So we decided to create a podcast to spread awareness and shift anti-Black narratives and uplift student voice and student-led efforts at school,” said Montgomery. “We have a lot of clubs on campus, and we launched the Black Student Union at the school - we made it happen! That brought me joy. And the club is not only open to Black students, it’s open to everyone, including teachers. We want to see connections across race and identity. We want to be connected as a school community.”
The California Department of Education (CDE) has invested over $4 billion in the community schools model through the California Community Schools Partnership Program (CCSPP), an initiative designed to accelerate efforts to reimagine community schools in ways that are aligned with the California Community Schools Framework. Many of the Summit’s attendees were from grantee educational agencies.
“We were thrilled to offer a wide range of presentations and abundant networking opportunities that provided attendees with ready-to-use ideas and tools they could take back to their schools and colleagues doing similar work in their geographic regions,” said Dr. Nora Zamora, Executive Director of the Whole Child Programs Department, Alameda County Office of Education. “We heard from participants that they were inspired to consider innovative, culturally-relevant and asset-based strategies to better serve their students and communities.”