Community As Text and Test: Learning Where We Live

1
Community As Text and Test Learning Where We
Live

• Presentation by Jack Chin
• Senior Analyst
• Blueprint Research Design, Inc.
• Coalition for Community Schools
• National Forum
• June 23, 2002

2
Weakened Links

•  Schools have tended to distance themselves from
  their local communities. The vital links between
  experience, work, and education have been
  weakened. As a result, schools in many urban and
  rural communities have lost their power as a
  valuable community resource.
• University of Chicago scholars
• John Kretzman and John McKnight

3
Unconnected Change
Classroom
Community
School
District
Ecosystem
4
Integrated Systems
Classroom
School
District
Community
Ecosystem
5
The New 3 Rs
Relationships
Readiness
Relevance
School-linked Services
Community as Text
Community Schools
6
Community as Text

• Provides students with opportunities to connect
  with themselves, their community, and their local
  environment through hands-on, real-world learning
  experiences
• Extends the classroom into the schoolyard, the
  neighborhood, and the eco-region.
• Rooted in the integrated core curricular
  activities of science, social studies,
  communication arts and fine arts,
• Enables students to see learning is relevant to
  their world, to take pride in the place in which
  they live, to connect with the rest of the world
  in a natural way, and to develop into concerned
  and contributing citizens.

7
Five Approaches

• Cultural Studies
• Nature Studies
• Real-World Problem Solving
• Entrepreneurship
• Community Service

8
Powerful Results

• Better student achievement
• Revitalized teaching
• Enhanced youth development
• Increased social capital and citizenship
• Improved environmental stewardship
• Higher quality of life

9
The Real Test

• Getting to know home is the most human and
  necessary of occupations. To give that power of
  observation to students is to give them something
  of infinite value and importance something to
  do for the rest of their lives.
• Ann Zwinger