Institute for Educational Leadership - IEL - School-Community Partnerships in Support of Student Learning: Taking a Second Look at the Governance of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program









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School-Community Partnerships in Support of Student Learning:
Taking a Second Look at the Governance of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program

Year Two findings and Recommendations
Year Two Findings	Recommendations
Grantee efforts have been highly project-oriented. Meeting grant requirements has left grantees with little time or incentive to develop more comprehensive, long-range, community-school strategies. Regardless of the composition of 21st CCLC partner-ships, when disputes arise, authority and accountability reside with the school district, as the grantee and lead agency. Cross-sector groups are advisory and do not make binding policy/program decisions. Partners at both the community and site level primarily provide services and give advice. Site-team recommendations made by partners are often influential, but most teams do not have the staff support or community leadership necessary to develop integrated change strategies or to sustain successful approaches. At the community level, formal, cross-sector oversight bodies created expressly for the 21st CLCC grant have functioned weakly. There is evidence that communities, which already have a strong collaborative culture, en-gage in ad hoc efforts among acknowledged stakeholders and established coalitions are more likely to move toward collaborative governance and to capitalize on the long-term potential of the 21st CCLC initiative. Grantees are wisely tying 21st CLCC activities to direct improvement in school achievement but are not emphasizing their impact on interim indicators like improved attendance, behavior, and parent involvement that are necessary to create the conditions that lead to increased school achievement. Developing parent leadership and community capacity is not a first order priority despite the potent, positive effect engaged parents have on school climate and parent-staff relationships. Complex political, socio-economic, and institutional factors, including racial, regional, and ethnic divisions-the silent issues-have affected the development of 21st CCLC in all four communities and must be addressed.	Continue to request Congress to approve five-year grant authority for the U.S. Department of Education to use in funding subsequent 21st CCLC grant competitions. Give priority to applicants with proven collaborative capacity. Build technical assistance for site and community teams into existing and future 21st CCLC grants and expand ongoing efforts by technical assistance providers and local intermediaries. Work with communities to establish interim indicators of academic success like attendance, behavior, and parent involvement, but help them stay focused on long-range improvement in school-wide achievement. Improve local capacity and community support by increasing leadership and skills training for parents and grass roots leaders and by increasing their participation on site teams and community-level oversight groups. Encourage grantees to collect data and to communicate information strategically. Develop grant materials and technical assistance that emphasize the 21st CCLC initiative as a funding stream with the capacity to create comprehensive systems of academically excellent and financially sustainable community schools.

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