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Moving Beyond ‘Checking the Box:’ Taking Data from Compliance to Curiosity

Community school (CS) practitioners and teams that have a curiosity-centered mindset pull data, gather interest holders, and dig deep on questions about what the data is telling them.

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An illustrated image of a building under construction.

You’re never ‘done’ building your community school

When you take a mindset that recognizes the cyclical nature of community school development, then you are truly digging into and doing the (hard) work of sustaining it.

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When it comes to your needs assessment, do it yourselves

Your needs assessment isn’t just about the product that you create, but about the process of collaboratively looking at data with your team and engaging in conversation with the people most impacted by community school development.

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A pile of buttons that read, "I feel valued and supported at my community school."

The letter: Chronic absenteeism, missed connections, and me

Chronic absence and truancy are serious warning signs. But an automated form letter alone, absent a meaningful connection outside of it, is a lost opportunity at best, and alienation at worst.

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A woman and man sit at a desk with computers. In the backdrop is a whiteboard with a number of sticky notes of various colors stuck to the whiteboard, from orange, pink, and blue. Both people are smiling and in the middle of a discussion.

Don’t just write the grant to write it

CCSPP funding can absolutely set the stage for whole-school transformation, but only if you approach it with an actual plan for transformation.

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What we get wrong about Community School Coordinators and the role they play in CS development

Community School Coordinators are the heart of their school communities, and the heart of our movement to rebuild and transform schools. Here's what we get wrong about their roles in our schools and districts.

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Community organizing is about more than achieving a win

Community organizing is a mindset – a way of seeing the world. More importantly, it is a set of principles that we can use to totally rebuild and transform our schools.

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Our traditional public funding parameters don’t fit rural communities

Right now, our state has no measure that helps us understand how to really support the rich ecosystem of rural communities because the only thing we’re using is a yardstick in a forest. And it’s a problem.

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The CS Essentials Framework wheel with handwritten notes and arrows on it.

The name of a funder does not a community school make

Community schools are not new; they have taken root across the state long before – and alongside – the CCSPP.

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A love letter to planning

If you’re a California Community Schools Partnership Program (CCSPP) grantee, right now you have an almost unprecedented opportunity to build the car BEFORE you drive it.

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