One piece of the story focuses on the recent evaluation of HCZ. It is worth a read (we have a copy if anyone is interested). Several findings:
- Either the improved charter school alone of the school with community support services is driving improved academic outcomes......but not community supports alone.
- Community support services had a clear impact on math scores at the elementary and middle grades, as well as elementary English/Language Arts. It appears community programs are more impactful on math.
- Communithy programs do help increase student attendance in school, but attendance was not linked to improved academic outcomes.
These findings, along with others, can help inform our work. They complement recent findings from the national model Community Learning Centers in Cincinnati Public Schools that has found we need to focus on acadmeic improvements AND aligned support services in order to get the academic improvements we all desire.
This also informs our discussion as a partnership about what measures to select related to the goal "Every student supported inside and outside school." We need to be sure the measures can be linked up to academic outcomes.
But there is a definite connection between HCZ and our local efforts - Strive partnership, Community Learning Centers, and Place Matters most notably. We could be the place nationally that figures out how to take the comprehesive system of supports from cradle to career to scale......we have the leadership at all levels across the community to do it!
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