Wraparound Student Supports
In order to help all students succeed, our nation must provide supports and opportunities that extend beyond the classroom to address the many and varied needs students bring with them to school. Because of their centralized location in the community, schools are an ideal place to house and coordinate access to a host of wraparound supports for students and their families, including health services, socio-emotional supports, tutoring, afterschool programs, pre-kindergarten, job training, English classes and more
The Latest on Wraparound Student Supports
One of the many insightful picket signs from the successful 2012 Chicago teachers' strike read, "together we bargain: alone we beg." That important lesson doesn't apply only to teachers, but to everyone who wants to improve their public schools.
In that spirit, several cities have developed community and labor partnerships that are working on collective community bargaining platforms for local change that goes beyond teacher salary and school day hours. These alliances translate into community power.
Early education funding, community schools, changing zero tolerance policies, and even banking foreclosure reform are among the issues community and labor groups are uniting around and scoring big wins. Across the country, parents, students and educators are discovering the power they have when they build a common vision and work together to make it a reality.
We discussed effective collaborations and strategies used by teachers unions and education justice groups led by parents, students and community members to achieve substantive outcomes for students and communities in Chicago. We also explored the broader implications for community and labor partnerships to address education reform, as well as the racial and economic justice issues that impact a student’s opportunity to learn.
In collaboration with our grantee Southern Echo, the Schott Foundation has created an infographic sketching out some key opportunities in ESSA to move the cause of education justice further and to help ensure that schools and districts are held accountable to a much better-rounded and more holistic evaluation of their performance than before.
The overuse of suspensions in Massachusetts schools is harming educational opportunities for all students, but with the burden impacting black students and students with disabilities more than other groups, according to a study released by the Center for Civil Rights Remedies and supported by the Schott Foundation. The study is the first ever to quantify the school-level days of missed instruction due to discipline, reporting both the black/white gap and the impact on students with disabilities. The report advocates that the state adopt "days of lost instruction" as an accountability measure.
A week after the 2016 election, activists, policymakers, philanthropic leaders and scholars came together at the Boston Public Library to reflect and strategize how to pursue educational & social justice after Trump's victory.
Schott is pleased to release our latest series of infographics, this time focusing on the barriers facing Black girls in our public schools. Only through using both a race and gender lens can we see — and fix — the unique systemic problems that Black girls must deal with on a daily basis.
Unfair discipline practices. Disinvestment from curriculum. Lack of supports for girls who face familial responsibilities. High rates of exposure to sexual harassment and violence. Lack of resources for counseling and addressing trauma.
These are barriers that should — and must — come down. And only through grassroots organizing can we win the change needed to ensure that all our children have an opportunity to learn and succeed in both classroom and community.
In February 2015, the Schott Foundation for public education released the 2015 edition of its biennial report on public education and black male students. Watch (and share!) this short animation about the report. Read the full report here.