It's time to think differently about how we educate Oklahoma children. Community schools would help • Oklahoma Voice

Oklahoma’s dismal bottom 10 rank in education outcomes highlights a need to think differently about how we’re educating our children who continue to struggle with academic performance, chronic absenteeism and emotional and behavioral issues.

It’s time for our education leaders to take a hard look at the evidence-based benefits that come from increased investments in the community school model.

Community schools provide students with “wraparound services.” They focus on holistic approaches to educating children, understanding that for a child to thrive in school an integrated support system is also needed for their families at home. The model focuses on student and family engagement, collaborative leadership, enriched learning opportunities and integrated support systems.

Fortunately, in part by the pandemic and federal Covid funding, the Federation of American Scientists found that in 2023, “60% of public schools were utilizing a “community school” or “wraparound services model.” That was up from 45% the year prior.

If you think this model won’t work in a state that has an abundance of charter and private schools and is known for perpetually underfunding our public school systems, think again.

Tulsa Union is an example of an Oklahoma public school district that has successfully integrated the model. As one of the earliest adopters, the district received national attention for its student success.

Education expert, David Kirp, wrote in a New York Times opinion piece that contrary to the pressure to focus on rapid academic test score growth, former superintendent Cathy Burden understood that “focusing entirely on academics wasn’t enough, especially for poor kids.”

Instead, Union, which at the time reported 70% of students received free or reduced-price lunches, laid a foundation for meaningful learning by offering a “cornucopia of activities — art, music, science, sports, tutoring — that middle-class families routinely provide.”

Kirp wrote that the district opened its schools early. It helped families access health care. It worked to connect parents with job-training opportunities. It provided clothing, furniture and food to struggling students. It even offered daycare for teen mothers so they could graduate.

U.S. News and World Report now ranks Union High School as one of the nation’s top high schools.  It is over 70% minority, and nearly 50% low-income, but it is basically tied with Oklahoma’s high schools for academic achievement.

Other districts have also experimented with the model.

In 2017, when a bus load of Oklahoma City partners visited Rosa Parks Elementary School, we toured their health center, the “Tinker Lab” for hands-on learning, and their organic gardens built around the theme of “Peace.” The key to success was teamwork. The students selected the crops they wanted to grow and built a kiln in the garden. A teacher created “Wind Wonders” to teach aeronautics.

My favorite story was about the Rosa Parks teacher who rushed out of the building, saying she had to go to Jiffy Lube. The teacher had been trying to track down a parent for a conference and she’d just learned that the mom was about to take her lunch break.

Drawing on Tulsa Union’s success, a scientific consensus, and the work of Linda Darling-Hammond’s Learning Policy Institute regarding the benefits of community schools, a grassroots movement created the David R. Lopez Community School at Edgemere.

Despite its great success, Oklahoma City School Public Schools shut it down during the implementation of its Pathway to Greatness plan.

In spite of that setback, I see the community school model as being one that could increase our academic outcomes by acknowledging a holistic model is needed for our children — and their families — to thrive in a post-pandemic landscape.

But in order to achieve greatness, we’d need visionary leadership. We need leaders who are patient enough to lay the groundwork today in hopes of netting substantial gains years down the road.

The model won’t succeed if our leaders are looking for a short-term, easy political victories and immediate results because wraparound services are more expensive and take considerable resources to get off the ground.

I’m hoping we have some visionary education leaders.

Because I don’t see a path forward for improving the academic and social outcomes for low-performing schools until we commit to implementing community schools statewide.