Sharing Stories
What are Community Schools?
This new animated explainer from the Partnership for the Future of Learning is a tool for anyone advancing Community Schools. Community schools are public schools that partner with stakeholders to create the conditions students need to thrive. (Now available in Spanish!)
MoreA Strong & Diverse Teaching Profession
Diverse, prepared, and supported pre-K-12 educators are the cornerstone of advancing student-centered, deeper learning and the focus of local, state, and national work of many within the Partnership’s network. Also see our Teaching Profession Playbook, developed by Learning Policy Institute, Public Leadership Institute, and many partners in our network. These stories support the needs, ideas, and solutions covered in the playbook.
Community Power
Teaching Partnerships in Community Schools
Find out how teaching partnerships work in a real Community School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Community Learning Center Institute’s neighborhood network of partners brought in Cincinnati’s first poet laureate, Pauletta Hansel, to forge connections with students around writing as a way to explore their identities and interests.
MoreCommunity Power
Teaching Partnerships in Community Schools
Find out how teaching partnerships work in a real Community School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Community Learning Center Institute’s neighborhood network of partners brought in Cincinnati’s first poet laureate, Pauletta Hansel, to forge connections with students around writing as a way to explore their identities and interests.
MoreRacial Equity
CRE Stories: Seen in the Classroom
Aaron Harris, a New York City public school teacher, shares his experiences as a teacher of color in the classroom, and how race and ethnicity inform the role educators play in their students’ lives.
MoreRacial Equity
Recruiting, Supporting, and Retaining Teachers and Principals of Color
Highlights from a panel discussion on recruiting, supporting, and retaining teachers and principals of color. From the Research & Revolt for CRE Conference, organized by Education Justice Research & Organizing Collaborative (EJ-ROC). October 6, 2019.
MoreScience of Learning
Kim Burnim - Keeping the Promise of Public Education
Educators are some of children’s first role models. Kim Burnim shares how her daycare teacher, Ms. Chandler, not only inspired her love for reading but led her to give back to the next generation as a Kindergarten teacher herself.
MoreScience of Learning
Jeffery Cole on Today's Students, Tomorrow's Teachers
“It’s a mentorship program designed to support personal and professional growth.” Hear from Today’s Students, Tomorrow’s Teachers Alumnus, Jeffery Cole.
MoreScience of Learning
Leah Juelke, Language Arts Teacher
Leah Juelke, a 9th to 12th grade language arts teacher in Fargo, North Dakota supports immigrant youth to learn English and share their personal journeys.
MoreRacial Equity
CRE Stories: Raising a Critically Conscious Teaching Force
Paul Forbes and Natalie Zwerger work to develop individual school and district-wide understandings of race, power, and privilege.
MoreRemodeling Education
Hinds Community College and Delta State University 2+2 Program
Teacher preparation programs can also increase recruitment efforts by partnering with community colleges to create degree-articulation agreements. For rural communities, which are often far from a four-year university, local community colleges can support the teacher pipeline through innovative programs that leverage these articulation agreements.
MoreSchool Funding
Dear Educators, Don’t Quit!
A heartfelt message by teachers for teachers. We share in this struggle together. Don’t quit, remain positive, and continue to make connections with your students. You’ve got this.
MoreRacial Equity • Remodeling Education
Danielle's Story
Community schools are essential for kids facing poverty and trauma, says elementary teacher and National Education Association (NEA) member Danielle Harris.
MoreScience of Learning
Cynthia Tong teaches social studies through embodied lessons.
Cynthia Tong, an 8th grade social studies teacher in Ewa Beach, Hawaii connects students to history and social studies through movement and embodied lessons.
MoreRacial Equity
CRE Stories: Being Culturally Responsive as a White Teacher
When Erin Dunlevy left her hometown in suburban New Jersey to teach in the South Bronx, she was shocked to see a line of 2,500 students wrapped around the school building waiting to pass through the only operational metal detector on campus.
MoreEquitable, High-Quality Public Education
We’re amplifying the work of individuals, organizations, schools, and systems that are making learning rigorous, relevant, engaging, and available for each and every student. These films tell their stories.
Remodeling Education
Youth Story Campaign for Deeper Learning in Public Education
Youth leaders are championing a change in how people talk about and support public education: from viewing diverse curricula as divisive to recognizing it as a cornerstone of a high quality education, and from defunding public schools towards truly valuing them as vital spaces at the heart of our communities.
MoreRemodeling Education
Youth Story Campaign for Deeper Learning in Public Education
Youth leaders are championing a change in how people talk about and support public education: from viewing diverse curricula as divisive to recognizing it as a cornerstone of a high quality education, and from defunding public schools towards truly valuing them as vital spaces at the heart of our communities.
MoreRemodeling Education
What are Community Schools?
This new animated explainer from the Partnership for the Future of Learning is a tool for anyone advancing Community Schools. Community schools are public schools that partner with stakeholders to create the conditions students need to thrive. (Now available in Spanish!)
MoreCommunity Power
Community Schools Story Map
A new Community Schools Story Map has just launched from the Partnership for the Future of Learning — an interactive map of stories about community schools and the impact they’re having across the U.S. The featured stories paint a picture of the current landscape of the community schools movement and how community schools strategies can work in diverse regions at various stages of implementation. This map can be used by districts, legislators, and network partners who are interested in sharing in the possibility and potential of community schools.
MoreRemodeling Education • School Funding
Spend It On Schools
Compare federal expenditures and investments with real costs of improving our public education system using this interactive tool. Choose how you’d prioritize education as a pathway for all young people to reach their full potential.
MoreCommunity Power • Racial Equity
Kings and Queens
Kings and Queens is an exploration of inequity and a view into resilient communities on the south side of Chicago. Learn more about the issues in the film and get engaged at ourkingsandqueens.com.
MoreRacial Equity • Remodeling Education
Reimagining the Classroom
Selectively overlooking parts of human history and culture limits both our individual and collective potential. Brian Williams of Georgia State University shares his powerful story of how disenfranchisement in the classroom motivated his journey to become an equity-centered educator.
MoreRemodeling Education
Schools that Work for Us
Hearing Youth Voices, a youth-led social justice organization invented the “Schools that Work for Us” framework for thinking comprehensively about school transformation and what needs to be taken down and what needs to be (re)built in order for schools to be sites of true growth, development, and freedom for Black and Brown young people.
MoreRacial Equity
History and research have shown that race, even more than class, remains an indicator that determines disparities in school success, discipline, and a variety of educational and life outcomes. We’re amplifying the voices of those working to address racial inequities to show how public schools continue to be weakened by the historic racism and inequity and what communities and schools are doing together to make things better.
Community Power • Racial Equity • School Funding
A ROSe in LA
In Los Angeles, failure to fully fund Title I denies students more than $900 million a year. For students and educators at Susan Miller Dorsey High School in South-Central Los Angeles, this is an everyday reality.
MoreCommunity Power • Racial Equity • School Funding
A ROSe in LA
In Los Angeles, failure to fully fund Title I denies students more than $900 million a year. For students and educators at Susan Miller Dorsey High School in South-Central Los Angeles, this is an everyday reality.
MoreRacial Equity • Remodeling Education
The Pushouts
For decades we’ve heard about America’s “dropout crisis.” Meet Dr. Victor Rios, a high school “dropout” and former gang member turned bestselling author and professor. Rios argues for a shift in the way we understand the problem. Filmed over more than 25 years, The Pushouts weaves Rios’s inspiring pushout-to-professor narrative with stories from YO!Watts, a youth center serving 16-24 year olds who are out of school and out of work.
MoreRacial Equity
A Real Crime
180: A Real Crime puts a human face on the issue of zero tolerance policies, and on the school-to-prison pipeline. It ends with a clear signal to the solutions available to us, if we reframe the way we think about issues of discipline and student support in U.S. schools.
MoreCommunity Power • Racial Equity • School Funding
Better Days are Coming
Better Days are Coming is a call to action. It is a call to Congress to fully fund Title I. All around the country, education activists are taking action to demand public investment in public education.
MorePowerful Communities, Powerful Schools
A real vision for public education is most powerful when it’s based on what’s already happening in public schools and communities. We support and amplify the work of individuals, schools, and communities that are advancing student-centered, deeper learning, and creating positive, equitable learning environments. These films tell their stories.
Remodeling Education
On the Rise: Cincinnati's Community Learning Centers
Community schools are the kind of public schools that families want and children need: coordinated, inclusive, comprehensive, adaptive, responsive, and above all else, equitable. Cincinnati’s Community Schools are called “Community Learning Centers” and this four-film series from MediaSutra and the Partnership for the Future of Learning takes a deep dive into how these schools are working!
MoreRemodeling Education
On the Rise: Cincinnati's Community Learning Centers
Community schools are the kind of public schools that families want and children need: coordinated, inclusive, comprehensive, adaptive, responsive, and above all else, equitable. Cincinnati’s Community Schools are called “Community Learning Centers” and this four-film series from MediaSutra and the Partnership for the Future of Learning takes a deep dive into how these schools are working!
MoreRemodeling Education
Nuestra
Nuestra is a film about the inspiration behind and birth of Nuestra Escuela, Our School – a public school in Caguas, Puerto Rico designed to support students’ mental health. The film addresses issues of death, mental health, and suicide prevention and was released during National Suicide Prevention Month. The film is in Spanish with English subtitles.
MoreCommunity Power
The Power of Tribal History/Shared History
This film from Oregon provides an example of what is possible in public education when curricula reflect the full, rich history of our students’ surroundings, including the voices that have been historically silenced and marginalized.
MoreCommunity Power • Remodeling Education
How a Community School Helps ELLs Succeed
Visit Wolfe Street Academy in Baltimore, MD, a school with more than 76% ELLs, to see how this community school is supporting its students and families through programs and services that include dental screenings, food giveaways, after-school activities, and much, much more.
MoreCommunity Power • Remodeling Education
Oakland SOL
Created over three years of hard work and careful planning by a motivated group of local parents and educators, Oakland SOL paints a different picture of school creation — one that is squarely grounded in the aspirations of the families and children who will comprise its community core.
MoreCommunity Power • Remodeling Education
Community Schools: As Unique as the Children They Serve
What is a community school? A learning hub that brings together academics, health and social services, youth and community development and community engagement under one roof, leading to improved learning, stronger families, and healthier communities. Find out more!
MoreCommunity Power • Remodeling Education
Oakland International High School: 2017 Community School Awardee
MoreCommunity Power • Remodeling Education
Oakland International High School: 2017 Community School Awardee
Oakland International High School educates newly arrived immigrants and refugees as part of the Oakland Unified School District. With students from 30 countries speaking many languages, the focus of the school is on English language acquisition, acculturation, and helping students and families feel at home. As a community school, they work to provide resources throughout the community and beyond to support students and families.
MoreRemodeling Education • Science of Learning
NH Public Schools Rising
New Hampshire is getting national recognition for its public education policies, practices, and outcomes. Why is this small, rural state getting so much attention?
MoreCommunity Power • Racial Equity
#WeVoteNext
As thousands of Americans gathered peacefully in the nation’s capital to “March for Our Lives” and demand an end to gun-related violence in America and investment in healthy communities and schools. Simultaneously, thousands of young people—primarily students of color—did the same in communities across the country- from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, recognizing that the issues and policies around gun violence impacts communities of color is distinct ways. Our young people are demanding change.
MoreDeeper Learning
We believe that all of our schools and systems need to constantly improve and that we can all learn from students and educators who are advancing new and different visions. We also know that students achieve deeper learning outcomes through student-centered approaches and structures. That’s why we’re supporting and amplifying the work of those engaging students in deeper learning—creating and advancing equitable learning environments, and preparing students for effective participation in a diverse democracy and evolving economy.
This section features stories from educators, classrooms, and Ask Why, a four-part series co-produced by ATTN and 180 Studio, designed to invite us to reflect on the assumptions we make about the thing we call “school.”
Science of Learning
Project-Based Learning Series from Edutopia
Project-based learning is a dynamic classroom approach in which students actively explore real-world problems and challenges and acquire a deeper knowledge. A video series is available from Edutopia, informed by research from Lucas Education Research.
MoreScience of Learning
Project-Based Learning Series from Edutopia
Project-based learning is a dynamic classroom approach in which students actively explore real-world problems and challenges and acquire a deeper knowledge. A video series is available from Edutopia, informed by research from Lucas Education Research.
MoreThe 180 Day School YearSchool's out for summer. Why is that, exactly? The answer is in our newest #AskWhy video (produced by 180 Studio) -- it might surprise you.
Posted by 180 Studio on Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Remodeling Education
Ask Why - 180 Days
Why do young people attend 180 days of school each year? Why is the academic year separated by a long summer break that researchers now worry leads to“learning loss”?
MoreRemodeling Education
Ask Why - Carnegie Units
“I am convinced the time has come once and for all to bury the old Carnegie Unit. Further since the foundation I now head created this academic measurement over a century ago, I feel authorized to officially declare the Carnegie unit obsolete.” – Ernest Boyer
MoreRemodeling Education
Instructional Leadership Corps Takes Root in Yuba City
A network is tapping into teacher expertise to help California’s educators teach to these new standards, which focus on developing higher-order thinking skills through student inquiry and problem-solving.
MoreScience of Learning
Ask Why - Grades
It’s hard to imagine school without letter grades and grade point averages in the forefront. But grades just don’t tell the whole story for every student.
MoreScience of Learning
Navigating Our Way
Navigating Our Way offers a vision of what becomes possible for young people when all paths to realizing their potential are respected and supported. This story envisions how children and communities are made all the more vibrant when their education aligns with their passion.
MoreCulturally Responsive Education
The Partnership for the Future of Learning supports Culturally Responsive Education (CRE) as a way of working towards equity in public schools. CRE is a method of rigorous, student-centered learning that cultivates critical thinking and connects curriculum and teaching to students’ experiences, perspectives, histories, and cultures. These films tell the stories of students and teachers creating culturally responsive learning environments. Watch all nine films and learn more at crestories.org.
Racial Equity
CRE Stories: Race Conversations in the Classroom
Jillian McRae and Sam North co-facilitate a course about classism, sexism, and racism that creates space for students to have courageous conversations.
MoreRacial Equity
CRE Stories: Race Conversations in the Classroom
Jillian McRae and Sam North co-facilitate a course about classism, sexism, and racism that creates space for students to have courageous conversations.
MoreRacial Equity
CRE Stories: Being Culturally Responsive as a White Teacher
When Erin Dunlevy left her hometown in suburban New Jersey to teach in the South Bronx, she was shocked to see a line of 2,500 students wrapped around the school building waiting to pass through the only operational metal detector on campus.
More