Transforming Communities Into K-12 Classrooms

In K-12 schools, parents and grandparents frequently volunteer as chaperones, class parents, or mystery readers. These valuable interactions allow children to see adults support their education and allow adults to stay connected to their learners’ school experience. Such moments, however, often involve a light level of curricular engagement and tend to be confined to family members.

More substantive school-community relationships can help support creative, relevant instruction and combat troubling trends in education such as academic disengagement, increased student absenteeism, declining test scores, and high teacher turnover rates. These relationships can boost student outcomes, invigorate instruction, and benefit the entire community.

Putting The Public Back In Education

CommunityShare is an interesting nonprofit organization that has found a way to promote vibrant educational experiences by connecting students and educators to the skills, knowledge, and life experiences of community members.

Josh Schachter, CommunityShare founder and Executive Director, has spent 25+ years as an educator and collaborator on community-based media projects in places ranging from New Delhi to Nigeria. As an educator in schools and out-of-school spaces, he brought his community connections to these real-world learning projects so that his students could learn with and from local community partners. But every time he left a school or program, so did all those connections. Schachter saw the need to connect students and educators to a broader network of connections in a more systemic and sustainable way. An idea was born.

Founded in 2015 in Tucson, Arizona, CommunityShare aims to reimagine the relationship between schools and communities. The organization’s vision is “a world where everyone sees themselves as a learner and educator working together to develop their community’s potential.”

Through CommunityShare, teachers and community partners, from artists to astronauts, co-design enriched learning projects that tap into students’ creativity, cultivate real-world skills, and expose students to available community assets.

Evan Grae Davis, documentary filmmaker and CommunityShare partner, refers to CommunityShare as the “bridge we have been missing between educators and the vast resources of experience and practical knowledge available in the community. It gives people like me an opportunity to invest my years of experience into the next generation of innovators, creators, and leaders.”

Learning Ecosystems And A Human Library

Describing CommunityShare’s approach, Schachter speaks about creating a “human library of wisdom, skills, and lived experience.” CommunityShare’s model “re-imagines our communities as learning ecosystems where community members offer their unique experience in the form of social, cultural, creative and intellectual capital to students and educators,” he shares. It is a seemingly simple idea that makes good use of the resources readily found in any community.

The Learning Policy Institute and the National Education Policy Center affirm the value of Community Schools and enrichment activities that “emphasize real-world learning and community problem solving.” CommunityShare takes these activities from enrichment to enriched instruction.

Enriched, interdisciplinary instruction looks like kindergarteners seeing their own lives and families represented in books while building literacy and storytelling skills with community-based Navajo author Daniel Vandever. Or middle schoolers working with artist Sarah Howard to study the moon and talk through their 3D models of sustainable cities on the moon with astronaut and Senator Mark Kelly. Or Artist Kate Hodges co-teaching Arizona history by “connecting students’ family histories to Arizona’s roots through ceramics, oral history, and music.”

Collaboration and creativity boost learning to help students develop competencies and durable, transferable skills that prepare them for success in school and adult life. They are crucial elements of good instruction. Battelle for Kids promotes a widely accepted model of 21st Century Learning and Innovation Skills for students that include the 4Cs–critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity.

In essence, CommunityShare has added a fifth C: civic-minded.

Understanding CommunityShare’s model can expand people’s thinking about what they can offer to local students. Partnership builds connections to children’s unique home communities by activating the lived experiences and knowledge of community members. Schachter speaks of civic engagement and sharing gifts to something bigger than yourself “in service of learning and in service of the vitality of the community.”

Equipping Students With Community Assets

How does it work? CommunityShare’s digital platform, or human library, matches PK-12 educators in schools and out-of-school settings with community partners–STEM professionals, artists, entrepreneurs, nonprofits, families, and more. Educators post projects and the platform finds community partners whose real-world experiences match the project request. Community partners serve as mentors, project collaborators, content advisors, internship hosts, and more. CommunityShare provides coaching and facilitates communities of practice for organizations developing learning ecosystems.

CommunityShare currently serves thousands of PreK-12 students in seven states by partnering with regional education organizations that become members of CommunityShare’s national network. In Tucson, Arizona, the Pima County School Superintendent’s Office leads regional CommunityShare implementation. Cruces Creatives, a makerspace in southern New Mexico, is another example of a CommunityShare hub.

Such a collaborative approach promotes a shift in teacher practice and mindset. It reimagines schools’ relationships with the community and helps educators learn how to co-design community-engaged learning experiences with students and community partners.

As one CommunityShare educator fellow stated, “I can bring experts into the classroom that have knowledge I don’t have. It has expanded program capacities and given my students access to knowledge that I wouldn’t be able to otherwise provide.”

CommunityShare’s Community-Engaged Learning Framework pulls together curiosity, community, and contributions to develop enriched learning moments for students. While community collaboration boosts learning and builds civic engagement, sponsored projects can expand student exposure and provide a glimpse of future possibilities. One energized sixth-grader declared, “I want to do this more; how do I get to do this more when I get out of school?”

“I used to think that engineering, science, and research were for smart people, and then I discovered that I’m smart people,” shared another participating middle school student who is now studying engineering at Arizona State University on a full-ride scholarship.

Well-designed community-school partnerships can help students stay in school and promote workforce skills. Schools often invite the community inside their doors, but community members may be unsure how to meaningfully engage. With intentional collaboration, educators, parents, and experts across fields can play a role in community-enriched educational experiences that capitalize on community assets and bring the public back into today’s schools.