Community Partnership in Education

This rural community stopped recruiting teachers. They started growing their own instead. Lake County, California was staring down 90+ teacher vacancies across six small rural districts. The conventional playbook said: recruit from cities, offer huge bonuses, compete harder. They tried a different question: "Who better to serve in our schools than our former students?" Instead of chasing teachers who'd likely leave, they launched Teach Lake County - an alternative certification program designed to grow teachers FROM the community. Young people who graduated from local districts. Career changers who already had roots in the area. People who understood the community because they ARE the community. But here's where it gets powerful: In May 2023, we focus grouped with their students. They told us about the disconnect with teachers - the miscommunication, the frustration, the lack of real relationship. We used that feedback to help revamp the Teach Lake County summer training curriculum. We centered it on what students actually said they needed. That fall, we came back to check in. Students didn't know what had changed. But they noticed something: "The new teachers are different than our old teachers." The Teach Lake County teachers weren't just filling vacancies. They were shifting the learning culture in classrooms. This is the "O" in our POWER Framework - Observe and Empathize - in action. When you root solutions in community wisdom (including student voices), you don't just solve problems. You transform culture. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗸𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. 𝗪𝗲 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝘀𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻. Rural education leaders: What would happen if you stopped trying to import solutions and started growing them from within your community instead? ✌🏽 🙏🏽

🌟 Building Healthy Futures in Lowell: A Model for Community Schools Nationwide Education leaders everywhere are asking how schools can address the complex barriers students face — from health access to basic needs to connection and belonging. A new look inside Lowell Public Schools’ Full-Service Community Schools from the Institute for Educational Leadership offers a powerful answer. Since 2015, Lowell has blended and braided a mix of federal FSCS funding, state and district resources, and deep community partnerships to transform eight schools into true neighborhood hubs. Their approach is simple but profound: meet students and families where they are, remove barriers, and uplift the whole child. Here are just a few of the highlights: 🚐 A Mobile Health Clinic making school accessible. By partnering with UMass Lowell and the Lowell Community Health Center, Lowell converted an RV into an on-site health unit — administering over 1,200 vaccinations to 448 students since July. This innovation reduces medical noncompliance, eases pressure on school nurses, and helps families get timely care so students can stay in school. 💬 Integrated mentoring and career readiness. At Sullivan Middle School, Elevate New England offers daily classes focused on civil debate, mentorship, and workforce-ready soft skills — demonstrating what it looks like when student development and academics work hand in hand. 💈 Meeting basic needs to improve lives and academics. From Sullivan’s Husky Kutz in-school barbershop, to student-led laundry rooms at Butler Middle School, to expanding food pantries and community gardens, Lowell is showing how addressing essential needs improves attendance, confidence, and school climate. 🌱 Family-centered supports. Butler Middle School’s Family Resource Hub and community garden ensure families have access to resources and nourishment — reinforcing schools as trusted partners. 📊 Real-time data systems powering student success. Lowell is using a robust early warning dashboard to track attendance, behavior, and academic indicators so staff can intervene quickly, coordinate supports, and map each student’s web of connections. These are not isolated efforts — they are the result of a districtwide commitment to equity, partnership, and community-driven solutions. Schools like Sullivan, Butler, and Reilly Elementary are showing what becomes possible when communities invest in the health, wellness, and futures of their young people. For education leaders looking for models that work, Lowell’s Community Schools are a roadmap: innovative, relational, data-informed, and deeply rooted in the belief that every child deserves to thrive. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eaPB7-Hj #CommunitySchools #EducationLeadership #WholeChild #FSCS #StudentSuccess #LowellPublicSchools

“The school is responsible for the education of our kids!” “The NHS is responsible for our health! “The police are responsible for our safety!” Are they? They have a vital role but not responsibility. I recently listened to the excellent “So, Who Cares Anyway?” podcast with Ruth Germaine and Cormac Russell that reminded me of my time in Glyncoch (my home village where I spent my first 10 years of my community development career), where, on a number of occasions, I was told “It’s the teachers’ fault” for poor education attainment, by both past pupils and parents. If this were true, why were some pupils achieving while others were struggling? Why were different geographical areas doing better, even though they attended the same school and had the same teachers? And, as I mentioned on my episode of the podcast, I was 1 of only 4 from the area to go to university from my year. Why was that? Working alongside david egan and the People and Work Unit we realised that there are three core elements that are fundamental to successful educational attainment… cue the Venn diagram: The institution: School / education department / education system. The individual: Ability / motivation / experience / knowledge / willingness to act. The community: Family / friends / neighbours / geographical community / community of interest. You have very little chance of developing academically if you lack all three of these elements, you have an outside chance if you have one, you have a fair chance if you have two, you have a great chance if you have all three… and whether you have two or three, they are amplified significantly the more they are connected. This is why, when aiming to improve education in Glyncoch, we brought the schools, pupils, and families together as much as possible; youth workers had access to schools, parents learned alongside their children, and community events were held on school premises. So no, the institution isn’t wholly responsible for our education, our health, our care, or our safety. They play a vital role but as individuals we need to take ownership of the situation and have the motivation to act while the support of our peers and community is absolutely essential. As I’ve mentioned previously, communities can provide a vital role in most preventive situations, and the more we do at a preventive stage, the less the delivery stage is overwhelmed. Education, health, care and safety are all complex social challenges where each is like an engine - we need all the components to be working together and in unison for it to work effectively… and that includes individuals, institutions, and communities. As I mentioned in my 2024 TEDx talk “8 Steps to Co-designing with Communities”, we’re now at a stage of crisis with our services, we need go back to the drawing board, and we need to involve people with lived experiences and communities in the co-design of our services. #CoProduction #CommunityPower #SharedPower #CommunityLed

Rethinking EdTech GTM: The Community-Centered Approach Everyone in EdTech talks about district strategy, teacher adoption, and IT approval. But here’s what often gets overlooked: real buying momentum starts in the community, not the district office. Parents, school board members, advocacy groups, and even local journalists shape the perception of your product long before procurement ever evaluates it. In other words—the community is part of your go-to-market motion. And yet, most EdTech marketing is designed for a vacuum: pitch decks for admins, campaigns for teachers, compliance docs for IT… and nothing that speaks to the people who drive trust, funding votes, or media coverage. Here’s the reality: Parents now demand transparency around student data and cost. Board members are increasingly tech gatekeepers, balancing budget, politics, and privacy. Community sentiment (from Facebook groups to local news stories) can accelerate or kill adoption overnight. So, what does a community-centered GTM strategy actually look like? 1️⃣ Map influence, not just org charts. Instead of thinking “K–12 decision-making hierarchy,” think “ecosystem.” Identify the nodes of trust — teachers, parents, board members, and local leaders — who shape perception. 2️⃣ Translate your value into local impact. Don’t just talk about “improving outcomes.” Tie your product to what the community actually cares about: literacy gaps, equity of access, teacher retention, or safe digital learning. 3️⃣ Arm districts with communication tools. Give them clear, ready-to-share parent and community materials — one-pagers, short explainer videos, and transparent privacy summaries. If the district has to write your narrative for you, you’ve already lost control of it. 4️⃣ Leverage authentic advocacy. Celebrate teacher and parent champions publicly. Real stories from real classrooms travel farther than any press release — especially in local news or education groups. 5️⃣ Treat transparency as a GTM lever. Common Sense and CoSN have both found that districts increasingly prioritize vendors with clear privacy documentation and public trust. Leading with transparency doesn’t slow your sale — it accelerates it. The best EdTech growth stories aren’t “top-down” or “bottom-up.” They’re community-out. Vendors that build relationships across the ecosystem — not just inside the procurement pipeline — create a kind of “trust gravity” that pulls districts toward them naturally. 👉 How are you making your GTM motion more community-centered? Have you seen success stories where community trust tipped the scale in your favor?

One of the biggest barriers to meaningful collaboration isn’t just strategy—it’s language. Every sector speaks its own dialect of impact. When we fail to translate value across these boundaries, even the most promising partnerships falter. After a decade building tri-sector initiatives, I’ve observed that successful collaborations depend on our ability to articulate ROI in terms that resonate with each stakeholder at the table. Here’s how to speak the language of impact across sectors: 🔵 CORPORATE: Performance & Long-Term Value For boards and C-suite leaders, impact lives where social commitment meets competitive advantage. ☑️ What resonates: Quantifiable workforce metrics (e.g., increase in employee engagement when aligned with purpose initiatives) ☑️ What resonates: Increased talent retention, brand engagement, and innovation driven by purpose-centered cultures. 🟢 GOVERNMENT: Systemic Efficiency & Scalability Government stakeholders prioritize solutions that codify, streamline, and scale for public benefit. ☑️ What resonates: Institutionalized frameworks (e.g., creation of a city-wide Children’s Savings Account (CSA) program) ☑️ What resonates: Cost-efficiency metrics (collaborative programs reducing implementation costs by 40% compared to traditional approaches) ☑️ What resonates: Demonstrated scalability across jurisdictions (our model has been adopted by 12 municipalities, serving 1.2M residents) 🟠 COMMUNITY: Authentic Empowerment & Access For community partners, ROI is measured through human outcomes, shared power, and economic mobility. ☑️ What resonates: Direct impact metrics (30,000+ students accessing new educational pathways) ☑️ What resonates: Economic mobility indicators (participants experiencing 42% income growth within 18 months) ☑️ What resonates: Representation in decision-making (community-designed solutions with 70% higher adoption rates) When we speak the language of each sector’s priorities, “social impact” transforms from a nice-to-have initiative into a mission-critical asset. This is how we build partnerships that last—and how we create a thriving world for all. Question for my network: Which sector do you operate in, and what impact metrics would resonate most with your stakeholders? Share your thoughts below. #SocialImpact #CSR #TriSectorLeadership #CrossSectorPartnerships #SystemicChange 

I’ve spent 20+ years building CTE and business programs that grew an average of 30% year-over-year… and here’s the truth: Kids aren’t bored because they lack motivation. They’re bored because school doesn’t let them matter. When I started treating high school programs more like MBA programs — bringing in businesses, real challenges, and authentic feedback — everything changed. Classes filled. Students showed up hungry. They failed forward. They became fearless. Communities thrived. And here’s the part everyone in education needs to pay attention to: This is exactly why internship programs are exploding right now. Students want relevance, contribution, and real experience — not worksheets. The Naperville District 203 Career Internship Program is one of the fastest-growing examples of this shift. Students are lining up because they can finally do work that means something. Here’s what I’ve learned building programs like this: 1️⃣ Students crave relevance. 2️⃣ Real-world work beats textbooks by a mile. 3️⃣ Put students into the deep end on day one. 4️⃣ Failure is feedback, not a penalty. 5️⃣ Community partners are rocket fuel. 6️⃣ Parents become your biggest advocates. 7️⃣ Teachers thrive when they coach, not deliver content. 8️⃣ Programs grow when they matter to kids. 9️⃣ Students want to contribute now. 🔟 Learning escapes the classroom or it dies there. If you want programs to grow, give students meaningful work. If you want communities to thrive, open your doors to young talent. Internships aren’t an “add-on” anymore — they’re the heartbeat. Let’s build what’s next. —Peter https://lnkd.in/gprF5ext

Community colleges can be an accessible first stop in a student's journey to earning a four-year degree—saving time AND money—yet the complex transfer process often holds them back.  A study looking at state-by-state transfer rates found some student groups (low-income students, students 25 years or older, Black and Latino students, for example) transfer and complete bachelor’s degrees at uneven rates compared to their peers. We must make the transfer process accessible and equitable so that students of all backgrounds can achieve their goals. The Scholars Program run by UCLA’s Center for Community College Partnerships is doing just that by providing targeted academic, financial, and social support for transfer students in partnership with 17 Southern California community colleges. These programs serve as effective tools for schools to streamline the transfer process, nurture student belonging, and underscore the pivotal role of community colleges as a catalyst for student success.

Well, Corporate Social Responsibility in the Education sector in India has been creating some real impact over the years with 90% retention in girls’ education programmes, digital learning reaching 350,000+ in underserved regions, and more. But here’s what we’re not talking about: 𝐖𝐞’𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐲, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬. Chasing donor visibility over learner needs. Running parallel programmes when we should be strengthening government systems. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒈𝒂𝒑?  Short-term funding cycles that kill sustainability. One-size-fits-all approaches in a country of infinite diversity. Shared recognition and ownership rarely survive project timelines. Here’s what haunts me: Projects end. Funding closes. Communities are left holding the pieces. 𝘞𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘧𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦-𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺. In a recent panel discussion at the #IndianSocialImpactAwards organised by Brand Honchos we discussed all these aspects and together with Mudita Lall, Shweta Punetha, Rupinder Chahal and Gambhir Agrawal concluded that for CSR initiatives in education to create systemic change, we need: 1️⃣ 𝑳𝒐𝒏𝒈-𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒎 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑𝒔, 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒖𝒂𝒍 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒔. Move from transactional to transformational. Stay. 2️⃣ 𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒘𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚 between corporates, NGOs, government, and communities. Impact isn’t something we deliver. It’s something we build together. 3️⃣ 𝑺𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒎𝒔-𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒂𝒄𝒉 to strengthen what’s already there. Embed into government. Let go of parallel ecosystems. The hard question: 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐧𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐞’𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠? 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐚 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞? 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝? That’s the shift that we need to create meaningful impact on the communities we support. Would love to hear your thoughts too... feel free to share them! 😊

The single biggest opportunity we have to transform outcomes for children, young people and communities is to truly confront the fragmentation that defines so much of the way we work! After twenty plus years working across different sectors, I’ve come to believe that fragmentation is the quiet force holding so much progress back. Every time a brilliant initiative stalls, or a policy fails to take root, it’s usually because the responsibility sat in one place when the problem lived across many. That thought was reinforced during our recent Commissioners’ meeting on community cohesion, where our topic was #education. Prof Javed Khan OBE made a point that I believe so strongly. He said that if we truly want to move communities forward, key stakeholders, (schools, health services, police, local authorities etc) should share responsibility for on shared outcomes. For example, imagine if improving school attendance wasn’t just a target for education, but a shared goal for community services, hospitals, councils alike. That kind of collective accountability changes the dynamic entirely. It encourages joint ownership, shared #data, and decisions made with the whole system in mind. The need for it couldn’t be clearer. This year, 1.6 million children in England were persistently absent from school (that’s almost one in four!) Each of those cases represents a complex web of influences: wellbeing, safety, housing, mental health, economic strain. 🗣️No single institution can address that complexity alone. The Department for Education’s latest guidance recognises this, urging schools to work hand in hand with health, police and local partners to tackle attendance challenges together. But the onus shouldn’t just be on Schools alone. (🗣️Teachers cannot be expected to solve everything!!) Across the country, there are place-based partnerships that model this approach, and the results are promising. But they remain small in number. To reach real scale, we’ll need to make this mindset the rule rather than the exception, embedding it in funding models, accountability frameworks and perhaps most cruciallly, as part of a cultural reset. We have to stop this insanity of siloed working and recognise that when systems align around shared purpose, change moves faster, trust grows deeper, and communities thrive in ways that no single sector could deliver alone. 💭 I’d love to hear where you’ve seen this kind of #joinedup thinking and working making a real difference and what it would need to impact more people!

🦷 Redefining Experiential Education: A Sustainable, Funded Model for Community-Based Dental Learning At this year’s American Dental Education Association (ADEA) Business and Financial Administration and Clinic Administration (BFACA) meeting, Rachel Greene (University of Washington) and Dr. Bill Piskorowski (UCLA) presented a compelling roadmap for scaling community-based clinical education (CBCE) — one that’s both financially sustainable and educationally transformative. Their work reminds us that innovation in dental education must go beyond curriculum redesign — it must include funding models, operational logistics, and meaningful community impact. 💡 Funded Model Development Highlights: 1️⃣ Determine a feasible pilot (ideally 3–5 weeks), starting with an elective rotation. 2️⃣ Build a curriculum that maintains patient care continuity while students are away. 3️⃣ Establish clear affiliation and financial agreements between the dental school and outside clinics. 4️⃣ Ensure students have full clinical autonomy, a chairside assistant, and equitable patient access. 5️⃣ Appoint and calibrate external faculty for consistency in evaluation. 6️⃣ Monitor pilot results — and revise based on real data. 7️⃣ Scale once outcomes prove sustainable. 💰 The Financial Framework: Under this model, outside clinics pay the school a per diem fee (plus travel and housing), creating a predictable revenue stream that covers faculty/staff overhead and generates additional institutional income — a true “win-win” for education and service delivery. 📈 The Michigan Model: 20 Years of Impact A powerful example came from the University of Michigan, which has sustained CBCE partnerships for two decades — completing over 862,000 procedures and providing $201.8 million in care to underserved communities between 2004 and 2024. More than just a statistic, this demonstrates how academic–community collaborations can expand access, enrich student experience, and strengthen school finances simultaneously. 🏫 The Bigger Picture: The message was clear — financial sustainability and educational innovation must coexist. As schools face faculty shortages, rising costs, and growing community needs, funded experiential models like these represent a new blueprint for dental education. We must continue to build, test, refine, and scale — ensuring our students learn not just dentistry, but the values of service, adaptability, and innovation. #ADEA #DentalEducation #CommunityDentistry #ExperientialLearning #DentalSchools #HealthEquity #AcademicLeadership #InnovationInEducation #DentalStudents #DentalAcademia #FacultyDevelopment #HigherEducation #BFACA #ADEABFACA