Our Solution

Community involvement with schools creates opportunities for raising more successful students. By increasing the number of programs that create a school-community partnership, schools can create a sense of community within the school, therefore increasing student attendance and involvement.

For example, a local program and policy implemented by Multnomah County, Oregon, is the Schools Uniting Neighborhoods Initiative. The policy provides certain community schools with different programs such as After School activities, quality instruction, links to food, shelter, and help with energy bills (multco.us). In addition, the school provides a guide to several resources to connect families to important resources. The program also includes adult education and recreation, as well as parent and family activities.

By ensuring that parents are committed partners in their children’s education, school-community programs are more likely to be successful. Parents must make sure their children are attending school. However, there are parents who struggle with issues such as food insecurity, child care, inability to help their kids with homework. Schools must be able to provide support for these parents to ensure that the issues are not passed on to their children.

By increasing the number of programs that connect families to the school, schools can improve student achievement. Often, low-achieving schools lack choice of involvement, meaning that students are not willing to go to school, but instead forced to. By building a sense of community, we can improve student participation and increase productivity. Some programs are not expensive, such as a back-to-school program or an activity fair. These programs can become quite effective in creating a sense of community as it increases student interaction, and peers can get to know each other better (3 Ways to Promote Equity). Several organizations such as The New Teacher Project and Learning Forward look towards possible solutions to improve student participation in classrooms and overall improve school systems. Other education organizations aim to improve school equity, such as The Education Trust (The Education Trust). Programs must be discussed with the School Board to agree upon a program that will satisfy the aforementioned goals.

There are several programs that schools across the country have adopted, such as childcare before and after school, that are very costly. Providing take-home food bags for food-insecure families on the weekends can cost the school districts large sums of money. Although childcare is not provided, the community schools of Multnomah county provide useful information such as links to food and shelter, free meal sites, and health services. Providing resources to the community about where to locate certain needs like food and shelter are essential to improving a community. Creating these lists of resources is cheap, but can significantly help many families.

Certain students may struggle with issues outside of schools such as drug abuse and a lack of safety in their neighborhoods. Therefore, afterschool activities such as internships or sports may prevent students from engaging in dangerous behavior. Keeping students entertained and engaged in school activities will ensure that they are kept out of the streets.

Policymakers have an important role in creating policies that could be implemented at a statewide level (edweek.org). Programs that could be implemented include making sure that schools feel safe and comfortable in their communities, funding after-school programs such as sports and YMCA for all students. Overall, the goal is to make sure that students are safe and that they look forward to attending school, which will improve their academic experience and allow them to become better educated and improve their socio-economic standing in later life.

This community-building program will improve students' participation at school, and give them a sense of belonging. This will make the children not feel forced to go to school, but actually want to attend and participate in school. When kids go to school and learn the information, their test scores will quickly improve and will allow them to become more educated.

In 1946, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In article 26 of the Declaration, the basic human right to education is stated. The article states that education shall be free at fundamental levels and that parents have the right to decide what kind of education may be given to their children. (un.org)

In the Constitution of the United States, education is not mentioned as a fundamental right. However, the 10th amendment of the Constitution states, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people" (Constitution). Therefore, it is the states' governments' responsibility to ensure the right to education. Through funding schools and creating programs that must be implemented at a statewide level, the states' governments have the responsibility to ensure that education across their state is equal and that certain standards are met.

The 14th amendment section 1, declares “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” (Constitution). Considering that education is a basic human right, the government must ensure that students have equitable access to education, regardless of where they live. The federal government is responsible for preventing educational deprivation and ensuring students have equal access to resources as it is evident that educational equity has not yet been achieved in our country.

In a 2016 court case reviewed by the US Court of Appeals, Gary B. v. Snyder, the judges came to a decision that the students' rights were violated as a result of a lack of funding in Detroit schools. (Hechinger Report). The judges concluded that the students' basic rights to education were violated. Although the ruling does not address the inequalities between wealthier schools and low-funded schools, the ruling sets a minimum standard that public schools must meet; a chance at foundational literacy.

Therefore, there is a role for local, state, and the federal government in tackling the issue of educational inequity. As many local communities lack the resources to resolve the problem on their own, the states and federal government must be responsible for implementing the solution as well. The federal government has the power to implement certain school-community programs at a federal level, which will increase the partnership between school districts and their respective communities nationwide. Some programs are essential and come at a low cost for the school districts (edweek.org).

We selected this solution because it is the most cost-effective solution and allows for improvement in many different fields because of how broad it is. Community-building programs have been proven to help improve the quality of schools and increase the amount of involvement with families.

Education is important as it provides basic skills such as reading, writing, and other cognitive skills. The ladder to success depends greatly on education as it is the gateway to opportunity.

If students and parents do not see the value of an education and want to take advantage of the opportunities presented to them, they will not be able to reap the full benefits of programs designed to tackle educational inequity. The first step in solving this problem is forging relationships with the communities that are underserved so they will be willing participants in future endeavors.