Problems confronting public schools are reflections of the broader socioeconomic problems facing the neighborhoods where inner-city students live. In contrast to the building-centered approach, community schools provide medical, mental, and social services for students, parents, and neighborhood residents. The broader idea of the community school model is to establish interactive relations between the school and community. Teachers are expected to find creative ways to link curriculum activities to community development issues. Consequently, students learn how to use the skills acquired in the classroom to attack neighbor-hood problems and perform community service.
Community schools connect education reform to community building.
They operate on the assumption that without school reform there can be no neighborhood revitalization and without neighbor-hood revitalization there can be no school reform. The school plays a decisive role in summoning residents to join with others in community building activities. These schools also stress curriculum reform, professional development for teachers, and other features characteristic of charter schools and the reform movement in general. Two things seem certain. All urban neighborhoods might not require community schools, but all inner-city neighborhoods will find them essential to community development.