In the past several years, the efforts of a community organizing group, a dedicated group of teachers, an array of community partners, the students, and the parents converged to demand change in East LA-- and to make it a reality.

As Secretary Arne Duncan travels the country on his Back-to-School bus tour, he has refocused his attention on the community schools strategy as a vehicle for implementing a Broader Bolder Approach to Education.

I recently heard a story that explains why the community schools model -- a reform approach I've been touting for about twenty years now -- is so effective at helping children succeed in the classroom.

Richard Carranza, Jan Christensen and John Porter are just a few of the many bold superintendents who are changing children's lives by bringing together the entire community to help their student succeed.

NEW YORK -- Ana Enriquez, 17, did her homework in a rat-infested South Bronx apartment, where she shared a bed with her mother and lived with five ot...

We most unfortunately live in a nation full of potential advocates and influencers who suffer from a "paralysis of analysis".

At a time when some education reformers argue that only high test scores matter, the rise of the community school movement offers a crucial counterpoint.

The Expanding Learning and Afterschool Project is a 50-state initiative that gives educators easy and direct access to research and promising practices that can help them use time beyond the conventional school day most effectively for learning.

Recent reports suggest that the "both-and" approach of community schools - effective teachers, more opportunity and support -- is a great strategy for helping kids succeed.

When there are distractions in the classroom and in children's lives, teachers have a harder time doing their job. That's not an excuse, that's reality.

By making schools the hubs of their communities and engaging a range of partners with expertise and resources that schools do not have, community schools support students' needs and boost their learning.

There comes a time when many fine examples of how to improve learning and life conditions for our children and young people hits a ceiling. They cannot get to scale, because as exemplary as they may be, they have an "isolated impact" on the issues.

Extending the school day, like schooling and like school reform, must be a story of addition and multiplication, not subtraction and division.

While we may hesitate about declaring that children have the "right" to read, what we cannot dispute is that it is our shared responsibility to create the conditions that enable them to read.

The assumption is that if students are passing tests then they must be learning. That's a very dangerous assumption.

In the midst of Duncan's "New Normal," community schools make more sense than ever.

Like our congested highways, bursting water pipes and corroding bridges, decaying schools are a reminder that our prosperity as a nation is jeopardized by physical neglect.

Our schools already reflect our communities. Are they open, inviting true community centers, or are they closed off and reserved solely for that 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. education slot?