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Community Schools Insights

An Opportunity to Catalyze Transformational Change for Schools and Communities

2023Expanded Learning & Student Supports

Summary

GPSN spoke with school leaders, LAUSD officials, and experts to compile best practices and recommendations for advocates and schools looking to adopt or expand the community school strategy.

Key Findings

  • Research shows community schools can help close achievement gaps, improve academic outcomes, increase graduation rates, and create better school climates.
  • Return on investment: $15 in benefits for every $1 spent on school-based wraparound services, and $7 for every $1 spent on a community school coordinator salary.
  • The LAUSD Community Schools Initiative has funded and supported 55+ schools across four cohorts since 2017, with a goal of 70 total by 2025.
  • California invested over $4 billion in community school grants via the CCSPP ($3B in 2021, $1.1B in 2022), extending funding through 2031.
  • Early-cohort results: attendance improved 4%, absenteeism decreased 8%, DIBELS scores improved 6% on average (grades 1-2), volunteer applications increased 370%.
  • Mendez High School reached a 93% graduation rate by 2022 with zero expulsions since 2011.

Methodology

Interviewees from community school efforts at the school-site and district level provided expertise for this brief.

Read the Full Report

Get the complete analysis, data, and sources in the full PDF.
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Report Highlights

The sections below pull out the major points from the full report — the data, the examples, and the context behind the findings.

The Community Schools Landscape

$2.69B
minimum of California’s CCSPP funds earmarked for establishing and expanding community schools
$250K
per LAUSD community school in annual district funding committed through 2025–26
80%
minimum share of high-need “unduplicated” students the state prioritizes for grants
34%
of first-three-cohort LAUSD schools felt they had transformed integrated student supports
THE FOUR PILLARS

A community school is both a place and a set of partnerships between the school, its community, and local service providers such as nonprofits or government agencies — designed to move beyond academics alone and address the out-of-school barriers that limit students. The Learning Policy Institute frames the model around four pillars: expanded and enriched learning time and opportunities, integrated student supports, collaborative leadership and practices, and active family and community engagement.

A Longstanding L.A. Model, Now at Scale

Community schools are not new to Los Angeles. One of the first traces to the Los Angeles Education Partnership’s work in 2008, and Proyecto Pastoral helped launch a community school at Mendez High School in Boyle Heights in 2010. What began as single-school efforts has grown into a large-scale initiative through layered federal, state, and local investment.

The district formalized the approach in 2017, when the Board of Education passed “Embracing Community Schools Strategies” and stood up a Community Schools Implementation Team. In 2019, LAUSD committed $150,000 per school for as many as 20 schools in an inaugural cohort; a 2021 resolution set a goal of 70 community schools by 2025; and the 2023 collective bargaining agreement with UTLA committed $250,000 in annual funding per school through the 2025–26 school year. Sustaining that momentum, leaders stress, means planning for a patchwork of public and private funding from the very start.

Bright Spot: Mendez High School

The turnaround

Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez High School in Boyle Heights was one of the first schools in the LAUSD initiative, building on grassroots community investment that predated it. In its early years, partners focused on attendance, graduation, and academics — a struggle at the time. As of 2022, the graduation rate reached 93%, up from 66% in 2011. The college-going rate climbed from 47% in 2015 to between 58–60% from 2018 to 2021, and the school has recorded zero expulsions since 2011.

93% graduation rate (2022)
The model

Becoming a district community school gave Mendez a full-time coordinator and more resources to reach distinct student populations — from a wellness center that opened in 2022 and a new parent center to restorative justice, immigration support, and a full arts program. Community partners including Promesa Boyle Heights, Enki Health Services, Alta Family Services, and InnerCity Struggle supplement mental-health care and youth leadership. In 2022, 88% of Mendez staff reported regularly teaching social-emotional skills, versus 73% of LAUSD teachers overall, and 61% of Mendez students say students have a voice in school decisions, compared with 50% districtwide.

88% of staff regularly teach SEL (vs. 73% districtwide)

What’s added to the school and climate since we’ve become an [LAUSD] community school is…having more resources to support the different student populations.

Community School Coordinator at Mendez

For Schools and Advocates Adopting the Model

  1. Plan for funding sustainability from the very start, documenting trends, needs, and successful programs early — many of the metrics that make schools competitive for grants already live in a school’s Local Control and Accountability Plan.
  2. Braid funding sources, leveraging the Partner Matching Fund, Student Equity Needs Index, School Innovation funds, and existing categorical dollars alongside CCSPP and district commitments.
  3. Invest in a dedicated, full-time community school coordinator to anchor partnerships and integrate student supports — research finds a $7 return for every $1 spent on a coordinator’s salary.
  4. Build deep, trusting relationships with partners, families, and students, and stay willing to try new approaches and evolve when a program is not meeting community needs.
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