Community Support of Schools: What Kind and with what Success?

Among currently popular education reform ideas are school-community partnerships that link the educational mission of the school with the needs of the whole child, their families, and the broader community. However, a review of the research reveals diverse partnership models. To develop clarity and advance research on this reform agenda, we have developed a typology of four categories organized from the least to the most comprehensive: Family and Interagency Collaboration, Full- Service Schools, Full-Service Community Schools, and a Community Development Model. In this paper, we explain the four partnership models and the empirical evidence of successes and challenges for each.