Three models, three schools

In his study of how community organizations have worked to reform urban schools, Mark Warren has considered three programs. Each follows a different model, although there is some overlap:

1. The service model, represented by a the Quitman Street Community School in Newark, N. J., partnering with local organizations to provide after-school programs, health services, adult education, and the like.
2. The development model, represented by Nuevo Camino in Los Angeles, a community organization that has established a charter school.
3. The organizing model, represented by partnership between the Logan Square Neighborhood Association in Chicago and the local public schools.

Warren is careful to qualify the claims he makes for the successes of these schools. In the years after Quitman was reconfigured as a community school, for instance, fourth-grade test scores went up significantly: In 1999 only 24.2 percent were "proficient" on the language arts literacy test; in 2002, 61.8 percent were. By contrast, math scores did not improve during that time. In his 2005 paper, Warren noted, "[C]urrent scores on both tests remain below state averages, and are roughly similar to Newark averages. But adults at the school seem to agree that children are much better behaved than in the past and more focused on learning."¹

¹ Mark R. Warren, "Communities and Schools : A New View of Urban Education Reform," Harvard Educational Review, 75, 2, Summer, 2005.