Implementation of the New York City Community Schools Initiative
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Developing Community Schools at Scale Implementation of the New York City Community Schools Initiative William R. Johnston, Celia J. Gomez, Lisa Sontag-Padilla, Lea Xenakis, Brent Anderson C O R P O R A T I O N For more information on this publication, visit www.rand.org/t/RR2100 Published by the RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif. © Copyright 2017 RAND Corporation R® is a registered trademark. Cover: Getty Images / asiseeit Limited Print and Electronic Distribution Rights This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited. Permission is given to duplicate this document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions. The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest. RAND’s publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors. Support RAND Make a tax-deductible charitable contribution at www.rand.org/giving/contribute www.rand.org Preface With the launch of the New York City Community Schools Initiative (NYC-CS), New York has joined many other cities to recognize that addressing the social consequences of poverty must be done in tandem with efforts to improve teaching and learning to improve student outcomes. Consistent with a framework advanced by the Coalition for Community Schools, NYC-CS is a strategy to organize resources in schools and share leadership among stakehold- ers so that academics, health and wellness, youth development, and family engagement are integrated into the fabric of each school. New York City is implementing this model at a scale unmatched nationally. In this report, we take stock of the implementation of the NYC-CS as of the 2016– 2017 school year (SY) by analyzing data from the first two full years of program implemen- tation. There are three primary goals for studying the early implementation of the NYC-CS: (1) describe the extent to which the core structures and services of the NYC-CS have been implemented as intended across the 118 schools that were involved in the initiative since its inception, (2) understand how the schools have been developing their capacity in four core areas—continuous improvement, coordination, connectedness, and collaboration—through estimating composite scores that capture schools’ capacity as of SY 2016–2017, and (3) analyze some of the factors that were associated with observed variation in schools’ capacity develop- ment. The findings of this report will inform district decisions regarding the priorities and support needed to sustain the NYC-CS long-term, and they may be useful for other practitio- ners and policymakers interested in developing or refining holistic school-based programs that support students’ and communities’ academic, social, and emotional well-being. A follow-up report on the impact of the NYC-CS on student and school outcomes is set to be released in 2019. This research has been conducted by RAND Education and RAND Health, two research units of the RAND Corporation, under a contract with the New York City Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity. Funding to support the evaluation has been provided by the New York City Department of Education and New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. iii Contents Preface ........................................................................................................... iii Figures and Tables .............................................................................................vii Summary ........................................................................................................ ix Acknowledgments .............................................................................................xv Abbreviations ................................................................................................. xvii CHAPTER ONE Overview of the Community Schools Initiative .......................................................... 1 Defining the Community School Model ..................................................................... 2 Community Schools in New York City ....................................................................... 3 Guide to the Community Schools Implementation Study Report ........................................11 CHAPTER TWO Implementation Evaluation Framework and Methods .................................................13 Framework for Studying Implementation ....................................................................13 School Sites ......................................................................................................14 Data Used in This Report ......................................................................................16 CHAPTER THREE Implementation of Community School Structures and Services .....................................21 CBO Partnerships ..............................................................................................21 Real-Time Data Use ............................................................................................25 Expanded Learning Time ..................................................................................... 28 Family Engagement ............................................................................................ 30 Attendance Improvement Strategies ......................................................................... 36 Mental Health Programs and Services ...................................................................... 38 Conclusions ..................................................................................................... 44 CHAPTER FOUR Community Schools’ Development of the Four Core Capacities .....................................45 Measuring the Four Core Capacities ........................................................................ 46 Variation in Core Capacities .................................................................................. 50 CHAPTER FIVE The NYC-CS at Renewal Schools ...........................................................................53 Implementation Fidelity at Renewal Schools ................................................................53 v vi Implementation of the New York City Community Schools Initiative Complementarity of Community School and Renewal School Strategies .............................. 54 Unique Implementation Challenges at Renewal Schools ...................................................55 CHAPTER SIX A Closer Look: Case Studies of Two Community Schools .............................................59 School A ..........................................................................................................59 School B ......................................................................................................... 64 CHAPTER SEVEN Conclusions and Next Steps .................................................................................71 Understanding Implementation in Community Schools ..................................................71 The NYC-CS and Signs of School Transformation .........................................................72 Implementation Challenges ....................................................................................73 Sustaining Implementation Progress ..........................................................................74 Directions for Future Research ................................................................................75 APPENDIXES A. Summary of Data Sources ............................................................................... 77 B. School Leader Survey ......................................................................................79 C. Mental Health Complementary Survey ................................................................95 D. School Leader Interview Protocol .................................................................... 103 E. Description of Mental Health Programs and Services ............................................ 109 F. OCS Stages of Development Framework ............................................................. 111 References ..................................................................................................... 113 Figures and Tables Figures 1.1. NYC Community Schools Initiative Theory of Change ....................................... 5 1.2. Three-Tiered Model of Mental Health Services ................................................. 6 3.1. Ladder of Engagement ............................................................................32 Tables 1.1. New York City OCS Stages of Development .................................................... 6 2.1. School Demographics .............................................................................15 3.1. Prevalence of Core Services, by School Year ................................................... 28 3.2. Descriptive Statistics on Percentage of Parents Engaged in the Ladder of Engagement Steps .....................................................................33