Community schools are an example of a comprehensive education reform initiative that brings communities together to address many of the pressing challenges facing education today. Unlike traditional schools, community schools serve as a hub, engaging educators, families, and community partners. Open to the community during evenings, weekends, and…

Young adults today are the least happy demographic group, departing from a long-established U-shaped relationship between life satisfaction and age in many countries worldwide. The longstanding U-curve reflects the unhappiness and stress that most people experience in the midlife years as they juggle financial and family constraints while both the…

Community schools serve as the hubs of their communities by providing wraparound services and enrichment opportunities to students and families in need. If children lack eyeglasses, dental care, mental health counseling, school supplies, winter coats, sufficient food, or stable housing, a community school would connect students and families to…

According to Randi Weingarten, attacks on public education are not new. The difference today is that the attacks are intended to destroy it. Over the last three years, legislators in 45 states proposed hundreds of laws placing public schools at the center of culture wars: laws seeking to ban books from school libraries; laws restricting what…

Multicultural and culturally sustaining approaches to education help educators act on two essential concepts: that each student is unique and that uniqueness is central to the academic and social development of every student. Language is a key aspect of this uniqueness, and because language is integral to culture and identity, understanding…

Freedom is a basic human desire. It is a central idea behind historic human rights movements and a sign of human flourishing. In this article, the author highlights five freedoms that are central to doing mathematics: (1) The freedom of knowledge; (2) The freedom to explore; (3) The freedom of understanding; (4) The freedom to imagine; and (5) The…

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) launched a national Back to School for All (B2S) campaign in the summer of 2021. The B2S campaign was a concerted effort by teachers and staff across the United States to tackle barriers to safe, in-person learning and to ensure that all students feel welcome. The campaign served as a catalyst for bringing…

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has launched a yearlong campaign, Real Solutions for Kids and Communities, that rejects the toxic attacks against public education in favor of working to strengthen public schools, making real solutions for kids a national priority. This article lays out five essential solutions for meeting kids' needs:…

Imagine a school community in which all children and youth have equal opportunities to thrive. Social and cultural markers no longer negatively predict young people's academic, social, and emotional outcomes or their life chances. This is the community the authors aspire to build. Their work necessarily focuses on both youth and adult social and…

This article shares the experience of three teachers, who teach and learn at thriving community schools in San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles. Their experiences challenge traditional ideas about what it means to learn and be a teacher. In their schools, teaching is a community effort where all the adults--teachers, social workers, parents,…

This article chronicles a community coalition's efforts to revitalize a "failing" school, the Walter H. Dyett High School in Chicago. It tells the story of one group of people fighting to keep a school open and, moreover, to see it reflect their vision for their community and their children's education. We see that this community's…

Historically, teachers unions have played a special role in strengthening democratic cultures, and they are urgently called on to do so again. What is needed now more than ever says Kahlenberg, is a "social justice unionism" that goes beyond the narrow self-interest of members in bargaining for better wages and benefits to also engage in…

In this article, Joseph Vincente, an assistant principal and math and instructional coach at East Side Community High School in New York City, describes East Side's collaborative structures as well as the norms and conditions that support them. Collaboration underpins how the teachers at East Side structure and conduct most of their work, how they…

This article chronicles the history of community schools and identifies common features, or "pillars," that are associated with high-quality community schools. It is drawn from "Community Schools as an Effective School Improvement Strategy: A Review of the Evidence," a report that examined 143 research studies on community…

Community colleges have long provided students a gateway to greater economic opportunities, primarily through two pathways: completing two years of college courses while preparing to transfer to earn a four-year degree or career training that can lead to stable, well-paying positions. Eva L. Rivera Lebrón, a professor of mathematics at…