Assessment, Evaluation, Tracking, Monitoring
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Item Building Trusting Relationships. Evaluating a School-Based Community Health Worker Program to Reduce Chronic Absenteeism(2023-10-12) Garcia, Silvia; Roelecke, Kate; Grim, Jim; Mohlman, Rachel; Peterkin, AllysonIn 2021, MCCOY and the Daniel Webster School 46 (DWS) were awarded two grants1 to implement a Community Health Worker intervention at DWS to increase student engagement as a protective factor to prevent juvenile delinquency and improve youth outcomes. The project took a holistic approach to engage families and students who were chronically absent throughout the school year. Relying on multiple evidence-based and promising practices in youth violence and juvenile delinquency prevention, a certified Community Health Worker partnered with the school social workers and teachers to encourage consistent student attendance using coaching, referrals, goal setting, and family engagement activities to facilitate learning and address family needs. The evaluation, conducted one year after implementation, yielded the following results: The CHW at DWS has proved valuable for students, teachers, and families in several ways. The CHW provides services and builds trusting relationships with families, eventually influencing how families engage with the schools and their students' education. The CHW also connects directly with students, providing emotional support and encouragement, hence supporting the teachers’ work. Being part of the community where parents came from and previously volunteering in the school made the difference in becoming the bridge between the school, the families, and the community. Regarding absenteeism, several improvements in reducing the number of absent days were observed in students receiving support for themselves and their families. Some of the students reduced their absent days to less than half. More importantly, three chronically absent students became “improved attendees” after the first year. The short time the CHW has been in the school (10 months) has brought small but significant changes in students’ behavior.Item Global Civil Society Response to the COVID-19 Crisis(Springer, 2023-07-18) Garcia, SilviaHow did Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) globally address the needs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic? In this study, we examine the roles CSOs played during the first eighteen months of the pandemic, their main challenges, and how the pandemic changed CSOs’ roles in society across 39 countries and economies. Using inductive thematic analysis analyzing responses from global philanthropy experts in two consecutive studies (2020 & 2021), we find that CSOs played fourteen roles, of which we discuss the six most mentioned: providing social assistance; responding to health care needs; coordinating and collaborating with government and business; mobilizing funds to address societal needs; raising awareness and combating misinformation; and advocating. Challenges for CSOs included reduced revenue and difficulty reaching beneficiaries. We found these challenges led to innovative ways of operating and new arrangements between civil societies and governments, which may have opened opportunities for a more active role of CSOs.Item An Overview: Midwest Region Discusses Transformational Partnerships in First Convening(Institute for Educational Leadership Coalition for Community Schools, 2023) Grim, JimItem Closing the Gap between Schools and Community: University/Community Collaboration Addresses Identified Barriers to Student Learning(Office of Community Engagement, IUPUI, 2023-03) Roelecke, Kate; Grim, Jim; Garcia, SilviaItem Cocreating Culturally Responsive Resources With Communities Using Design-Based Implementation Research: The Challenges of Online Research(SAGE Research Methods, 2022-03) Garcia, Silvia; Wolfe, Devin; Fox, Sarah; Gil, Cindy; King, Gloria; Colgan, SusanaThis case study highlights the methodological and practical implications of modifying an investigation with community partners to fit an online format. Research interactions took place between November 2020 and June 2021, under the social distancing restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Twelve Latinx parents/caregivers participated in co-designing culturally relevant college and career readiness resources for Latinx families. A research partnership of two school faculty and a community partner collaborating with university faculty, staff, and students led the study using design-based implementation research (DBIR) as the primary methodological approach. The means of communication and resource sharing with parents were Zoom videoconferencing, WhatsApp text messaging, social media, and phone calls. Parents also received printed materials sent through students attending school under a hybrid modality (face-to-face and online classes). The use of online environments posed challenges in getting participants fully engaged in the co-design process. Some parents lacked technological skills or access to adequate technology, leading to communication barriers in some cases. The implementation phase, a significant component of DBIR, could not be achieved online. This case is about the strategies put forward by the research team to overcome the restrictive research conditions, the adaptations made throughout the process to facilitate community engagement, and lessons learned. It is an invitation to think about the implications of the decisions made by the research team and reflect on creative solutions to address the challenges faced.Item Creating with Confidence. Design Thinking for Public Art. Evaluation Report(2017-07-30) Garcia, SilviaWarren Central High School in collaboration with Arts for Learning explored design thinking, a creative and collaborative process that is user-centered and solution-focused to engage students in the process of designing public art. The project engaged thirty 12th grade, art-major students, in a series of workshops presented by the Herron School of Art and Design, and Arts for Learning as they learned to be mindful of the audience, navigate real situations and revise their work to get to a truly original, personal, and professional product. Students also developed practices to involve residents of their community in a public art project to enhance neighborhood identity and foster a real spirit of place. The report presents the main results of the Evaluation of Creating with Confidence: Design Thinking for Public Art project that took place in the school in the school year 2016-2017.Item A Sustainability Plan for the Indianapolis Near-Westside Community Schools Project(Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center and IUPUI Office of Community Engagement, 2020-07)From its inception, the Full-Service Community Schools project with Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center and five Indianapolis Public Schools of the Near-Westside has focused on the development of an infrastructure framework to sustain the community schools engagement for students, their families, and neighbors beyond the five years of the U.S. Department of Education funding cycle. Key anchor partners with MRNC, Christamore House, Hawthorne Community Center, and IUPUI, have served—and plan to continue to serve—as leaders in the engagement, coordination, and continuation of this collaborative, comprehensive, collective work. Specific roles and expectations for the foreseeable future by each are outlined in this document.Item The Power of Community School Councils in Urban Schools(Peabody Journal of Education, 2020-01-30) Medina, Monica; Grim, Jim; Cosby, Gayle; Brodnax, RitaDemand for school reform, particularly urban schools labeled as “failing,” requires a community engagement strategy centered on intermingled social problems: poverty, racial isolation and discrimination, cultural clashes, socio-economic inequalities, and funding disparities. While school administrators are challenged to turn schools around with limited time and resources quickly, their efforts are not a silver bullet. Engaging community requires committed partnerships that support schools to advance quality learning. Community school councils, an organizing strategy, focus on addressing potential threats and enhancing strengths for student success. This case study describes the participatory action structure of community school councils in an urban public high school, a middle school, and three elementary schools. The theoretical framework of the study is based on Bryk’s five essential elements of school improvement and their interplay that predicts school improvement or stagnation in the long term (Bryk et al., 2010) and more recent findings that community schools demonstrate an evidence-based strategy for equitable school improvement. This study is relevant to school communities with comparable demographics interested in a comprehensive strategy that expands the traditional educational mission to address social/emotional and health needs of children and families by engaging the broader community to support student learning, strengthening families and school communities.Item Leading Community Schools Takes Finesse & Style(Partnership Press, Children's Aid Society, New York City, 2015-11) Grim, JimAdaptive leadership takes on particular importance when it comes to heading Community Schools. The sharing of leadership and decision-making with community partners can be a daunting undertaking – even for some seasoned principals – but is imperative among a multitude of competencies necessary to successfully lead a Community School. What the Coalition for Community Schools identified in Growing Community Schools, The Role of Cross-Boundary Leadership more than a decade ago continues to lie at the heart of authentic Community Schools: Cross-boundary leadership from multiple organizations collaborates to create a culture of support for continuous improvement in Community Schools, developing student physical, social, emotional, moral, and civic competencies in addition to academic abilities. A principal must be comfortable with shared leadership or the necessary fit most likely will not materialize and potential social return on investment may be no more than lost opportunity. Given the landscape, America’s public school communities can little afford wasted opportunities for children and their families.Item George Washington Community High School, A Community-University Partnerships Success Story(Netter Center for Community Partnerships, University of Pennsylvania, 2010-05) Grim, Jim; Officer, StarlaA meandering White River separates the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus from the neighborhoods of Stringtown, Hawthorne and Haughville that make up the community of WESCO (Westside Cooperative Organization). Al-though the river that separates the two represents a historical as well as geographic boundary, the city bridges that join the university campus with its west side neighbors are both symbolic as well as utilitarian. Rich connections that have developed between IUPUI and the Near Westside have taken years to develop and are best illustrated at the nearby George Washington Community School (GWCS). The very existence of this school is a community/university partnership achievement, a significant one according to Robert Bringle, Director of the IUPUI Center for Service and Learning and professor of psychology. “When we started working with the WESCO community and they said they wanted to reopen their closed high school, we thought it was a rather remote possibility,” Bringle explained. “Never underestimate the power of determined, united people. Four years later it had students in classrooms.” "e building was once home to George Washing-ton High School. "e high school had nearly 70 years of rich tradition that included multiple athletic milestones (half a dozen alumni ABA and NBA players among them) and had closed in 1995. "e closure, designed to reduce costs for the financially challenged urban school district, devastated the Near Westside. However, its reputation on the athletic field had not matched with high academic achievement (e.g., 40% graduation rate) and this helped tip the scales in favor of closure. Logical financial reasons for closure did not matter to the community it most affected. Five neighborhood schools had already been closed, and the closure of the final two meant no schools were left in the three neighborhoods. No public schools remaining in WESCO galvanized a grassroots movement, under the leadership of neighborhood leader Danny Fugate, to form the Westside Education Task Force, which was focused on getting schools back into the neighborhoods.