TEXAS AFT LEGISLATIVE HOTLINE--WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2009 (copyright 2009 Texas AFT)   Texas Case Study of Community-School Partnerships: School Reform That Works   The Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University has come out with a study of community-school partnerships in Austin ISD that deserves the attention of Texas and national policy-makers. We thank our Education Austin affiliate, representing all teachers and other school employees in Austin ISD, for bringing this important research to our attention.   The study, "Building Partnerships to Reinvent School Culture," describes and gauges the impact of six years of community organizing to improve high-poverty schools by engaging parents, teachers, and administrators in collaborative efforts to improve student learning. The organizing activity was spurred by the Austin Interfaith community organization, affiliated with the statewide Texas Industrial Areas Foundation.   The study concludes that school-focused community organizing yielded increased resources for high-poverty, low-performing schools, known as Alliance Schools. New funding was allocated for parent-support specialists, after-school programs, bilingual education, adult programs in English as a Second Language, and teacher and administrator professional development in these schools.   Teachers in schools that were highly involved with the community organization reported significantly higher levels of trust and parental involvement, and a stronger focus on learning, than in schools with low school-community involvement. Teachers also said the community organization's involvement positively influenced the quality of principal leadership, teacher commitment, and teacher collegiality.   At the same time, parents in high-involvement schools reported greater access to important information, greater opportunity for communication, and greater respect from school staff.   The Annenberg analysis found that intensive involvement of the community organization in schools was associated with gains of 15 to 19 percent on state achievement tests, versus gains of only four percent in schools with low levels of community involvement.   The Annenberg researchers said that the hallmark of this experiment in school-community engagement was a long-term process of helping parents and educators view themselves as leaders and working together to identify and remove obstacles to student learning. A critical ingredient was the formation of "core teams" at each school. These teams were made up of parents, teachers, and local community activists recruited by organizers from Austin Interfaith.   The teams planned community-building activities such as neighborhood walks and house meetings to cultivate relationships between a school's teachers, families, and neighborhood residents. They also conducted one-on-one meetings with other teachers, parents, and community members.   The resulting school-improvement networks mounted successful campaigns that addressed students' academic needs with enrichment programs and after-school programs and also addressed wider community needs--for example, new playground space for children, traffic and safety improvements to protect children walking to school, increasing student access to health services, and improving neighborhood housing conditions.   The Annenberg study of Alliance Schools in Austin offers strong evidence of the benefit of a "community schools" approach to school reform. For those interested in evidence-based models of school improvement, the study can be found at: http://www.annenberginstitute.org/wedo/mott_austin.php.