User talk:Aixle12/Full-Service Community School

Prof. Sandra Smith's Review

Hi Aixle,

I got a chance to review your draft. You've made a great deal of progress on your article, "Full-Service Community Schools". Bravo! The topic is important, and you cover a number of important issues relating to the topic. In what follows, I will go through the list of non-substantive concerns and assess how well you have addressed them in this draft.

1. Your contribution does NOT appear to be cut and paste from an existing source without prior citation. Thank goodness!

2. In your lead section, you could do a better job of providing a stand-alone, concise summary of the whole article. My suspicion is that you don't have a great sense yet of where and how to develop the article further, and this is interfering with your ability to provide a more concise and coherent opening summary. Once you attend to the former, you'll be able to do the latter.

3. Your article is not jargon-filled. At this point, I would not worry about this issue.

4. You do not yet have links to other Wikipedia articles of relevance, although there are many that you could/should have, including the following: links to all articles referenced that are available online; Jane Addams and Hull House; John Dewey; Great Depression; World War II; Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965; Head Start; Community School Act of 1978; all of the relevant non-profit parties; Full-Service Community Schools Act of 2009; all of the federal legislation of the past decade that you mention and that have webpages; links to specific programs that fit under the umbrella of full-service community schools that are generally well-known, such as the Harlem Children's Zone.

5. At the moment, yours appears to be an "orphan" page. You can change that by providing links to all or most of what I listed above.

6. Your contribution is made with a neutral tone and based on statements that are verifiable. You could do a much better job, however, of citing sources. For instance, in "The Problem" section, you mention findings from studies about the effects of social class status on outcomes. You cite Rothstein, but your contribution would stand on much firmer ground if you were to cite more than one study. Indeed, there's a wealth of research on each of the relationships you mention. It makes sense to me to provide references for each of them--health (set of references); academic achievement (set of references); transition to adulthood--employment, etc. (set of references). Each of your paragraphs suffered from this "deficiency" to some extent. BACK UP YOUR STATEMENTS WITH REFERENCES!!!

7. I do not know if your "facts" are from reputable sources, because you do not provide a list of full citations.

8. Your contribution is generally clear; your language is generally free of redundancies, ambiguity and misunderstanding. There is at least one way, however, in which you could be clearer. Yours is an article on "Full-Service" community schools, but throughout the article, it seems as if you go back and forth between full service and regular community schools. I think the distinction needs to be made clear throughout. It appears that full-service schools evolved over time from the community schools model and is the most recent instantiation of such models. To the extent that this is the case, make this clear, and explain how this evolution happened. What goals do full service community schools have that are distinct from "community schools"?

The section on "partnerships in practice" seems a bit out of place. Consider moving. Maybe a discussion of these partnerships would fit better in a discussion about the history of full-service movements.

You do not mention specific programs that could be categorized under this umbrella, such as the Harlem Children's Zone. A list of these programs would be a great contribution, with wikilinks to pages that might already be in existence.

Also, I think it is worthwhile to include a section that addresses debates about the pros and cons of full-service community schools. I can't imagine that everyone thinks this is a good idea.

What were implemented policies--Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965; Community Schools Act of 1978; and Full Service Community Schools Act of 2009--responses to? Why were they implemented and changed? What forces pushed for these changes, and what did they hope to achieve? You should link/integrate this with the section on "The Problem".

And finally, what about the effectiveness of these programs? What research has been done to determine the extent to which the costs associated with these programs are worth the benefits? What are the benefits? What does research indicate?

9. Correct grammar, verb tenses, and spelling for the most part. Please check, however, for a few typos and other issues here and there. The article is not free of these issues.

11. You do not provide enough information on important issues related to your topic. Here are the areas I think you need to develop a discussion around: the five key areas that are necessary for a child to succeed. In addition to listing each of these out (as you do), also describe what each of these would look like, and provide examples. You lead with this, but then it goes nowhere. Your discussion of the history of full-service movement is probably the most developed section. It could be developed further, however, with a more elaborate treatment of the key legislative acts that created opportunities to develop these types of schools--Elementary and Secondary Education Act; Community Schools Act of 1978; and then the Full-Service Community Schools Act of 2009. To the extent that Wiki pages already exist for some, you don't have to go into great detail, but you do have to provide more information than you currently do. And what of the federal legislation over the past decade? You list, but then do not explain how each of these seek to address the defined social problems. The "Community Schools as an Anti-Poverty Mechanism" section is pretty barren and relies heavily on quotations. Clearly, there is need for intervention in this section, which is particularly concerning to me, because this is the section that very clearly links your topic to the subject of the course. How do you plan to rectify?

12. Links should be provided to publicly available versions of all primary sources, and citations should be done properly.

13. References are not done, much less done properly. See the technical guidelines.

15. Include the "educational assignment" template on the article's discussion page.

s3berkeleysoc S3berkeleysoc (talk) 18:22, 30 October 2011 (UTC)

First Reviewer

Hi Aixle,

I'm so sorry for the late review. I was confused - I'd planned a review of Beeberger's article on the feminization of poverty and had emailed her about where she wanted me to comment on her work, but it looks like my name has been added to your review for the first pass, so let me add a few thoughts to what Sandra has already enumerated here. Since she has done such a through job, I'll try to be a bit more loose with my ideas and suggest some places you could expand your topic.

1. I agree that the article could benefit from a more detailed discussion of what full service community schools look like, both in theory and in practice. I agree that you will find good examples at the Harlem Children's Zone, the schools run by the New York children's aid society, and some local examples in SF/Emeryville/Oakland city schools plans. Who are they partnering with, what services are they offering, what types of logistical/budget/political challenges do schools of these types face.

2. What is also missing for me, as a classmate, is your understanding of how this topic - in particular - grows out of a larger understanding of poverty and how to ameliorate it. You get into this a little bit at the end, but I think the whole article would be stronger if you lead with this idea. This is very much the language/theory of practice for those who promote full service schools. There is a very strong, 2-part argument that A) poor kids aren't getting necessary services like health/dental/vision that they need and that B)schools can be the center of a move towards educating/supporting the whole child; which both leads to better learning outcomes and better life outcomes. I'd look to the political arguments made by Geoffry Canada (HCZ) or Tony Smith (OUSD) for some very good examples of these arguments.

3. You might give a bit of background/history on what community schools are defined against. I'm especially thinking about our discussions in Janelle's neoliberalism class about the move towards a very individualized, market-based, personal-gain way of thinking about the value of education. You should look at Michael Engel's argument in "http://www.amazon.com/Struggle-Control-Public-Education-Michael/dp/1566397413" for a very good discussion about how we've moved increasingly away from communitarian educational goals. Community schools are, in many ways, a response to this. I'll bring you my copy! This might be a place to incorporate Sandra's idea that you need to bring in the pro/con arguments.

4. I also agree that I'd like to see more stats and figures. I'm also trying to imagine what sorts of questions would lead me to look up your article. I think the average interested wiki reader would have questions about the scope and scale of the movement, the types and kinds of community schools, the places where they're thriving and/or not gaining traction. I imagine a person moving to Oakland wondering "so, what's the deal with these 'community schools' I'm hearing about?" - and wanting to know a lot more about how radical/new/tested/etc. this model is.

5. As always, I think there is a strong racial element to the history/discussion/politicization of community schools. HCZ is an excellent example of this. I'd love to see a couple of sentences or a small section that address the debate both within and without the community schooling movement about who needs community schools, who community schools are best for, and then why. This conversation (similarly to the charter school debate) has a very strong racial component.

6. Finally, I think as an ed person I'd like to see the FSCS model discussed in the wider context of school choice, the political talk about the "diversification of schooling markets", and some of the other changes to the schooling landscape of the past 20-30 years. You do a good job of telling us that the community school model grew out of previous reform movements and schools of thinking, but where do these stand now? How might be categorize community schools in the continuum of schooling options, political arguments, etc?

Looking forward to seeing how the article develops!

Best, Leah
LeahEdith (talk) 06:31, 31 October 2011 (UTC)LeahEdith

Moved your article into "userspace"

Hi Aixle12,

I have moved your recently created article Full-service community school, into "user space", which means you can now find it at: User:Aixle12/Full-service community school. It looks like the article could do with a little more work before it becomes a full Wikipedia article. In particular you might like to read WP:CITE which tells you how to cite references in your article and perhaps our guidelines on [{WP:NPOV|maintaining a neutral point of view]]. Good luck with the article, it is coming along. Best, Sparthorse (talk) 05:54, 3 November 2011 (UTC)

Second Reviewer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Aixle12/Full-Service_Community_School#cite_note-0

Hi Aixle, below is my substantive review of your Wikipedia article. Please let me know if you have any questions: yanglor@gmail.com I reviewed your article by going down each section and suggesting what information to include or take out. I looked at all your references and they are fine. Your references do contain more relevant and detailed information that you could include in your wikipage. Good luck with finishing the wikipage!

Yang Ylor916 (talk) 19:35, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

Introduction

• In the introduction, you might want to distinguish how community schools differ from traditional schools with something like the following: “unlike traditional schools whose goal is to provide service related to only the academic needs of students, full service community school utilizes a holistic approach to the education of students by incorporating a number of services that include…” Readers like myself might wonder how full service community schools differ from ordinary schools, so you might want to highlight/emphasize the differences in the introduction.
• “Full service community or community schools” is sufficient to convey the point that they are used interchangeably; you don’t have to devote a section to discussing the fact that the two terms mean basically the same thing
• Are full-service schools private or public or a combination of both? This is something to include in the introduction or in a subsequent section that goes in-depth on what full service schools are.

Full service community school vs. community schools

• You provide a link to another wiki page titled “community schools,”; what is the difference between the two? It seems from your clarifying terminology section, that “full service community school” and “community school” are used interchangeably to describe the same entity; if so, you should consider adding your information to the already existing wikipage or titling your wikipage differently so as to not confuse readers about the two terms; from your wikipage, it seems your focus is on community schools in the U.S.; thus you might consider adding your information to the United States section of the already existing community school wikipage or you can create a more specific wikipage such as “Full Service Community School in the U.S.”

Clarifying Terminology

• You might consider taking this section out because you can summarize it in a sentence or two and include it in the introduction as I suggest above.
• Take the clarifying terminology section out and in its place, include a section with a more thorough description of community schools. Reading your wikipage, I didn’t feel like I had a good grasp of what a full-service community school is and how it is able to provide different types of services
• You might think about including some successful examples or models of full service community schools just to give the readers some idea about how full service community schools actually function; you have links to some at the end of your page, but you should think about describing it in this new section
• How are full service schools able to provide for all the services needed by students? Are all these services available at the school? Or do schools partner with community organization or health clinics?
• Your section on partnership in practice section can be moved here
• Consider adding something from the document here about the Framework for community schools (how such schools are set up): http://www.communityschools.org/assets/1/AssetManager/CS_Results_Framework.pdf
  • From the link above, there seems to be a national association for such schools too, so it might be worthwhile to include some information about how the national association defines the goals and mission of full-service community schools: What are the guiding principles for such schools.
• You might want to also discuss some challenges such as funding or getting parent involvement; how are full service schools able to overcome many of the challenges that traditional schools face?

Need for community schools

• You are still developing this section as you state in your wikipage. This might be one of the more critical sections of your wikipage so you’ll probably have to devote a great deal of effort for this section. Currently, what you have is information about how low social class is associated with poor health and low educational achievement. I think the point you want to emphasize here, and which seems to be a major goal of full service community schools, is that in order to raise the achievement of students from minority and/or poor backgrounds, schools cannot just limit themselves to educating students, but they must also serve the different needs that students have that affect their academic achievement – health issues, family issues, neighborhood issues such as a lack of organized/recreational activities, etc.
• Once you’ve provided research that shows that academic achievement is related to a host of factors that aren’t addressed in the traditional schools, you can talk about how full service community schools emerge to address the range of both academic and non-academic issues that poor/minority students face
• check out the following links:
  • Schools alone cannot erase the effects of poverty: http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/er/pn_acceptit10.html
  • http://www.communityschools.org/assets/1/AssetManager/CS_Results_Framework.pdf Page 4 lays out the need for community schools; your job is to back it up with evidence that shows that raising academic achievement requires focusing not only on the student and the school, but also the role of the family and the community:
    • “There is a tendency in education reform to disregard the role of family and community. In recent years, the focus of education reform has been predominantly inside the school, focused on standards, testing, and teacher quality. It has all but ignored the external factors that influence achievement such as family circumstances, poverty, health, cultural differences, student engagement, and others.” Page 4 of the document above
  • A report by the Educational Testing Service, the creator of the SAT, AP tests, GREs, and other standardized tests, identified 8 factors beyond school that influence academic achievement: parent involvement, student mobility, hunger and nutrition, lead posiing, low birth weight, and television watching: http://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/PICPARSINGII.pdf
  • This paper co-authored by Pedro Noguera, a well-known progressive professor of education, and signed by many education researchers and policymakers argues that the education of poor/minority students must also focus on students’ needs that are outside of the school such as the family and the community. The literature review section is especially useful for your section on the need for full service community schools. They discuss the Harlem Children’s Zone which has program and services that are similar to those provided by community schools. You might consider using the Harlem Children’s Zone as an example in your section that describes models/examples of full service community schools http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/er11/pn_broader.html

History of the Full Service School Movement

• Might consider renaming it to just History of Full Service School – given that the time period is from the 1900s, it’s not necessary a movement, but more of a history of semi-connected events that gave rise to full service community schools that we have today.
• I don’t think you necessarily need to spend a lot of time on this section
• It seems a bit redundant to include some federal government programs and policies in the history section, and then a separate section on federal legislation. You might just include the federal legislation section under the history section. Instead of just describing federal legislation, perhaps discuss the impact that it has had on the evolution of full service community schools

Community schools and its impact:

• I’d suggest you start off this section with what community schools sets out to do, and then asses the evidence for each of their goals with available research data. One of the main goal, I assume, would be academic achievement, given that it’s a school
• Check out this document for the framework for community schools : http://www.communityschools.org/assets/1/AssetManager/CS_Results_Framework.pdf
• Your section on academic and non-academic support contains research findings that are more fitting for your section about the need for community schools. The research you cite does not assess the effectiveness of community schools; rather, they point to disparity in opportunities for learning among the poor and non-poor and that such disparities matter for academic achievement. What you need is evidence that specifically evaluate the performance or outcomes of students who attend community schools – does providing non-academic support with the traditional academic program actually help raise student achievement? How do the academic achievements of students in full service community schools differ from those of similar students who attend traditional schools?
• Your five conditions of learning belong in the section that describes what full service community schools are and what they seek to provide. It’s more of a description, and not evidence that assess the effectiveness of full service community schools
• Your section on relevant research is actually not relevant to your topic; you should consider taking it out. Your topic is on community schools and its effect on students’ outcomes but the research you cite in this section is about the importance of education to economic growth. I think mostly everyone agrees that we need to invest in education; just what type of education is the questions and that is something your topic sheds lights on by describing and assessing the effectiveness of full service community schools.
• This article argues that while the quality and quantity of research on the topic has been limited, schools with health clinics and other support services have lower dropout and teen pregnancy rates, higher attendance and achievement: http://www.reachoflouisville.com/meath/meath/full%20service%20schools%20revolution%20or%20fad.pdf
• You can also look at the Pedro Noguera link above to get more sources on the effectiveness of full service schools as well

Other resources to examine:

• This book Inside Full-Service Community Schools by Joy G. Dryfoos & Sue Maguire might be useful for you. It includes chapters on what kinds of services schools provide, how effective partnerships are developed, assessment and evaluation of community schools, barriers to creating full service community schools, and the funding situation of such schools

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Kz55k534IGQC&oi=fnd&pg=PR16&dq=full+service+schools&ots=dnh2E1C2gC&sig=-xYAHJEqGiw_9PYG8e5gBkmF37M#v=onepage&q&f=false

Articles are ranked on a scale of 1-5 on four dimensions: trustworthy, complete, well-written, and objective. How would you rank the article you've reviewed on each of these dimensions?

• Trustworthy (4) – you link your evidence to published reports or articles.
• Complete (2) – two of the most important sections -the need for full service community schools and assessing the effectiveness of full service community schools- are under-developed or contain information that is not directly relevant to the heading
• Well-written (3) – the labeling of the headings/subheadings can be improved to allow for a more logical and less redundant flow of information. The writing uses straightforward language that is easily comprehended by anyone without knowledge of the topic.
• Objective (2) – A third of your sources (6/18) is from the coalition of community schools organization. To make your article more objective, utilize peer-reviewed articles or reports from organizations that have no stake in the community schools debate. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ylor916 (talk • contribs) 19:25, 15 November 2011 (UTC)