Aspect/Level

Beginning:

Glimmer of a New Approach

Progressing

Maturing

Advanced:

Transforming and Sustainable

Builds school-community connections

A couple of teachers or community people are exploring one or two school-community connections to accomplish the featured project.

A small, dedicated group is pursuing prior or new school-community connections to accomplish the featured project. For the most part, the energy and commitment is “one-way,” primarily located in either the school or the community. Community involvement is generally clustered around the school, limited mostly to parents or staff. At this stage, the removal of one person might mean the end of the connection.

A growing group of school and community folks are actively pursuing connections in support of the work. Several connections are long-standing, while others may still be tentative. Community involvement extends well beyond parents and school staff. The connections are sturdy enough that the featured project enjoys significant support and resources from both the school and the community.

The school-community connection is a true partnership, in which boundaries have become blurred and new connections snowball. A cyclical give-and-take nurtures an ongoing, sustainable connection. The community thinks of the school as its resource and the school routinely draws on community resources to meet its needs.

Addresses a community problem, issue, or interest

A few people are beginning to wonder if the school could be a resource to the wider community, or thinking about ways that student learning could be enhanced by work in the community. There may be no particular problem or issue in mind, just a general urge toward working in the community.

School folks define an issue, interest, or problem and initiate place-based activities without significant community input. The effect of the work is primarily on student learning; effects on the life of the community are minimal.

A small group of community and school folks identifies a need, interest, or issue that is important to the community and develops or re-shapes a project to address it. The impact of the work can be felt in the school and in the community, but not far beyond direct participants.

A broad group of school and community people have identified an authentic community need or interest, and developed a comprehensive plan to address it. The need or interest has been the focus of sustained, meaningful work, which has had a measurable, positive effect that extends well beyond direct participants.

Honors the local culture

One or two elements of local culture have been introduced into the classroom. At this point, the tendency is to examine local culture in one-shot ways, such as study of a local historical figure, without connecting the figure to other parts of history or the culture of the place.

Students and teachers are in the community doing work that exposes them to the local culture. However, cultural learning is secondary to other forms of learning, so it is still somewhat haphazard, even as people appreciate it when it occurs. School culture and schedules continue to dominate the work.

The work connects with at least one aspect of the local culture in a sustained and significant way. School culture has begun to adapt to local community culture (e.g., the school schedule accommodates a local festival or agricultural timetable).

The work honors and carries forward local culture; the school is immersed in and thus responsive to the culture of the local community. Multiple, diverse local cultural elements – such as language, history, rituals, traditions, celebrations, and holidays – are attended to in sustained, meaningful ways.

Aspect/Level

Beginning:

Glimmer of a New Approach

Progressing

Maturing

Advanced:

Transforming and Sustainable

Welcomes the questions and complications that arise from the work

The project introduces out-of-classroom work in the form of discrete, highly structured learning activities where little deviation is possible.

The project includes some open-ended activities. When the project reaches its conclusion, it may be repeated with a different group of students connecting with pretty much the same community people or institutions, with positive, yet predictable results. If problems or questions arise along the way, they are not given much attention or they are treated as diversions from the “real” work.

The work and its processes are open to new ideas, questions, and problems, showing a good degree of flexibility. However, participants have not yet figured out how to engage with the most contentious issues in an effective way.

The work has led to the development or enhancement of a process that welcomes and encourages questions, multiple answers, and increasing complexity. The work may generate uncertainty, “mess,” conflict, or chaos, but as the work unfolds, passion and shared vision eventually guide the group to “aha!” experiences and positive results. New problems ultimately become resources.

Builds access, communication, and trust

A few adults who already know each other are talking about drawing other people into the project. Communication is limited to a small number of adults who are beginning to trust each other.

The project has expanded slightly beyond its original participants, though the group is still pretty much limited to the usual players, with no significant access for youth. One person may have considerably more responsibility and control than the rest. The process has built in one or two ways for participants to talk about the work and whether they are meeting their goals. Communication is opening up, but there are still trust issues to be worked out.

The work provides more than one way for people, including youth, to enter. New groups have gotten involved, but not all groups with a stake in the work are engaged yet. Responsibility for the project is spread out over several people. Communication is generally open, but certain groups are not yet comfortable with each other. There is enough trust and common vision that the work doesn't blow up when conflict arises, but some issues can't be resolved yet.

The work provides many ways for people from all sorts of groups, ages, and institutions to enter. Every group with a legitimate stake in the work is represented, and responsibility and control of the work rests with a broad group of people. Communication is open, honest, and ultimately respectful. Special attention is paid so that those who are often not heard are included. Trust levels are high.

Aspect/Level

Beginning:

Glimmer of a New Approach

Progressing

Maturing

Advanced:

Transforming and Sustainable

Supports adults to take on new roles

A few people recognize the need for more flexible roles, usually starting with student roles. However, with a few exceptions, roles are static, defined, and institutionalized. (For example: Teachers teach. Students learn. Parents provide snacks. Community members pay taxes.)

The project allows for adults to take on new roles like learner or teacher, secondarily to students taking on new roles. A few adults are taking advantage of these opportunities, but there is no concrete assistance available to them as they struggle with new identities.

The project deliberately creates opportunities for increasing numbers of adults to take on new roles, such as learner, teacher, or leader. There are efforts to provide support to adults in taking on new roles.

The project involves frequent and deliberate exchanging of roles between teachers, community resource people, students, and “just regular folks” in the community. New “experts” are identified, reclaiming lost community knowledge. There is substantial built-in support for adults to take on and become skilled in new roles.

Cultivates new leadership

The “usual suspects” provide leadership to the project.

As the project unfolds, one or two individuals who had not previously been part of the leadership are taking on minor leadership responsibilities. However, control of the project remains in the hands of the originators.

New leadership has emerged as a result of the work. There is significant movement toward shared leadership of the project. The relationships of established and new leaders are still being worked out, with new leaders still finding their way and established leaders trying to make room for them.

The work has resulted in the emergence of new leadership, which has established itself with a fair degree of confidence. Leadership operates on a shared, flexible model, and there are ongoing efforts to identify and cultivate new leaders. Established leaders routinely create space for new leaders to take on responsibility and real power.

Nurtures new relationships

The project builds on already existing relationships to achieve its purposes.

In addition to strengthening established relationships, the project has brought together individuals who previously did not know each other well; tentative new relationships are forming.

As a result of the work, new relationships have formed between individuals and groups of people who previously didn't have much of a relationship. The relationships sustain the immediate project; it is not yet clear whether these relationships will extend past the boundaries of the specific project.

As a result of the work, new relationships that are strong and sustainable have developed between individuals, groups, and institutions. The relationships transcend the specific project that initially brought them together.

Promotes shared responsibility and accountability

A few school folks are exploring new ways of thinking about assessment, perhaps for the purposes of documenting their work on the featured project. However, the main school concern is with meeting standards established by the district or state.

Different types of student assessments have become an established part of the project, to reflect the different values it represents. Student learning is the sole focus of accountability talk. Community folks do not yet feel empowered or qualified to play a role in establishing standards or assessing them.

Different methods are being used to evaluate the project and student learning. Community and school folks, including youth, have roles in setting and assessing standards. Some training is in place to support community people in taking on evaluator roles. There may be occasional problems arising from insufficient respect for the roles and expertise of different groups.

Community folks have the training, tools, and power to make meaningful assessments; they do so from a position of respect for school folks. School and community develop a shared, living model that is used to evaluate the work and learning. The community takes on increased responsibility for the education of young people. To a similar degree, the school has become accountable to the community.

Aspect/Level

Beginning:

Glimmer of a New Approach

Progressing

Maturing

Advanced:

Transforming and Sustainable

Leads to new community understandings

The project is designed and implemented to address student learning only, though adults who are connected to the work learn how to implement the project. The project is not intended to change or affect established ways of thinking within the community.

As a result of the project, a small number of adults come to a new understanding about some aspect of community life. The learning occurs at the individual level, enriching that person's life. However, the learning has not translated into any kind of community change. A few people involved in the project may have realized its potential to effect changes in how resources are allocated, how community decisions are made, or what decisions are made. However, they are unsure of whether or how to push on this front.

More and more adults come to a new understanding about something that is important to the community, and they move toward a change in policy or practice. Community play and celebration may be a part of this change. However, the learning and changes have not been sustained for enough time to show a significant impact on community life.

The work moves the community to new understandings about something important. This in turn leads to a significant and sustained shift in a policy or practice, so that the community is a better place to live, work, learn, celebrate, and play. Wise and innovative use of existing resources or creation of new resources may be an important result of the learning. The work has led to a shift in power, as seen in access to decision-making positions and control of resources.

Engages adults in learning

Adult project participants see themselves as facilitators of student learning. Some of these adults are pleasantly surprised to notice that they have learned a thing or two in the course of working on the project.

Adults who are working directly on the project learn quite a bit. The learning of people who are not directly involved in the project is not yet affected.

The project results in learning for a significant number of adults, including many who do not have direct involvement with the project.

As a result of the work, many adults from many different groups learn. In addition, there is institutional learning, meaning that institutions change in response to the new information and resources developed in the project.

Fosters a culture for learning

Learning is primarily seen as something for children, that takes place mostly in school. A few adults are thinking about the wider world as a learning resource for students.

A few teachers and adults who are connected to the project begin to see themselves as learners, and occasionally present themselves that way to students and other adults.

More and more adults – extending beyond the initial group leading the project – come to see themselves as learners. Adult learning is consciously discussed with students and other adults, but deliberate opportunities for adult learning have not yet been structured into the project.

As a result of the work, significant numbers of adults have come to see themselves as learners; this idea permeates the project and beyond. There are deliberately structured learning opportunities for adults, as well as recognition that life is a learning experience, for people of all ages. Adults reflect on and evaluate their learning.