Public Schools to Community Development1分析和总结分析和总结.docx

Public Schools to Community Development public schools are intimately linked with communities.They serve as centers of learning.They employ residents, and they connect neighbors with one another. As place-based institutions, they are part of a neighborhood ’s physical fabric, impacting local housing markets and influencing the aesthetic character of a community. Moreover, public schools have access to a myriad of local resources including funding, land, and political goodwill. Given the central role that public schools play in communities, community development practitioners are beginning to consciously include them in neighborhood building and economic development efforts. By Connie Chung In recent years, a national movement to link public schools with community development efforts has unfolded, uncovering an expansive range of synergies. From enhancing urban revitalization efforts to providing community-oriented spaces, public schools are emerging as invaluable partners for community development practitioners on a wide array of fronts. This article offers an introductory look at the roles that public schools play in community development, and how these linkages help to address neighborhood needs. The Backdrop School districts have not always been perceived to be willing partners in community development efforts. Residents are rarely engaged in a school’s capital planning processes, and school planners often overlook community concerns. Moreover, as many schools sport “big-box”designs, create “school sprawl,” and generate traffic congestion, they are seldom viewed as community assets. To address the disconnect between public schools and neighborhoods, new networks of planners, community development professionals, educators, and policymakers are being formed to explore the connections between schools and communities. Their efforts have uncovered the valuable contributions that schools can bring to housing and community development efforts, and vice versa. Simultaneo