By Erika Bembry, Guest Contributor

I’ve heard the phrase going “all out” on numerous occasions. In fact, I have used it a time or two as a means of expressing, usually in an exaggerated way, the extent to which I have completed a task with or for the benefit of others. In the case of the article, How One College Went “All In” in Its Neighborhood, by Scott Carlson, this cliche was taken to a whole new level.

At first glance, I thought that this would be a typical article about college kids in a particular community donating their time to help out a nearby elementary school or high school to increase their volunteer hours and beef up their resume. However, I was surprised when I learned just how much one college, Concordia University in Portland, Oregon, did to give back to the community.

Similar to most cities throughout the nation, Portland has areas that are robust and thriving as well as areas that are not, for a wide range of reasons. Concordia University, a private liberal arts institution, happens to be located near an underserved urban elementary and middle school on the north side of Portland, where once thriving factories and other industrial sites now lay defunct and schools sit festering in rundown bricks and mortar. Still, a professor from the university reached out to the principal of the school to offer support by bringing a bit of sunshine to the facility through an arts program. Now, this was just a band-aid on the situation. After all, the reality was that the school was struggling and likely needed a lot more than paper and crayons to remedy its challenges. Nevertheless, this was certainly a step in the right direction.

That’s a bit of the backstory. Fast-forward to what really grabbed my attention in the article: Gary Withers, president of the Concordia University Foundation, saw an opportunity to get the attention of donors and seized the moment to do just that. Withers had the bright idea, inspired by the vision of a colleague, to literally bring the university into the school. Thus, students could potentially attend college within the same building where they attended elementary or middle school. Pretty cool concept indeed, right?

The concept: Create a new “state-of-the-art” school right next door. How awesome is that! A school in a low income, marginalized, underserved community that will now be the envy of the city. School leaders even came up with a catchy slogan, “3-D to PhD.” Impressed yet? It’s arguably one of the most unique ideas I’ve ever heard of. Donors must have been equally impressed because two main partners managed to come up with $48 million for this project.

With this, community partners demolished the old school buildings and built in its place a brand new 138,000-square-foot facility loaded with every imaginable accommodation anyone could hope for. Inside this new building, students and parents have direct access to a community kitchen, medical and dental care, access to a supermarket and even cooking classes for families who wish to attend. The new school that was erected is called Faubion and its mission is to serve those children from the lowest income. The school is only two years old and already over-enrolled.

The real question is will this work? In the long run, will it be a sustainable partnership? Will the children and families for whom this school was created actually reap the benefits of the school? I don’t believe that this initiative will yield the level of success that may be wanted. Don’t get me wrong; I think it is a noble effort. However, all too often, particularly where black and brown people are concerned, large amounts of money (which are definitely necessary when taking on a project of this magnitude) are thrown at a problem without adequate thought being put into the effort.

In this case, as I read and reread this article, I noticed that there was never any mention from the school or the university on how these marginalized children and their families would be educated within this new model. In fact, I had more questions at the end of this article than I did when I began reading it. Will this school deal with the issue of cultural relevance and engagement within the classroom? Will it employ teachers who know how to implement trauma-informed instruction? Will there be a diverse staff, as well as leadership/administration members? What use is it for a facility to have all of the bells and whistles anyone could ever wish for, when, within its very walls, are children who are not learning or making the progress that they should?

Hopefully my reservations will not become reality, for the children’s sake.

By Zakiya Moore, Guest Contributor

Growing up I always knew I would be someone who would help connect people to some form of resource. However, I never knew it would be in counseling.

My first choice was nursing, but I couldn’t take sticking people with needles and watching people get sick. I chose counseling because I enjoy working with people and listening to ways I could help. As an elementary counselor, my focus is on dealing with behaviors and coping skills. Parent engagement is low on the list as I’m often called to a crisis.  After reading this article, “Parent Engagement,” I clearly understand the importance of parents being a part of the process of their child’s education.

This article helped me to look deeper into parent engagement. The article talks about the importance of a positive relationship with the families and sharing power with parents in creating policies that assist the family with health promotion. I loved the way it developed an action plan that engages families in the overall process and gave examples of how school staff can connect with parents by hosting different events and including families in their school mission.

We do not have a dedicated staff that engages are families with our school. We do have a PTO, but I feel that is different. This article sparked something in me that allows me to think deeper into parent engagement.

After taking some summer classes this year, I truly feel that families are the backbone to a child’s success. As a counselor, I gain so much insight about a student when I have the opportunity to talk to the parents so that we can come up with a plan that helps the child and the family.  Families are often excluded or ill-informed when assisting their child with their education.

Parent engagement goes far beyond the ice cream socials. Through parent engagement, families have the opportunity to advocate for their child, keep clear lines of communication, and share power. This article lays out a clear step-by-step plan on how parents can be well informed and involved.

As a counselor my goal this year is to have a committee that really focuses on parent engagement. This article allows me to write a plan and present it to my principal. Even though I feel we do an okay job with parent engagement, there is so much more to keep families involved.

Zakiya Moore is a student in the IU School of Education at IUPUI.

By Cassy Roberson, Guest Contributor

Family involvement and engagement should be a primary focus in any school. Our primary job is to serve our families and support children in their educational journey to becoming successful, self sufficient adults. But is that really all were doing?

Someone who has spent anytime in a classroom in recent years can tell you that educators today are doing so much more! Attaining to their students’ social-emotional well being, hunger, homelessness, unstable home lives and other adverse childhood experiences their students have faced. Without addressing and nurturing the realities previously stated, an educator can’t achieve their ultimate goal of TEACHING!

While managing all of the aspects seen in today’s schools and classrooms we also need to engage our parents. Beyond Involvement and Engagement: The Role of the Family in School-Community Partnerships by Amanda Stefanski, Linda Valli, and Reuben Jacobson, discuss the importance of bridging family involvement to family engagement.

Let’s first discuss the difference between involvement and engagement. Involve  is defined as “include as necessary,” whereas engage means “to interlock with.” Involvement implies we want to accomplish something for each other; in contrast, engagement implies we accomplish things together.

When we’re aiming for family involvement, we tend to lead with our mouth by identifying projects, fundraising needs, goals for our school and telling parents how they can contribute and be involved. When striving for parent engagement, we will need to lead with our ears. In leading with our ears, we can listen to parents, understand what they think, how they feel, their dreams and what they worry about for their children and community. We are not serving clients; we need to gain partners!

It is easy to settle for parent involvement. With increased pressures to raise test scores, it is enticing for schools to focus on family involvement instead of engagement. Family involvement programs can have a positive effect on student achievement as well, and generally are easier to implement (open house at the school, literacy night or book fair, etc). But only spending your time on family involvement can have negative consequences.

The involvement approach can end up focusing on deficit assumptions about your parents and families. Whereas a family engaged approach will view families as funds of knowledge, resources and collaborators. We need to encourage our families to take their place alongside us as educators in schooling their children, collaborating with our collective knowledge and learning from each other while equally sharing the power.

As educators, let’s reflect on the parent interaction in our schools. Are we merely involving our parents, leading with our mouth; or are we engaging our families and leading with our ears? Let’s strive to transition from involvement to engagement and foster a strong community-school partnership.

Cassy Roberson is an Educational Leadership Master of Arts student in the IU School of Education at IUPUI.

By Latosha Rowley, Guest Contributor

What does it mean to be a “rich” school in a “rich” community? Society’s focus on money and capitalism have caused people to think that a plethora of dollars for societal comforts makes a school and community rich.

Sure, the rich school districts enjoy societal comforts because of financial contributions from wealthy PTA members, along with access to opportunities because of a strong, financial tax base that generates funding to meet, and even exceed, the needs and desires of students and families in that school district. However, money does not guarantee solutions to all urban school problems. Money does help reduce the ills of the historical, systemic racist practices found in school districts and communities today.

As a former urban school leader, I served as an advocate in the fight for equity-based changes in my school and community. My urban reform efforts included connections to local churches and community centers to provide resources that were far more valuable than dollars. I worked collaboratively with other urban, school leaders to leverage “rich” assets, strengths, and agency of the local community partners, neighborhood organizations, and the business community to ensure access to intangible social interactions that led to positive school changes for our urban students and families.

Due to inequitable and unjust public schooling, certain school districts have monetary advantages, whereas other school districts are severely underfunded with a lack of resources and access to wealthy PTAs or financially stable tax bases. Therefore, these urban districts and schools have been labeled poor. As an urban school leader, I faced endless societal challenges such as poverty and homelessness in my urban school, but my school was not poor. Without access to monetary funds, I tapped into community resources, such as tutoring and mentoring with community members at the local church, to help me meet the educational and social needs of my urban students and families. As a critical scholar, it is imperative that mindsets shift to see the richness in all schools and communities.

My urban school benefited from rich, intangible community assets that far exceeded monetary value. The relationships with community organizations provided social and emotional support for my students. The social and cultural richness strengthen my school. In “School as Community, Community as School” by Terrance Green, his theoretical framework, social capital, examined the intersection of urban school reform and community development. Structural changes and redistribution of resources are needed to strengthen schools and communities in urban spaces. Building on the strengths of a community and valuing the cultural and social networks will improve the school and community’s conditions. Social networks are a form of currency that connects and links resources that improve schools and communities. Effective school leadership values the gifts, talents, connections, relationships, and cultural diversity of the people in the urban community as critical for urban school reform.

When school and community leaders connect, collaborate, and create bridges for the social and cultural capital of the people, the urban spaces become richer with shared assets, power, and privilege that enhances community engagement. School-community relationships need people who honestly communicate with each other, respectfully value each other with love and care, take collective actions together, and share each other’s gifts and talents to ensure positive student development for school and life.

True interconnected partnerships between urban schools and community businesses and universities will establish an exchange model that shares resources. Under-resourced and underserved urban spaces build community capacity through relationships that engage all community stakeholders who support a mission to build stronger families and healthier communities. With the intentional school and community vision of equity and justice, student learning and growth will increase, and society will be able to see community benefits beyond a standardized test score. People in urban communities, including the children, will embrace the richness of people’s gifts and talents. Students and families will have community experiences beyond the classroom walls. Students will be exposed to the individual assets of community members in areas of music, technology, the arts, and social clubs that create thriving, wealthy and rich urban communities.

Latosha Rowley is a Doctoral student in the Urban Education Studies program at IU School of Education at IUPUI.

By Julia Barker, Guest Contributor

At an alarming rate, we are seeing more and more of our schools across the nation remove the arts from our public school systems. The great benefits of art, such as promoting academic success and sharpening creativity skills remain, yet the arts programs are still being cut within schools. One of the most inspiring things about the arts is the promotion of social and emotional support for students, including the ability to create a safe space for our children.

In the recent article, “Artful Spaces/Safe Places” by Cindy Bixler Borgmann and Stacy Penalva, the authors and researchers discover that art is a way for our unheard children to speak out and have a voice. Children created “hanging journals” with clay, and were able to tell their own story and narrative through these visual journals. Children were able to create the artifact of their life, rather than write it. Cindy and Stacy were able to listen, and connect in a greater way with children.

Not only as an educator, but as an advocate, it is imperative that we listen to our children in order to support them academically, but it is equally as important that we support them emotionally as well. Our children are extremely diverse. We have all different backgrounds and cultures combined, and it is glorious. But many of our children are also burdened with trauma, hardships, unforeseen circumstances, family issues, homelessness, fear of deportation, abuse, and so much more.

We strive to listen and provide all the support we can to our diverse group, yet often we fail. Our children do not always speak using words, oftentimes our children speak through a behavior–an action or reaction, both positive and negative. Sometimes though, we don’t hear our children speak at all. An extremely powerful tool that we have robbed many of our children of is the ability to speak through art.

Cindy and Stacy found that English language learners have powerful stories to tell, and art is the outlet that our unheard children can speak from, in a language that, if we take the time, we can understand. Art is a gateway for us all to unleash our inner voice. “These hanging journals had culturally significant meaning encoded into the bits of clay that told complex stories of their identity. In a classroom where teachers are taught to unwrap these artworks to hear the powerful narratives of all children, the results can be transformative” (Borgmann & Penalva, pg. 16, 2019). Art is bigger than a simple craft, it has the power to speak and transform the lives of people.

I so appreciate the research and publication of Cindy and Stacy’s work. I now challenge myself to look for and seek out opportunities in the academic setting for my students to create something powerful through a creative lens. Currently my students are affected by the decision to eliminate arts from the school setting and do not have access to a creative outlet to speak or tell their story.

I see how impactful, liberating, and life-changing art can be for a child. I vow to incorporate the arts into my curriculum and classroom so that I can hear my students speak, they can hear each other, and we can all listen and respond as art breaks the language barrier across cultural differences. Art can be a tool to promote a safe space and create acceptance, understanding, and appreciation of diverse identities, breaking barriers.

Julia Barker is an Educational Leadership Master of Arts student in the IU School of Education at IUPUI.

By Georard N. Mitchell, Guest Contributor

As an educator, I find it imperative that we make an extra effort to meet the needs of students who don’t easily meld into the pot that is a public school education in America. Why an extra effort do you ask? Well, it’s because it seems as though our society has made an extra effort to ignore and oppress these students and their families.

Through our many fixtures such as intolerance, poverty, discrimination, racism, sexism, and any other applicable ism’s, our society actively works against the best interests of various groups of people. With that being said, we must actively combat these injustices in any way that we can.

As a black man, I spent a large portion of my life thinking that I had it harder than anyone else. At least that’s what I was told. What I experienced. It took a while before I realized, shamefully, that other than having grown up poor, I have privilege in almost every way possible. I’m a man, heterosexual, Christian, able-bodied, cognitively able, financial stable, young and healthy.

The blinders began to come off in college, but my privilege was more apparent when I began working as a teacher, specifically a special educator. I think that it becomes tough for humans to have empathy and compassion, when we think that we have it worse than everyone else. But as I took a step back, I found myself in the position of working towards being an ally towards other marginalized groups of people.

A specific “aha moment” was when I took a trip abroad. After a thirteen-hour flight to Turkey I had one question. Why is there so much English? As I continued my trip through the Netherlands and the Czech Republic I wondered, how would I navigate this trip if I didn’t speak English? This was the first time in my life I ever considered my linguistic privilege.

With all that is going on in our current sociopolitical sphere, Latino immigrant children are some of the newest victims of societal intolerance and ignorance. If coming to another country isn’t jarring enough, in addition to the many other circumstances students could be dealing with, imagine that the space that you spend the majority of time in outside of your home is spent as uncomfortably as you’ve been since you got here. Repeating the same frustrations day after day, with your only comfort being the hope of seeing other children you know at school who share your misery. The people around you don’t seem to understand any of what you say, you don’t understand the majority of what they say, and many people don’t seem to care that you have anything to say anyway. I think you get the point.

But let’s give ourselves the benefit of the doubt. Let’s assume that we want to help but maybe we don’t know how to assist these children in truly feeling valued. Maybe we just need a concrete example of how to get it done. Well the article, Artful Spaces/Safe Places: A Gallery Provokes Voices that Interrogate Common Narratives of Latino Immigrant Children, gives a glimpse into how we can do this.

The article details a collaboration between a community director at an urban Spanish-speaking church and faculty from literacy education and visual art at IUPUI. In a summer program, students created hanging journals made from clay that helped in expressing children’s otherwise silenced voices. These journals held more meaning than which the children could fully express in English.

Then students were shown that their work was valued, as it was displayed in a gallery for their friends, family and community to observe. Not only does this illustrate the significance of the arts for children, but it shows that if we truly want to understand the experiences of others and make meaningful connections with them, we can.

Georard N. Mitchell is an Educational Leadership Master of Arts student in the IU School of Education at IUPUI.

By Kristyn Dingledy, Guest Contributor

Schools are places known to get things done. Students learn how to read and perform math equations, professional developments are put into practice, parents are called at the end of a long day, and things get done. The lingering question to ask is if “the things getting done” are the best they can be? Are our urban schools getting by or getting things done?  

What if communities, schools, and families came together as partners to use the power of a collective to get things done? Could using the assets of each group and working toward amending the deficits that exist in all three groups through partnership and mutual power get things done?

Care is essential. It falls right after trust in my opinion. Without the two, you cannot foster real relationships. Real relationships share power. Consider your own relationships where you feel cared for and trusted and value the other person. Is there a balance of power or trust?  

Growth is another critical component of relationships. The ability to grow as a person or a group depends upon the trust and care you have for one another. It is dependent upon the power you give to one another cultivating authenticity and growth of one another. I think of my own children and how I want them to grow and become who they are meant to be. Do you support growth of your students and families and their communities?

Educational opportunities that are genuinely shared to build upon assets and lessen deficits are borne out of a mutual respect and listening to people. These opportunities allow families to collaborate with the school, to build upon their interests and skill sets, then give back to the school, and perpetuate growth back to the community.

Developing leaders of the community with community-based organizations and the school is critical and challenging when working to restore a power imbalance. It requires a paradigm shift of the school and the families of the community. Relationships between community-based organizations, schools, and families fostering students to become their best selves to further the community is what the authors of “Beyond the Bake Sale: A Community-Based Relational Approach to Parent Engagement in Schools” promote with their look into schools practicing the service model, development model, and organizing model.

Relationships bridged between communities, schools, and families answer the posed question: are schools using power to get things done? The power of the collaboration of the established community-based organizations is to help fill needs or services, teaching families the skills needed to become leaders of the school and community. Listening to the families through informal and formal surveys can help truly meet their needs and determine how to share the power, creating change within the communities.  

We can all relate to the need of relationships. It’s something people do: seek out camaraderie and support. Building relationships between staff and families is critical, but so is encouraging families to build relationships between one another, to perpetuate a vested interest in the future of all of the students of the community. 

Bringing families together through volunteering, educational opportunities, and activities and events provides opportunities for relationships to grow through discussion. This can lead to families coming together to look for ways to solve problems within the school and the community. When families feel valued at the school they are willing to talk and work toward common goals. The school, along with the community-based organizations and the families bring all the components together to create the power to get things done, promoting change for the whole community.

Kristyn Dingledy is an Educational Leadership Master of Arts student in the IU School of Education at IUPUI.

By Jibrea Perryman, Guest Contributor

Trust is an abstract concept that most people believe is needed and a valuable asset. Being able to trust a partner or a partnership means that there is a sense of reliability; they believe in you and are confident in your abilities. There tends to be a sense of safety; physically and emotionally. 

On a personal note, when I’m in a trusting relationship, I know they will not present any harm my way. I believe what they tell me because I trust their words and their actions. For me, trust is typically an underpinning for a friendship. I know that in the education world, specifically community-engaged partnerships, the notion of a friendship, then a trusting partnership will not always occur. However, no one can predict the outcome of reciprocity in trust.

As I synthesize all of the knowledge gained over my course work, trust is one of the key ingredients needed in community-engaged partnerships. Over the course of history, trust in the community has not always been had or valued. This makes forming community partnerships more challenging. The community members have a distaste for researchers who simply come in and take. I’m sure the coined phrase reciprocity in trust isn’t a new statement, but it put into perspective that with true trust, there can be a mutual exchange, where everyone can give and receive in the partnership.  

I read the article  Trust In Participatory Action Community-Engaged Partnerships: Relationships and Historic Trauma Matter. I really learned more about the effects of historical trauma in communities. I have a deep interest in trauma because I’ve seen it play out inside the classroom. This article is a great starting place to begin an inquiry on trauma in the education field.  What I liked about this article is how the researcher’s shared with the audience the reasoning behind why trust in community-engaged partnerships is critical. The researchers’ main goal was to show how “A model of trust formed when partners exhibit relational capital, relational embeddedness, and transparency within the principles of trauma-informed care,” (Carlson et al, 2019, pg. 18).   

The researchers knew there was a not-so-good history between researchers and community members due to previous researchers coming, in taking what they needed and leaving. Often times, they did not even share the data found with the community members. Because of this, the university members knew it was imperative to build a relationship based on trust. Additionally, the researchers had done their due diligence and knew the historical trauma the African American community had faced.  

The team of researchers were very specific in their inquiry-based questions.  They were purposeful in wanting to bring “trauma-responsive interventions” to the identified community.  What I found most fascinating was that the team focused their research inquiry down to two questions:

• What are the major areas of concern for people in the community regarding working with university researchers?

• What are the main best practices that university researchers can do to enhance partnership with the community? 

Prior to reading this article, I had never heard of the thematic analysis method. Carlson et al (2019) states, “The thematic analysis included line by line and axial coding on the quotations in the transcribed data. Further analysis used the constant comparison approach within and across data points,” (Calson et al, 2019, pgs. 20-21). I synthesize this to mean that they more than likely recorded conversations and coded the data collected. Additionally, they compared the data received. From their data analysis they were able to explain their findings and create best practices on how to build trusting relationships.  

The team understood the necessity to be open and transparent with the members of the community. Most of all, the research team members made sure to treat the community members with respect. They didn’t have the notion that they, as the university members, had all the knowledge, while the community members were empty vessels lacking in knowledge.  

Jibrea Perryman is an Educational Leadership Master of Arts student in the IU School of Education at IUPUI.