The first practitioner article I read, “Transforming Out-of-School Challenges Into Opportunities: Community Schools Reform in the Urban Midwest,” by Terrance L. Green and Mark A. Gooden, was about how school leaders can confront issues that exist outside of schools (racism, violence, and inadequate health care are three examples). This article acknowledges that the complex issues that urban communities deal with cannot be solved alone by specific actions from school leaders, but continues to list some tips for teachers and administrators to begin to confront out-of-school challenges. They suggest that school leaders should gain an deep, asset-based understanding about the community they are serving. Teachers and administrators can do this by:

1. Talking to community members to gain an oral history of the community.

2. Once this history is established, holding community dialogues for community members to voice concerns and experience.

3. Listening intently and sharing what they have learned.

These dialogues build trust because there is a mutual understanding of the history of the community and knowledge of why inequities exist, which will help to best solve them in a school setting. 

This article also suggests equity audits to understand the “data around student achievement, graduation rates, suspensions, and teacher assignments, to name a few”(947). From there school leaders can question to what extent their school perpetuates or battles inequity which leads to more school accountability. 

Next the articles proposes community walks to gain richer understandings of the community they are serving and the inequities they face. The article states that teachers and administrators often only drive through the neighborhood they work in and that physically walking through instead will give them valuable insight to the challenges their students and their families face every related to violence, drug use, and health and housing issues. 

By doing these things, teachers and administrators can prevent school closings, which can be a political solution that hurts communities. By engaging meaningfully with a community, a school leader can get to the root of the problem and gather strong support from the community which can prevent school closings. 

The reason I think this article is valuable is because if focuses so heavily on the importance of the community relationships. Community Schools reflect this deep rooted relationship that should exist between a local public school and its community. To connect this to public health in schools, public health is often an area of full of inequities because of housing discrimination and poverty (two things that are prevalent in urban communities). The ideas laid out in this article could work very well to determine what health services are most needed and what the school should provide for its community to make sure everyone succeeds.

The second practitioner article that I read was called, “Dreaming Equity: Super Schools As Community Hubs,” by Christopher Gilham. He writes Super Schools to mean something similar to a Community School that offers health and wellness services. Gilham writes about a Health and Education Tax (HEST) to help deal with the cost of providing health services in a school. He writes that this idea is unpopular but necessary because the benefits a Super School would have. He describes a study he did with two inclusive classrooms with students with severe mental or health issues. One classroom was supported by a mental health clinician, a family support worker, a psychiatrist, and three professional teachers, one had none of these supports. Obviously the classroom with the mental health supports had less crises and more success.

Gilham’s ideas about Super Schools are not different from most people’s but his proposal of a Health and Education Tax is interesting and would probably end up saving local dollars with all the health and wellness benefits that would result from service being provided at Super Schools.

Gilham, Christopher. (2014). “Dreaming equity: Super schools as community hubs.” ATA Magazine 95(1), pp. 35. https://login.ezproxy.bowdoin.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1611798945?accountid=9681

Green, Terrance L. and Gooden, Mark A. (2014).  “Transforming Out-Of-School Challenges Into Opportunities.” Urban Education. 49(8), pp. 930 – 954. doi: 10.1177/0042085914557643