Schools play an integral role in every community.

And since children

eventually grow up to become members of those same communities, it
stands to reason that communities should take an active role in ensuring
schools deliver optimal learning environments to ensure happy, healthy,
successful students.

While families and community partners often donate their time and
resources to help schools thrive, the responsibility for driving community
engagement lies with the schools and their school districts. In this short
blog post, we explore the importance of encouraging community
involvement in schools and provide tips on successfully doing just that.

Importance of
community
involvement in schools
Successful schools understand the importance of establishing good and
harmonious relationships with their surrounding community, according to
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO). And for good reason—community involvement in
schools can help increase access to learning opportunities, boost student
retention, promote optimism among teachers, and improve attendance
rates of children at school.

Increasing access to learning

opportunities
Community-based initiatives can help students gain access to learning
opportunities they would not have had otherwise. The Catapult Canada
Access Innovation Fund (CCAIF) is a great example of this. It is a
government-sponsored initiative that recognizes the importance of
community involvement in schools. It provides funding to community-based
organizations that focus on how young people learn, how they engage at
school, and the tools they use to learn.
Northern Youth Abroad is one community-based organization receiving
CCAIF funding to implement a pilot project that will connect over 20
Indigenous students from across the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and
the Yukon to learning opportunities and academic and other supports at
Camosun College in British Columbia.

Boosting student retention

Community is all about creating a sense of belonging. Having a sense of
belonging means that students feel accepted, valued, and included by their
teachers and peers and consider themselves an important part of their
academic community. They are motivated to learn and engage with their
course, leading to greater attainment and progression, and improved
academic achievement. Research shows that nurturing a sense of
belonging amongst students is at the heart of any successful student
retention strategy.

Promoting optimism among

teachers
A study of urban elementary schools in Virginia found that community
engagement boosted optimism and confidence among teachers. The improved
attitude of teachers in turn led to improved student achievement.

Improving attendance rates

When students feel that they do not belong to a strong community, it can
negatively affect their learning experience—and their attendance rates.
Some groups of students are more likely to feel lower levels of belonging. Those
who identify as LGBTQIA+, who have a disability, or who are from different
cultural, language, or ethnic backgrounds than their peers often feel
underrepresented and are less likely to do well than others, even when their
previous academic achievement is the same.

Community involvement in schools can help with this. When students in minority
groups see themselves represented in the wider community—and see the
involvement of that community in their school—learning experiences and
attendance rates are greatly improved.
How to promote
community
involvement in schools
Building and sustaining community involvement in schools is difficult. While
educators, families, and community partners genuinely care about student success
and well-being, they often have conflicting ideas about how to achieve the best
outcomes:

 A teacher may not know what’s happening in a student’s life outside of

class that may impact success and well-being
 A parent may not understand or agree with a teacher’s approach to
delivering the curriculum
 A local business may not understand the importance of supporting its
local school to ensure future employees have a well-rounded education
To enhance the community’s participation in education, it is essential to promote a
school environment where community members feel welcomed, respected, trusted,
heard, and needed. Here are some ways to do that:

1
Involve both formal and
informal community groups
A school’s community is made up of formal committee groups such as School
Management Committees (SMC), Village Education Committees (VEC), School
Development Committees (SDC), and Parent and Teachers Associations (PTA) as
well as informal groups of community members who can get involved in the
school through special activities or events.

Both sets of community groups bring important perspectives to the table—the

formal groups bring perspectives informed by the inner workings of the school,
and the informal groups bring perspectives from the wider community.
2
Create opportunities to
contribute to strategic
alignment
Community-inclusive processes like participatory decision-making (PDM)
cultivate a broad range of perspectives to inform decision-making.

Encourage participation from all community groups in events and provide them
with opportunities to contribute to decision-making by using unbiased discussion
management tools. Diverse perspectives result in better decisions and help build
social capital.

3
Build community awareness
campaigns
Community awareness campaigns help parents and community members
understand the benefits of their involvement with their local schools. They also
inform community members about the different levels and types of involvement
opportunities, policies, and programs. If your community is bilingual or trilingual,
translate the information to ensure inclusivity and boost representation across all
groups.

UNESCO recommends that community members and school staff feel responsible

for the success of community awareness campaigns. Arrange regular and open
meetings about the school to share important information such as results, funds,
and activities to keep people accountable for any goals set.

4
Use the school as a
community hub
Schools are natural centers for activity in any neighborhood. They are typically
viewed as inviting, safe places where people of all ages can come to access
education, health services, recreation, and culture. These community hubs promote
the well-being of children, their families, and the entire community.

How will you engage

your school’s
community?
When we asked education leaders how the last two years have changed
their approach to work, one central theme emerged: communication and
relationship building with the community is critical.

Building strong relationships with community members, parents, and

students is an education leader's most important job. So, what are you
doing to build these relationships?

Giving communities a neutral platform to share their ideas and opinions is

an excellent place to start. However, it can be difficult for schools to
connect with the diversity of their community using traditional methods like
town hall meetings, surveys, and focus groups. Fortunately, new online
engagement platforms like ThoughtExchange have made it much more
manageable.

An unbiased discussion management platform provides community

members with a safe and convenient way to share and learn from the
diverse thoughts and ideas of others.
 6 Ways Schools Can Involve
Communities Better
“Our community is the epicenter of a big urban city facing a number of environmental
and social justice issues, like food deserts, gentrification, polluted air and water,
flooding, and climate change,” says Furr High School principal Steven Stapleton
“These are not abstract issues—they’re right here, right now, every day.” That’s
why Furr High School, an XQ school in Houston, TX, redesigned its traditional high
model into one that prioritizes learning about community-based problems and
solutions. Located in east Houston near the city’s refineries and petrochemical
plants, Furr doesn’t draw back from the challenges facing the surrounding
community, they approach them head-on and with students at the center.

That’s right. Furr students aren’t just learning about community challenges. They
work alongside community members and learn how to be part of the solution. Case
in point: the Herman Brown Park Community Garden and Fruit Orchard. The garden
is a community-driven initiative, funded by the National Recreation and Park
Association and maintained by Furr students. Through the garden, students get to
learn about ecology, environmental justice, and food sovereignty in a hands-on
context. Students also get to contribute to their local ecosystem while actively
learning from community members, like partner organization Texas Environmental
Justice Advocacy Services (T.E.J.A.S), a Houston-based non-profit dedicated to
environmental activism. Yvette Arellano, Senior Staff, Policy Research & Grassroots
Advocate at T.E.J.A.S., explained, “It’s awesome for us to be able to partner with
Furr, and be able to shed some truth and break their reality a little bit and say, ‘Look,
here are these problems and issues with systems. Here’s the problem with trying to
address those issues in an equitable approach with folks who don’t necessarily look
like you or share your backgrounds.’”

As Furr students learn from their community, they’re also contributing to it through
cultivating the garden that all residents can enjoy—and in doing so, gaining
confidence in themselves as citizens. “Furr makes me want to stay involved,”
explains Furr student Juan. “I want to stay committed to what I’ve been doing. I’ll
continue to be that voice locally and hopefully have an impact on a larger scale.”

High schools everywhere can learn from this approach.

Community Involvement in Schools: What, Why, and

How
It’s easy to say that the community should be involved in high schools. But what
does meaningful community engagement look like, and what are its concrete
benefits—for students, and for the community at large? 

The most common understandings of community involvement in schools usually

include community members dropping into preexisting school structures, through
opportunities like: 

 Volunteering in schools

 Mentoring students

 Inviting families to school events

 School visits from local professionals

 Workshops with community organizations

Taken alone, each of these examples can yield positive benefits for students and
community members alike. However, community involvement in schools can go even
further. High school should prepare students for success in the real world, as original
thinkers, collaborators, and citizens. Part of this work means breaking down the
barriers between the “real world” and the classroom, to create learning experiences
embedded in the community. 

To do this, instead of asking, ‘How can we fit the community into what we’re already
doing?’, educators should ask, ‘How can we partner with community members to
design learning experiences that center the community from the very beginning?’
This question opens the door to examples of meaningful community engagement
like:

 Student projects that solve community challenges

 Long-term partnerships with businesses and nonprofits

 Sharing physical space and resources with community organizations

 Family leadership in decisions about school structure

 Student internships for class credit

The Importance of School and Community Collaboration

Community involvement in schools holds significant benefits for students. As this

policy brief from the National Education Association illustrates, community
involvement in schools leads to:

 Improved attendance

 Greater academic aspirations for students

 Higher grades

 Stronger school reputation

 Positive
relationships between students, teachers, families, and the
community at large

Community involvement in schools also offers students the chance to gain real-world
skills through solving problems and building relationships outside of the classroom.
In doing so, students learn: 

 Critical thinking

 Project management

 Problem solving

 Collaboration

 Self-awareness

Deborah Park, the curator of projects and partnerships at Círculos—an XQ school in

Santa Ana, CA—summed up what these benefits look like in action  for her
students: “They’re getting access to experts in the field. They’re not just leafing
through pages in a textbook. They’re learning from the world around them, and
seeing how their work impacts the community. That’s a real level of empowerment
for students.” 

Read on for six ways high schools can get the most out of community involvement,
to foster this kind of deep, engaged learning.

Six Ways to Involve The Community in High School

Involving the community isn’t a one time intervention. Getting the most out of
community involvement means making relationships with the community a central
tenet of school mission and culture. These six recommendations focus on how to do
just that, building sustainable, equitable systems for community involvement.

#1: Focus on Involvement from Families and Caregivers

Students’ families and caregivers are some of the most immediate and important
community members surrounding schools. Families and caregivers have crucial
insights into what their students need to succeed, and can help ensure that students
feel supported academically at home, as well as at school. The Urban League of
Louisiana synthesized several studies on the relationship between family
involvement in schools and student success, to find that, overwhelmingly, family
involvement creates positive benefits for students. These benefits include
improvements in: 

 Grades

 Attendance

 Graduation rates

 College enrollment

However, despite these benefits, families often face barriers to getting involved with
their children’s school. Some of these barriers are logistic, like not being able to
make an in-person school town hall. Others are more relational, like parents not
feeling that their perspective is valued by the school system. 

Brooklyn Laboratory High School, an XQ school in Brooklyn, New York, has worked
to overcome these barriers to prioritize family involvement since day one. As a
school with a commitment to serve all learners, where over a third of students qualify
for special education services, Brooklyn LAB leaders understand that getting family
input is crucial to supporting students. This became especially true during the
unprecedented circumstances of the pandemic, when educators and caretakers all
faced a crash course in how to support a new set of student needs. To meet the
moment, Brooklyn LAB stepped up their partnership with families to a new level: they
hosted over 150 town halls, focus groups, and one-on-ones with students and
families to ensure that families were heard, seen, and valued. Based on community
feedback and expertise, Brooklyn LAB crafted a unique hybrid schedule that truly
served students—allowing meaningful learning to continue with minimal disruptions. 

Brooklyn LAB’s approach is a road-map for how high schools can invite meaningful
engagement and involvement from families. Based on their experience, Brooklyn
LAB compiled equity by design, a resource that guides schools on how to
communicate with families to foster involvement. Explore this guide to build
relationships with families that are: 
  Collaborative

 Empathetic

 Transparent and truthful

 Accessible and inclusive

 Resilient

For more examples of how to involve families in high school, check out our deep dive
into the relationship between parental and family involvement and student success,
where we’ve compiled resources around how to:

 Create parent and family advocacy groups

 Expand volunteer opportunities

 Offer home visits

 Get information out in the community

 Schedule regular student meetings

 Host family workshops

#2: Prioritize Flexible Learning Approaches

Inviting deep community engagement means having the flexibility to shape learning
experiences around the challenges, expertise, and projects that community
members bring to the table. Approaches to meaningful, engaged learning that offer
this flexibility are often: 

 Project-based: Students gain skills and knowledge through tackling real-

world projects and challenges

 Interdisciplinary: Students synthesize skills and content from multiple

disciplines to come up with new ways to address challenges

 Competency-based: Students progress through content based on how well

they’ve mastered material, not the time they’ve spent in classroom seats

 Student-centered: Learning is rooted in and driven by student interest, with

students leading and evaluating their own progress

Círculos embodies how to build a curriculum that centers community involvement.

Círculos’s place and project-based learning curriculum, P 2BL, opens the door to
meaningful community involvement by engaging students in projects in the
community related to their interests. As part of this curriculum, Círculos students
spend two afternoons a week with a local business or non-profit, working on projects
to enrich the community. Through these partnerships, students gain confidence in
their own skills as well as exposure to different industries and community expertise,
opening the doors to their futures. 

For example, Círculos student Sofia discovered a passion for architecture, a field
she had never considered through partnering with local design firm Visioneering
Studios. Sofia always knew she loved art, but didn’t believe she could make a career
out of it—until she saw architects working in the field. And Sofia didn’t just observe
experts at work. As part of this partnership, she worked to design a public gathering
space out of a previously under-used alley, gaining confidence and academic skills
through real-world applications. Sofia described the power of getting to do this work
in her community: “It’s a lot more fun to work on (a project like this) when you can
actually be in the physical place you’re learning about. It’s inspiring.” Círculos
educator Jessica Salcedo underscored this, explaining, “We’re taking all the
resources of the community and making them available to our students. The
mentors, the expertise—it’s all at their fingertips.”

It takes planning and intentional design to ensure that community projects map onto
students’ academic development—but as Círculos shows, the benefits for students
are well worth it.

You can ensure that community-based projects meet rigorous academic standards
by asking these questions: 

 Does the project address an authentic community need? 

 Does the project support interdisciplinary learning, requiring students to draw

from a range of knowledge and skills? 

 Is the project student-driven, connecting to student interests?

 Has the project been designed with attention to school and state academic
standards and competencies?

 Do students have an opportunity to demonstrate and evaluate their learning?

 Do students have an opportunity to receive feedback on their work from

teachers and community members, and revise based on that feedback?


#3: Design Learning Experiences Together

For better community involvement, don’t wait until you’ve already planned a lesson
or designed a class to invite community partnership. Instead, invite community
involvement from the very beginning of a design cycle—whether designing a class, a
project, or even a whole high school. This approach ensures that community
interests are represented from day one, creating partnerships that are rigorous and
mutually beneficial. 

No school community exemplifies this community-based approach to design more

than Iowa BIG, an XQ school in Cedar Rapids, IA. School builders made Iowa BIG
with the vision that students and community members could work together to solve
real problems in Cedar Rapids. To put this vision into action, 60 community
members representing a wide swath of Cedar Rapids went “back to school” for a day
—and used what they learned to build a whole new model for high school. Now,
Iowa BIG students learn by doing, and work on community “initiatives” proposed by
community partners, like partnering with a non-profit helping immigrant and refugee
families to build a 20-plot community garden, or building a replica Berlin Wall for a
local museum. These projects empower students, and they also help the community
—Iowa BIG now receives more project proposals from the community than they can
actually take on!

While designing alongside community members is crucial, it’s not always easy.
Engaging a wide range of community stakeholders—from business leaders, to
activists, to families, to artists, to nonprofits—also means navigating a big range of
opinions and interests. Our comprehensive design tool, XQ In A Box, can help
navigate these conversations. We built this tool to help schools engage in the
process of redesigning and rethinking the high school experience—and we
specifically focused on how to engage the community. Explore XQ In a Box to find
conversation-guiding resources on:

 How to build a team of stakeholders from the community

 How to expand community partnerships

 How to articulate a shared vision

#4: Center Equity

Equity in Outreach: Bring all Voices to the Table

At its best, community involvement is a powerful way to ensure that high schools
function by and for the communities they serve. However, this isn’t always what
happens in practice. Too often, the way that high schools facilitate community
involvement excludes large portions of the community. Jonathan Santos Silva,
founding executive director of The Liber Institute, explained, “The people who are
most impacted by the way our system is designed to reinforce oppressive structures
or White supremacy are the last ones we usually engage.” Recognizing and
correcting this pattern is crucial to promoting equity for students and community
members alike. Santos Silva described what this looks like: “It’s really about
elevating these talented, innovative, creative leaders so that we can say, ‘Hey, these
communities have ideas and solutions, if we would only engage them to truly be
partners.’ Our work is incomplete without those perspectives.” 

Elevating all community voices starts with communication—with who schools reach

out to, and how they do it. Our colleagues from the Educating All Learners
Alliance shared tips on how to promote equitable communication around school
decisions: 

 Recognize the cultural values that parents bring to the table

 Prioritize
input from BIPOC families, low-income families, and families of
students with disabilities

 Communicate with consistency and intention, following up if initial outreach

efforts don’t work

 Be transparent about how community feedback is being incorporated into

school politics

Equity in Resources: Make Sure All Students Get What They Need

Equity in high schools means that every student is given the tools and support they
need to succeed in school. Community involvement can supply students with these
resources, going beyond what high schools alone can provide. 

These benefits of community involvement for students are evident at DaVinci RISE
High, an XQ school in Los, Angeles, California. School builders founded Da Vinci
RISE High to meet the needs of students undergoing serious disruptions to their
academic journeys: students in foster care, students experiencing homelessness,
and students involved with the carceral system. In order to succeed in school, these
students need more than the academic support that teachers can provide. To fulfill
these needs, Da Vinci RISE co-located with community nonprofits: A Place Called
Home, a multi-service agency for Los Angeles youth that provides support in the
arts, education, and wellness, and New Earth, a nonprofit providing mentor-based
arts, educational, and vocational programs to juvenile justice and system involved
youth. Students can easily access these community resources as part of their high
school experience, enabling them to show up to class fully supported and prepared
to succeed. 
Your school doesn’t have to co-locate with community organizations to take a lesson
from Da Vinci RISE’s model. Consider how you can weave community resources like
counseling, mentorship, arts programming, and wellness into your high school
through these questions:

 How can we gather input from students and families about what resources
they need?

 Where are the gaps in terms of resources our school can provide?

 What community organizations and stakeholders provide those resources?

 How can we integrate opportunities for students to access those resources

into the day-to-day structure of the school? 

#5: Make the Community the Campus

Expand the possibilities of community involvement by expanding your idea of where

a high school campus starts and ends. Instead of asking community partners to
come to you, consider how you can facilitate community involvement within the
community itself.

One literal way to make the community the campus is to co-locate, like Da Vinci
RISE, sharing classroom space alongside community partners. That’s the idea
behind Crosstown High—an XQ school in Memphis, TN. When Memphis community
members began the process of dreaming and designing their ideal high school, they
knew they wanted to set students up for collaborative, real-world learning. So, in
partnership with Crosstown Arts, they located their school in Memphis’s newly
developed Crosstown Concourse, a hub of local activity that includes arts
organizations, health care providers, a YMCA, restaurants, a credit union, a
pharmacy, higher education institutions, foundations, and nonprofits. By sharing
space with these community businesses, students get to learn from and with
community members on a day-to-day basis. This includes informal interactions as
well as formal projects, like a partnership with a local graphic designer to design
logos for student-run businesses.

Of course, not every school can physically share space with community
organizations. But even educators working in traditional school buildings can adopt
the mindset of making the community the classroom. Crosstown environmental
science teacher Nikki Wallace embodies this mindset, expanding her classroom
beyond the walls of the concourse to include the city of Memphis as a whole.
Wallace asks students to examine the city, including their own backyards, for
evidence of the concepts they’re learning about in class. For example, Wallace is
working with doctors at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in
Memphis to create a curriculum called Cancer Learning in My Backyard, exploring
how diet, environment, behavior, and other factors impact individuals’ cancer risks.
By making the community the classroom, Wallace empowers students to connect
their learning to their real lives—and to take action as a result. She explained, “In
order for kids to ‘get it,’ they have to see what the problems are in their own
communities. But that makes them more committed to learning, too. I tell my
students, ‘you are the ones who are going to solve these problems.”

#6: Create Real-World and Workplace Experiences for Students

Community involvement can lead to concrete outcomes for students beyond just
grades—like job experience, and even compensation. Facilitate these opportunities
to motivate students and prepare them for success after high school. 

Skylar, a student at Elizabethton High, an XQ school in rural Tennessee,

experienced the benefits of a paid internship first-hand. He spent the summer after
his junior year of high school completing a paid internship at Lobaki, a small tech firm
that creates virtual reality experiences for schools. While Skylar was nervous at first,
the experience ultimately changed his life. “I love it here. It’s been amazing. I wake
up excited to go to work,” he explained. “And there’s nothing like real job experience.
I’ve learned and progressed so much. … And it’s exciting to be a part of the VR
industry. VR has so much potential, and we’re only beginning to see what that is.”
Getting paid to complete this internship was a crucial factor for Skylar. “I grew up in a
poor family. If this job didn’t pay, I never could have done it,” he said. “I’ve even been
able to save some money.”

This transformative experience was possible because Skylar’s teacher, Alex

Campbell, pursued a partnership with Lobaki’s chief executive Vince Jordan. After
Campbell heard about Lobaki and realized it might be a good fit for his students, he
invited Jordan to campus to build a relationship and see what Elizabethton students
could do. Students were ready to seize the opportunity, thanks to the preparation
they’d received in school: in an effort to prepare students for well-paying jobs in tech
industries, Elizabethton launched a virtual reality program that gives students the
skills they need to do entry-level VR work. Now, students like Skylar are more than
prepared for opportunities like the one at Lobaki. 

Educators can set up students for internships and paid work experience in the
community by:

 Identifying sectors that align with their students’ career interests

 Looking for areas of mutual interest, where working with high school students
can benefit an organization’s goals

 Building relationships with community business leaders

  Designinglearning experiences that will give students the skills they need to
be prepared for work in the field

Building Stronger High Schools Through Community

Ultimately, high schools are community institutions. Each day, students come to
school carrying their experiences of community, and when they leave school, they
take the knowledge and skills they’ve gained back out into the community with them.
Intentionally involving community resources, energy, and expertise in high school
improves learning outcomes for students, has a positive impact on the community,
and contributes to the sustainability of high schools moving forward. We hope you
join us in continuing to build strong partnerships with communities on behalf of
students.

7 Reasons Why Community

Involvement in Schools is
Important
The commitment between the schools and community to work together is just
starting for some schools, while others have reached a significant
development in this regard. Each community’s involvement in schools is
different as the needs of each community are different. However, the basics
are the same – student success. 

Schools are essential for community involvement. They are the main point
where families and children interact and learn how to be the needed
successful members of society. 

Benefits of community involvement in schools

Community involvement in schools greatly benefits students, parents, and
teachers. More than just offering your time, being involved in activities with
your children improves the relationship between children and parents.

This is just the starter, as community involvement in schools has many

benefits:

 – Improves academic engagement

 – Increases life success in the long term

 – Helps students choose higher-level programs

 – A decrease in the school dropout

Examples of community involvement in schools 

In-person events 
Having events where families can come together, share insights into their
needs, put the basis of their community, and see how they can work together
to create a better future for their children are great opportunities. 

Large-scale events like this help create opportunities for community

participation. Significant or short-scale events effectively improve and grow
community participation, connect with teachers, and understand the
classroom’s needs. 

Workshops with local professionals 

Engaging businesses and professionals in holding different workshops for
students and their families is also a great way of community involvement in
schools. These can have different themes, and students can learn from
professionals and gain skills that can help them in the real – world. They can
also create relationships with these people and opt for different workshops
where they can learn and help diminish teh gap between the education and
the industry fields. 

Virtual experiences
Pandemic or not, virtual experiences can help communities get a hold of real-
world needs. There are virtual tours students can go on and experience the
community outside the classrooms. They will see how the skills they learn in
education will help them solve real-world issues. 
Importance of community involvement in schools 
Advantages for teachers 
 A better understanding of children’s needs

Students whose families participate and get involved in the community at

school have a more transparent life for teachers. That means teachers get to
know the families they come from, their needs, how they are helped at home,
and the possibilities they have. The direct relations with parents that teachers
can have can help teachers understand where children need help with
learning.  

Shared responsibility and accountability

Teachers have a big responsibility to provide the best education to their

students. However, when a community of parents is involved in helping and
supporting the student’s success, they can commit mainly to providing the best
academic information. 

Advantages for students 

As parents are directly involved in their children’s education path, they help
with homework, provide at-home learning opportunities, and help their children
understand how to strategise their learning path. 

Increased Student Achievement

More than just making their parents proud, the happiness of having their
parents at their side and guiding them cannot compare to anything. Seeing
their parents’ involvement and interest in their education, children tend to
follow in the footsteps their parents leave and demonstrate they can grow and
learn. They will just be happy to give back to their parents the feeling of
happiness when their results come in. 

Improved Attendance and Behavior

Student absenteeism can be a severe problem for today’s teenagers who lack
the will and guidance from their parents or counselors. 

Thus, school initiatives involving parents and the community can help students
with low attendance find their path and see how education affects their lives.
This means parents that know their children’s whereabouts pay attention to
their children’s needs and, listen to them, talk to them to help them solve any
problems they may have in understanding a course. 
Continue with higher education

Higher education programs are sometimes seen as extra students don’t care
about doing just because they can have it another way.

However, being a part of a school where community involvement shows how

important education is, what they can accomplish when they are specialists in
a field, and what contributions they can bring to the world can help change
their minds. 

Advantages for schools

Stronger School Reputation

The success of a school is built on its reputation. 

While there is subjectivity, subjective or not, each review the parents see about
the school helps them decide whether to enroll their children there. 

A school that offers the opportunity for parents to get involved and creates a
solid family-school community is a school where parents feel teh needs of their
daily are listened to, and they can have a say in the school’s decisions. At the
end of the day, it affects their children’s future. 

Improve their practices

Once the community gets more involved in the education program, schools
can discover their strengths and weakness and solve them accordingly. By
finding best practices for the educational programs they offer, they can
improve them and become a school where children’s success is essential. 

Conclusion
“When schools, parents, families, and communities work together to support
learning, students tend to earn higher grades, attend school more regularly,
stay in school longer, and enroll in higher level programs.” National Education
Association (NEA)

Community involvement in schools FAQ 

Why is community involvement important in schools? 
Because of the community involvement programs, students can be more
successful and engaged in their school life. This leads to higher achievement
both for them as well as the school. 
What are some examples of community involvement? 
Community involvement examples can be events with local community and
business, parents’ participation in after-school and extracurricular activities,
and participation in the school’s decisions. 

How does community involvement in schools help students? 

More than just being thrilled to have their parents near, students are more
engaged in their activities, participate in extracurricular activities, are actively
more interested in the classes, and have better academic success.