At a time when education is receiving so much national attention, the Coalition for Community Schools is pleased to share the findings of Making the Difference: Research and Practice in Community Schools. Making the Difference demonstrates that community schools are an important solution to the task at hand — improving student learning.While schools are facing immense pressure to increase achievement levels on their own, we believe it is time to recognize the power that communities, working with educators in community schools, bring to the challenge of educating all of our young people to high standards.

Making the Difference renews the historic vision of our schools as centers of our communities — places where everyone in a community works in partnership to educate children. People across the country who are working hard to create community schools understand that bringing school and community assets together will help young people succeed in school and life, and will make their families and communities stronger.This report reflects the work of thousands of community schools nationwide.

To our knowledge, this is the first time that research from multiple fields and disciplines has been organized, together with community schools research, to make a strong case for community schools. Making the Difference uses research and evaluation data, along with local school experiences and common sense to illustrate why community schools are so important to the education and development of all our children.

We encourage you to use this report to build partnerships and strengthen support for creating and sustaining community schools.