Monica Medina
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Changing demographics and socioeconomic factors challenge public schools in urban cities across the nation. Community schools are used by many urban cities to address these challenges. Community Schools are collaborative partnerships that lead to improved student learning and healthier neighborhoods. Community-based partners, along with educators and families, create a school climate that is supportive, respectful, and conducive to learning. A particular strength of the community school model is local decision-making and a collaborative evaluation process. Site leadership teams- community school coordinators, parents, residents, teachers, staff, and students – make school-based decisions for school improvement. Site leadership teams also focus on making decisions that fulfill the needs of students, families, and the immediate community, while aligning those needs with academic goals.
Through mixed methods and participatory design, Dr. Monica Medina and her team engage in a process to assess school and community needs and present their findings to the larger community. Since 2008, Dr. Medina’s research has supported three community school grants awarded from the U.S. Department of Education in nine Indianapolis Public Schools.
Dr. Medina’s work to strengthen community schools is another example of how IUPUI faculty are TRANSLATING RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE.
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Item The Power of Community School Councils in Urban Schools(Peabody Journal of Education, 2020-01-30) Medina, Monica; Grim, Jim; Cosby, Gayle; Brodnax, RitaDemand for school reform, particularly urban schools labeled as “failing,” requires a community engagement strategy centered on intermingled social problems: poverty, racial isolation and discrimination, cultural clashes, socio-economic inequalities, and funding disparities. While school administrators are challenged to turn schools around with limited time and resources quickly, their efforts are not a silver bullet. Engaging community requires committed partnerships that support schools to advance quality learning. Community school councils, an organizing strategy, focus on addressing potential threats and enhancing strengths for student success. This case study describes the participatory action structure of community school councils in an urban public high school, a middle school, and three elementary schools. The theoretical framework of the study is based on Bryk’s five essential elements of school improvement and their interplay that predicts school improvement or stagnation in the long term (Bryk et al., 2010) and more recent findings that community schools demonstrate an evidence-based strategy for equitable school improvement. This study is relevant to school communities with comparable demographics interested in a comprehensive strategy that expands the traditional educational mission to address social/emotional and health needs of children and families by engaging the broader community to support student learning, strengthening families and school communities.Item Strengthening Community Schools through University Partnerships(Peabody Journal of Education, 2013-10-23) Officer, Starla; Grim, Jim; Medina, Monica; Bringle, Robert; Foreman, AlyssaGiven the mounting call for academic achievement gains in America's public schools—particularly urban schools labeled “failing”—the need for community engagement to tackle a host of underlying social challenges warrants the resources of the nation's colleges and universities (Harkavy & Hartley, 2009). Because colleges and universities are often underutilized anchors of resources in communities, coordinated alignment of K-12 and higher education goals can create a seamless pipeline of educational attainment for communities challenged to produce high academic achievement. Higher education's engagement with community schools further helps to address the whole child and their families in K-12 education by expanding the opportunities for the students and community to access necessary support services. Drawing upon experiences of Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and collaboration with its adjacent neighborhoods, this article illustrates the transformative and relevant impact of university and community engagement, as well as new pedagogical approaches to teaching, learning, and training. This article reflects upon the experiences of IUPUI and nearby George Washington Community High School as it can uniquely serve as a roadmap for other school community/university partnerships that are interested in embarking upon a similar education reform path.Item Community Engagement Through Partnerships: Lessons Learned from a Decade of Full-Service Community School Implementation(Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, Special Edition Prospectus, 2020) Medina, Monica; Cosby, Gayle; Grim, JimImproving performance in an environment often tested by intermingled social problems, including poverty, racial isolation, cultural clashes between teachers and students, and school funding disparities requires authentic, committed family, school, and community partnerships. Using Bryk’s (2010) model for effective and improving schools, our study describes challenges and achievements experienced over a decade of implementing the full-service community school (FSCS) reform in two neighborhoods in Indianapolis, Indiana. We also share lessons about funding, collaborative structures and processes, and organizational responses to change. The study has broad implications for both FSCSs and urban schools with comparable demographics that are working to build effective partnerships to address social problems in lasting waysItem A Decade of Lessons: Community Engagement Perspectives from a University-Assisted School Community(Center for Service and Learning, IUPUI, 2011) Grim, Jim; Medina, Monica; Officer, StarlaIn 2000, the Indianapolis Near-Westside welcomed the reopening of George Washington High School as George Washington Community School. The school had closed in 1995. This document draws on the decade of lessons and is designed to serve as a resource for groups harnessing the power of their own school communities.Item Building on a legacy – taking a community schools project to scale(Partnership Press, Children's Aid Society, New York City, 2016) Grim, Jim; Medina, MonicaSchool community partnerships provide a bedrock of stability and continuity in the midst of a tsunami of educational change on the Near Westside of Indianapolis. Central to the firmly imbedded partnerships is George Washington Community High School (GWCHS) — as well as Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center and IUPUI (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis), two key collaboration facilitators for decades.Item Family, School, Community Engagement in Community Schools Research Brief(Midwest Center for University-Assisted Community Schools, IUPUI, Indiana Partnerships Center, 2011-09) Grim, Jim; Medina, Monica; Short, Angela; Garvey, Jackie; Malone, LaTasha; Daugherty, LindseyDiscussion of public school reform draws attention to a typically overlooked essential of academic success: family and community engagement. Any serious reform cannot ignore authentic family/school/community engagement as an essential ingredient, according to a seven-year study by researchers at the University of Chicago who looked into some 200 “turnaround” schools efforts and outcomes in the Windy City. In fact, the Chicago study found that only 10 percent of the turnaround schools without solid family and community engagement (or one of four other identified essentials) realized academic improvement (Bryk, Sebring, et. al., 2010)Item Perspectives from the Midwest: University-Assisted Community Schools Engagement(Netter Center for Community Partnerships, University of Pennsylvania, 2020-09) Grim, Jim; Medina, Monica A.; Oglesby, Nicole Y.Connecting the dots and engaging in community partnerships is nothing new to Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). For decades, IUPUI has played an integral role in supporting urban schools and revitalizing urban communities through authentic collaboration that notably represents university-community engagement on multiple fronts and levels of commitment. A promise to equity education in public schools is evident in authentic approaches to collaboration with community partners that embrace shared leadership supported by community based action research and inquiry-supported practices to strengthen school communities. Through forging powerful community partnerships, IUPUI supports programs and services in community schools, advancing an advocacy and policy agenda that sustains the spirit of community schools throughout the state (Medina, Murtadha, & Grim, 2020). IUPUI has provided school communities professional development and technical assistance focused on the development of community schools through partnerships facilitation and community council development. The university has a history of preparing students to work among K-12 school/university partnerships to address issues in school climate and socialization as impacted by differences in culture and leadership through interdisciplinary understanding (Murtadha-Watts, Belcher, Iverson, & Medina, 1999). This vibrant example of scholars working alongside practitioners in assessing program standards, questioning vexing contradictions, and addressing the pestilence of bias in low-income school communities is what makes this work unique and a model for other urban districts (Medina, Murtadha, & Grim, 2020). A university-assisted community school, by definition, features an anchor university partner that provides a significant and intentional role in implementing the strategy in collaboration with school community stakeholders. Founded on John Dewey’s theory that the neighborhood school functions as the core neighborhood institution, this approach provides comprehensive services, engaging community institutions and groups to solve the immense and complex challenges schools and community confront in a rapidly changing world (Harkavy, Hartley, Hodges & Weeks, 2013). Two decades ago, renowned scholar Joy Dryfoos, citing the work of Penn and the Netter Center, concluded that the work of university faculty and students, along with principals and teachers, can transform the public school into a community center and neighborhood hub. For example, in university-assisted community schools, college student-led youth art projects become attractive murals that decorate hallways, and students and staff perform theatrical events that trace the local history of the community (Dryfoos, 2000). IUPUI’s response to the urgent call for academic achievement gains has centered on community-engaged initiatives and a steadfast commitment to equity education in public schools. Through the university-assisted community school model, the aim has been to foster new and authentic approaches to collaboration with community partners, embracing shared leadership sustained by community-based action research and inquiry-supported practices that strengthen school communities. This article describes the history of university-assisted programs, brief descriptions of example programs and services, and a research strategy that highlights IUPUI’s commitmentsItem Community Engagement Through Partnerships: Lessons Learned from a Decade of Full-service Community School Implementation(Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 2019-05-14) Medina, Monica; Cosby, Gayle; Grim, JimImproving performance in an environment often tested by intermingled social problems, including poverty, racial isolation, cultural clashes between teachers and students, and school funding disparities requires authentic, committed family, school, and community partnerships. Using Bryk’s (2010) model for effective and improving schools, our study describes challenges and achievements experienced over a decade of implementing the full-service community school (FSCS) reform in two neighborhoods in Indianapolis, Indiana. We also share lessons about funding, collaborative structures and processes, and organizational responses to change. The study has broad implications for both FSCSs and urban schools with comparable demographics that are working to build effective partnerships to address social problems in lasting ways.Item Community Schools as a Vehicle for Social Justice and Equity(University of Tennessee-Knoxville, IGI Global, 2020) Medina, Monica; Murtadha, Khaula; Grim, JimA deficit narrative of academic success in low-performing schools is articulated in cultural norms set by those who fail to understand how poverty and racial inequality manifests through daily interactions, beliefs, and biases. Work to address race and poverty are emotional, complicated, and challenging because the concepts are avoided, minimized, or disputed by a dominant narrative and privileged cultures that oppress students of color. This chapter is not about a study of race or poverty nor does it seek to forward understanding of how race and class intersect. Instead, it focuses on the ways a university has promoted social justice and equity in the development of community schools. This work encompasses: the influence of change through advocacy and policy, issues of school culture and climate, and shared leadership. It recognizes emerging perceptions impacting health, violence, and food security that cause socio/emotional issues not considered when critically addressing issues of race and poverty. Therefore, community schools are a vehicle for social justice and equity.Item Your Life. Your Story. Latino Youth Summit: Building Latino Adolescent Resilience Through a Successful Community-Academic Partnership(Ball State University, 2016) Conrad, Katrina K.; Bigatti, Silvia M.; Diaz, Virna; Medina, Monica A.; Mirabal, Magdy; Weathers, Tess D.; Social and Behavioral Sciences, School of Public HealthDeveloping successful relationships between academia and community can be difficult. Investigators who want to work with community organizations often do not know where to start, or how to carry them out well. However, successful collaborations can speed up the transition from research to practice, and bring interventions to communities more effectively. We present the development of a successful partnership and the consequent intervention program, Your Life. Your Story., a yearlong resiliency-building intervention for Latino youth at risk for depression. We present the exploratory study where our relationship began, as well as the preliminary findings that led to the design of our intervention. We then present the detailed components of the resiliency-building, emotional expression, coping and social support intervention. We also present preliminary qualitative and quantitative results and show the yearlong intervention plan. Throughout, we show, in sections in italics, how the partnership guaranteed that the study and intervention would succeed.