The Role of "Community" in Comprehensive School, Family, and Community Partnership Programs

In this article, I examine the role of "community" in school-based programs of school, family, and community partnerships. I offer a working definition of school-community partnerships, discuss the benefits of school-community collaboration, identify gaps in current knowledge in the field, and analyze survey data collected from over 400 schools across the United States that are members of the National Network of Partnership Schools. Analyses were conducted to learn more about the types of community partners with whom schools collaborate, the foci of school-community partnerships, the challenges schools face in developing community partnerships, strategies to address challenges to community partnership development, and factors that influence schools' satisfaction with their community partnership activities. Steps needed in research and practice to improve community connections within comprehensive school, family, and community partnership programs are discussed.