Introduction
Key Components
Themes and underlying aspects
Examples of projects for Entry 2 portfolios
Gathering evidence
Telling your story through a written narrative

"We decided on a strategy of reaffirming or developing a new mission statement for the school, which would be led not by the school staff and administration, but by the community itself. The school staff recognized that although they believed they were carrying out a community endorsed vision, they also felt it was time to check that aging statement and in so doing revitalize common beliefs about the school’s direction.

"One of the major topics of discussion at this early planning session was the need to include all "stakeholders" in the town of Peacham. Too often, it seemed, decisions concerning the operation of the school or even information regarding the school excluded various groups in town, such as people with no school-age children, elders, or even summer residents. To address this problem while re-designing the strategic plan, we decided to hold a series of "kitchen klatches" in people’s homes to discuss what the mission of the school should be for the 21st century. Using the 1989 mission statement as a starting point, we set out to reach as many community members as possible and to use their input for a new plan.

"Between March and May 2000 we arranged sixteen kitchen meetings throughout Peacham. Via postcard or phone call every resident in the town was invited to participate (Evidence 8 and 9). Volunteer community members facilitated all of the meetings. They developed a "script" and practiced in a small safe setting prior to holding their neighborhood meetings (Evidence 10). As noted in the reflections, these meetings were so inclusive that they gave a voice to "those who aren’t usually involved in school affairs and those who decline to speak out at large meetings."

—Peacham School, Peacham, Vermont (Entry 2)

Promoting strong school-community connections is at the heart of place-based learning. This entry asks you to document a time when building those connections resulted in meaningful community learning and empowerment and to reflect on obstacles you may have encountered (or may still be encountering) along the way. It is based on two fundamental beliefs:

• A community’s adults should be and are learners, who, like students, learn best when "learning in place," and
• Schools draw their strength from their communities, so communities have an important role to play in schools and education.

Key Components

In this entry, you will:

Describe a single initiative or effort that shows evidence of connections between school and the wider community, in which adult community members

• Work with students and other community members in efforts that draw upon and contribute to the place in which they live;
• Have opportunities to learn, take on new roles and relationships, and engage with school folks about what is important in educating the community’s children

Analyze, through the lens of selected evidence,

• The quality and extent of the connections between school and community
• The effectiveness of the work in impacting an issue, problem, or interest that is important to the community
• The extent and quality of the learning and empowerment that has taken place for one or more community members or institutions

The themes and underlying aspects are:

Theme 1: Connections Between School and Community

• Builds school-community connections
• Addresses a community problem, issue, or interest
• Honors the local culture

Theme 2: Process

• Welcomes the questions and complications that arise from the work
• Builds access, communication, and trust

Theme 3: Roles, Relationships, and Power

• Supports adults to take on new roles
  
• Cultivates new leadership
  
• Nurtures new relationships
  
• Promotes shared responsibility and accountability

Theme 4: Community Learning

• Leads to new community understandings
  
• Engages adults in learning
  
• Fosters a culture for learning

This entry, in sum, seeks evidence of occasions when the wider community actively engaged with school folks in ways that were transforming for the community and school—in the form of changed relationships, new understandings, better policies and practices, or other identifiable ways. The original impetus for this work may have arisen in the school, in the community, or in both simultaneously, but at some point, the work has become a joint school-community effort with both having a shared stake in the outcome. If this has happened in an authentic way, it should be possible to document community learning and change as a result of the process.

Depending on the project, "community members" could be anyone in the community, such as business people, community or neighborhood groups, local people with special skills or knowledge, public officials, parents.

Selecting a Project on which to Focus

Choose a single community-based project or effort that your group is currently engaged in or has completed within the past six months—one whose substance and duration make it suitable for examining in depth. Since the entry you create must speak to the themes and aspects just listed, the project you choose should be one that has set its sights on most, if not all, of these goals. This is not to say that it will have met or addressed these goals equally.

Examples of projects for Entry 2 portfolios:

BUILDING A COMMUNITY’S VISION
In 1995, Howard, South Dakota students in the Future Business Leaders of America conducted a cash-flow analysis of local spending habits and found that one third of the community’s disposable income was being spent out of town. They initiated a campaign to raise local spending, netting a 27 percent increase the next year. In a series of "community visioning" meetings, students then brought townspeople together to weigh their shared assets and deficits. Together they mapped out a long-term plan for revitalizing their community and its economy, from installing an ATM machine at the local bank to creating a daycare center. Virtually every resident of Howard has been touched by this work, embodied by a new $15 million Miner County Community Revitalization project with offices on Main Street.

TESTING THE WATERS AT PRETTY CREEK
For two years middle school students and their teachers in East Feliciana, Louisiana, have been testing the waters and charting the ecology of the creek that runs near their school. Their accumulating data suggest that the water in what’s called Pretty Creek is far from pretty, raising concern about an upstream company that may be a polluter. As local residents hear about and absorb this troubling evidence, they, along with the school, face important decisions about whether and how to take action.

LISTENING TO OUR ELDERS
This project arose from a Navajo grandparent’s concern, brought up during a parent-teacher conference, about the way the Fish and Wildlife Department had separated a mother bear and cub that had been roaming through the area. The Wildlife officers had captured the cub and returned it to an area they believed was its original habitat. Though the bear and cub were out of their normal habitat and a possible danger to the people in the community, the grandmother felt that separating the mother from her cub was also a danger to the balance of life. Though normally the school would not have seen this as "school business," teachers and administrators listened carefully and took some initial steps to learn what had happened by speaking with the Fish and Wildlife Department, a tribal elder, and other community members. The school sponsored a community gathering so that the community and school could learn and heal from the incident.

CREATING A SPANISH LANGUAGE INSTITUTE
With 99% of the local population Spanish-speaking — what many would consider a liability — students, teachers, and community members in Edcouch-Elsa, Texas, have launched a Spanish Language Immersion Institute. For three weeks, high school students and teachers from around the country now come to this south Texas town to immerse themselves in Spanish and the local culture. These engaged and engaging visitors, along with the dollars they bring, are creating a new sense of pride and entrepreneurship within the community.

Gathering evidence

Your task now is to gather evidence that illustrates the project or initiative you have selected—evidence that speaks persuasively to the community learning and contributions this project has stimulated around the themes and aspects that concern Entry 2.

Each project takes its own path, and therefore generates its own trail of evidence, but here is a list of different kinds of evidence for you to consider:

Public documents, such as

• Minutes from community meetings that relate to the work of the project
• Mission statements that show changing ideas and values as a result of the project
• Policy or procedures documents that show the effects of the project on changed policy or practices
• Budget documents that relate to the problem, interest, or issue that is the focus of the project

Research documents, such as

• Survey forms or other instruments used to collect data – for a needs assessment, evaluation, or other research in service to the project
• Results of data collection efforts, such as returned surveys
• Data analyses – quantitative (e.g., frequencies, averages, correlations, etc.) or qualitative analyses done on data collected for the project

Media coverage, such as

• Newspaper articles about community interests or issues, to provide background about the origins or effects of the project.
• Newspaper articles that document the work of the featured project, such as a report about a community meeting
• Letters to the editor of the local paper that mention the project and/or the issue the project address
• TV or radio news coverage of project events, to show that the effort is gaining interest (captured in short snippets on audio or videotape or transcriptions)

Documents that help explain the course of the project, such as

• Timelines that depict the course of events and changes in the project
• Documentation of informal data collection, e.g., recall of informal conversations that sparked an idea that was central to the goals or methods of the project
• Planning documents and project budgets that show how resources were used or developed in the project

Evidence that captures the events and/or spirit of the project, such as

• Flyers advertising events related to the featured project
• Sign-up sheets from events related to the project, to show the range of people who participated
• Photos or photo storyboards that show key figures in the project and what they did
• PowerPoint exhibitions, websites, or e-mail that document the project or are the result of the project
• Written correspondence related to the project

The words of the people themselves, captured in

• Interviews or focus groups with community members (documented through audiotape, videotape, or transcripts, perhaps discussing their experiences with the project or the learning process they went through)
• "Testimonials" from community members about how they or things in the community have changed as a result of the project
• Written participant reflections from community members, taken at one or several points in the course of the project

Since this entry focuses on community learning and empowerment, you will want to use evidence that illustrates change over time. That might mean multiple versions of a document (like a mission statement) as it evolves; or it might mean surveys, interviews, or reflections of participants taken "pre and post." It is important to collect data in the pre-stage (baseline data) so that meaningful comparisons can be made when the data is collected at later stages of the project. And remember, this entry is the place to showcase what is going on with adults in the community. There is a role for evidence of student work, activities, and contributions in this entry — provided that the students’ work led to learning on the part of the adults in the community — but the focus here is on adult community members.

In the next section, question 4b asks you to select at least one community member or institution to focus on as a specific instance of community learning and empowerment. Be sure that the evidence you collect will support you in answering this question; if such evidence does not currently exist, you will need to generate it.

Telling your Story through a Written Narrative

Once you have discussed, as a team, your responses to the questions below and paired your answers with strong evidence, appoint one or more people to tackle the job of writing the actual narrative—connecting it directly to the evidence by making specific references throughout the text. The narrative should address the following questions, taking its organization from these five sections and bearing the appropriate, corresponding titles. You do not need to answer every question point-by-point; just make sure that each section provides the information asked for so that an outside reader really understands the goals, methods, and impact of the project.

1. Who put this entry together?

List the people who worked on it and give some idea of who they are in the community, the role they played in the project, and the role they played in developing this entry. This is important because it gives the reader some idea of the point of view of the people who documented the project, their relationship to the project, and the strength and diversity of the team.

2. How did the featured project or initiative come about?

1. Briefly describe the context in which you are working. What is your community like? How many people live there, and why do they live there? Is the geography or history of your area important to understanding how and why people do things? What is your school like? How many students and teachers are there? What is your school and community history regarding place-based work?
2. Who initiated the project and why? What community need does it address?
3. What were the initial goals of the project?

3. Who has participated in the project and what has occurred so far?

1. In 1-2 paragraphs or in a list, outline the major components or steps of the work, in chronological order.
2. Explain why these activities were chosen. How do they address the project’s goals? Are there constraints or opportunities that have led you to one approach over another?
3. Who has been involved in each stage of the work, and what are their roles? What unique perspectives have they brought to the work?
4. What is the nature and quality of the communication among different participants? For example, when people get together, are their interactions focused or diffused? Heated or cool? Respectful or disrespectful?
5. As the work has evolved, what resources have been contributed and by whom?
6. As the work has evolved, how has it responded to emerging needs or interests? To new people wanting to join in?

4. What are the outcomes of the work so far?

1. What are some concrete signs that things are different in the community because of the work you are doing? Are people developing new perspectives? Are there new resources available to address a community problem or need? Are new relationships developing? Is there evidence of a change in a community institution?
2. Pick one or more community members or institutions directly involved in or affected by the project. In their own words or through other evidence, trace their learning and contributions over the course of the project. How have they changed their point of view, developed new roles or relationships, or started doing things differently?
3. How well did you meet the original goals of the project? If some goals have not been fully addressed, what has gotten in the way or changed your focus?
4. What impacts have occurred besides the ones you intended from the outset?
5. Has the project changed the way school and community people think about accountability and responsibility in relation to student learning—on how such learning is best assessed, by whom, and against what standards?
6. How has the work changed the way school and community people think about the role of school in addressing the needs of the community?
7. Were there any especially difficult or challenging aspects of working in the community that were never quite resolved?

5. What are the next steps?

1. Looking back on what you have accomplished, both intended and unintended, what ideas come to mind for the future? How do these ideas build on or otherwise connect to the original initiative?
2. What have you learned from doing this work that will change the way you go about it in the future?
3. Are there people or institutions you will consciously strive to include in your future work? Why is it important to include these particular people?