Promise Neighborhoods: A New Support System in Education

This is part three in a three part series concerning support for students. The first part covered formal support systems; the second part covered negatively enabling students; and the third part covers Promise Neighborhoods.

Promise Neighborhoods is "a bold new initiative to break the cycle of generational poverty by improving the educational outcomes and overall life prospects of low-income children and their families." The premise is that if students are the focal point of a community, with support from schools and family, and then they will succeed. The idea is sensible and will probably thrive in most neighborhoods like it is working in Harlem, which is the model for schools writing grant applications. The Promise Neighborhoods' vision is that "all children growing up in Promise Neighborhoods have access to effective schools and strong systems of family and community support that will prepare them to attain an excellent education and successfully transition to college and career." Promise Neighborhoods may be the welcome format for empowering students, especially at-risk students.

Part of the idea is that Promise Neighborhoods comes from Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's view that schools should be open 12-14 hours a day. A perhaps utopist view, Duncan's proposed idea would work like this: actual school buildings, which taxpayers fund, would be community meeting and gathering places. Adults could rent out small meeting rooms for a book club meeting or hold a recital in the theater. Instead of paying for a gym membership, citizens would run their local school's track, swim laps in its pool, and run on the same treadmill their child did a few hours before.

Turning schools into community centers is a big change, and before towns begin using facilities in this manner, they need to prepare. A school needs to be a learning environment, first and always. Unmonitored people could steal, break property, or simply leave a mess. Teachers may have to sweep and pick up garbage from the stage before speech class begins on a Monday. Schools (or the city) would need to hire supervisors to deal with legal issues that potentially could surround accidents and fights. At the very least, such large facilities would need a gym manager to coordinate group practices and exercise classes. Sometimes, a good thing gets started without foresight. Combine that with citizens' reluctance to change education-it would be hurtful to Promise Neighborhoods if headlines reported a lack of preparation.

After the logistics are planned, the school would be a community center. The goal of this is for students to be the focus, the center of a community. When students realize everyone invests and believes in them, they will be empowered and driven to succeed. It is a wise investment, as is any well-planned undertaking for students, the future.

Photo Credit: Ioan Sameli