The Community Responsibility Initiative is a suite of projects designed to align, affirm, and deepen community and family support of our students and our schools.  During the winter and spring of 2010, Superintendent of Schools, Melinda Boone, created a Task Force composed of her staff, national experts, faculty, principals, and community members to develop an accountability plan for the Worcester Public Schools.  After several months of intense work, the Task Force produced the District Accountability Framework.  With goals and indicators of progress in the areas of student achievement, safe and welcoming schools, family and community engagement, and communication, the document provides the basis of a roadmap for public school departments and individual schools to engage in ongoing improvement.  Those working on the project developed a sense not only of the challenges facing our schools, but also of the work that is ahead and what is possible given the unique combination of strengths that characterize our city including deep cultural assets, a spectrum of higher education institutions, and a depth of businesses reflecting the changing landscape in health care, biotechnology, and other technologies.

As the work of the District Accountability Task Force wound to a close, the community members of the group continued to meet with the goal of creating a structure that would harness and align the efforts of those with a demonstrated interest in the education of our children.  This series of meetings over the 2010-2011 year led by the Worcester Education Collaborative resulted in  Community Responsibility Initiative, a distinctive and groundbreaking effort , including a set of actions leading to sustained and systemic improvements to the Worcester Public Schools and as a result, to the quality of our common life.    The Community Responsibility Initiative projects are noted below.

The Community Responsibility Framework

A companion to the District Accountability Framework described above, The Community Responsibility Framework is a mechanism to focus and align out-of-school and in-school services for students with the goals of the District in the area of high student achievement, safe and welcoming schools, communication, and parent and community engagement.  It includes a set of measures against which community partners can assess their impact with respect to student and school needs and specific District measures.  We believe that if community providers of educational, after-school and co-curricular programs understand and align their work with those of the individual schools and the District overall through the Community Responsibility Framework then:

• student time on learning and skills reinforcement will be expanded beyond the school day leading to increased educational outcomes
• learning loss during summer and term-time vacation periods will be reduced
• the concept of community as campus will enhanced

The Education Roundtable

The Education Roundtable is a forum made up of those organizations, agencies, and institutions with a demonstrated interest in education.  The Roundtable convenes at least quarterly for a briefing from the schools, an educational presentation, and shared problem solving.  If Forum members create a community of learners and practice that shares best practices, solve problems, spots emerging issues, monitors community progress against agreed upon articulated in the Accountability plan then:

• their collective impact will be brought to bear in service of systemic and structural change

• we will see an aligned response to school and student needs
• we will see increased opportunities for students to acquire college and career skills and a greater depth and breadth of knowledge as a result of meaningful community partnerships aligned with curriculum and other expectations

The Community Agreement

With community wide roll-out anticipated in October of 2011, The Community Agreement is the “campaign” for public education. It affirmatively asserts the support of institutions, families, and students for our schools as a way of investing in the future of our city.  The project includes a Community Agreement to which organizations and institutions are signatories and commitment cards by which families and students can set personal goals for education. If students, parents and community entities from all sectors sign on to the community agreement and if students and parents make personal commitments to teaching and learning, then:

• we will have a deep vertical commitment to teaching and learning in the Worcester Public Schools

• public school students and families will have an understanding of their responsibility in teaching and learning

Please see our Facebook page and Blog for more information  to sign the Community Agreement and to share your commitment to personal goals in teaching and learning.