TALKING COMMUNITY SCHOOLS WITH ALISON MCARTHUR
Over the last several years in public education, we’ve seen the pendulum start to swing away from an over reliance on assessment data as we enter the beginning stages of recognizing the depth of challenges faced by children in poverty. This recognition has fueled a push back to the over reliance on standardized testing and assessment data being used an indicator of school success and a community school movement has begun to take root. Community schools do more than just provide wraparound services for children. They reclaim the role public schools previously played as centers of the community. Each one of these community schools differs in that each one is responsive to the community they serve. It is early in the process of data collection, but so far the results look promising. Metro Nashville Public Schools has been growing its number of community schools for a while now.
I sat down at Istanbul Café and over a couple of gyros, Community Achieves program coordinator Alison McArthur and I discussed community schools and their potential.
Dad Gone Wild: Alison, thanks for joining me today and filling me in on community schools.
Alison McArthur: You are welcome. We always welcome the chance to talk about our schools.
DGW: Before we get rolling on community schools, I’ve always been interested in how people came to where they are in life. You were a high school teacher, right?
AM: I was a high school teacher at Glencliff. Right around the corner from here.
DGW: Very cool. For how many years?
AM: I taught for 13 years, and I was TALKING COMMUNITY SCHOOLS WITH ALISON McARTHUR « Dad Gone Wild: