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Citation:

Keith, N. Z. (1999). Whose community schools? New discourses, old patterns. Theory into Practice, 38(4), 225-234. EJ598293.

Annotation:
The purpose of this paper is to review contemporary discussions on who should be included in school-family-community-school partnerships that are the foundation of community schools, and what roles participants should play in encouraging school reform. The article cites David Matthews of the Kettering Foundation, Ernie Cortez of Industrial Areas Foundation, and others who call for intermediary organizations that can contribute to building democratic communities and the social capital needed to be effective against structural impediments in school systems trying to reform. Two discourses are described. One is the Partners for Improvement discourse, which concerns a deficit perspective of the community (clients without assets who need services, including parents). The other is the New Citizen discourse, which seeks out families and community members as change agents to bring about school reform. Key arguments in both discourses are reviewed to provide the reader relevant information for decisions about who should be included in family, community and school partnerships. In the final analysis, the author supports the New Citizen discourse as the more inclusive partnership approach, suggesting that research is not addressing this area of public engagement or community school strategies for school reform very much.