Introduction
There are numerous organizations in the world, both profit and non-profit. Some of those organizations are operated by diverse communities but also can impact those communities. An example of such an establishment is community schools, especially those located in New York City. An analysis of community schools provides insight into their role within society, organizational structure, goals, and ways to accomplish those goals, as well as suggesting areas for improvement.
Organizational Profile
Community schools in New York City play a significant role for students and the city. Community schools occupy the education sector and provide students with high-quality learning opportunities through a close partnership among school staff, parents, and CBOs (Community Based Organizations) (New York City Department of Education). Community schools in NYC lead a national movement that focuses on an approach that prioritizes students’ well-being and personalized instruction for better academic results for high-need students (New York City Department of Education). NYC community schools are crucial in providing education and are based on collaboration between members of various communities.
Assessment of the Strategic Plan
One can review community schools based on their plans, which are reflected in the NYC Community Schools Strategic Plan. Facilitated by the city, the Strategic Plan aims to expand community schools to promote an equitable education system and reduce the achievement gap. According to the Plan, the Mayor’s office intends to build 100 community schools that will be supported for the upcoming years for students to receive help during the first stages of the educational process. The Strategic Plan also consists of smaller strategies that are meant to arrange funding, capacity building, and system building and have specific objectives and timeframes. Overall, the NYC Community Schools Strategic Plan presents a precise and pragmatic plan of action towards establishing a system of equitable education.
Logic Model
To better understand an organization, one should analyze its logic model. As a logic model represents the interaction between various components that lead to targeted outcomes, the model of NYC community schools can be analyzed based on their Strategic Plan (Poister et al., 2015). However, the Plan only mentions its logic model without demonstrating, but it can be assessed with regard to the information presented in the Strategy (New York City Department of Education). Moreover, while there is a wide range of logic models that depend on complexity, detailing, and other factors, one can focus on a generic model (Poister et al., 2015). A generic logic model specifies main activities, outputs, which are actions and immediate products, and outcomes that can be divided in time, showing substantive changes and improvements (Poister et al., 2015). An organization’s logic model provides more insight into its goals and ways to accomplish them.
As stated before, the main goal of the NYC Community Schools Strategic Plan is to promote equity education by opening and supporting more community schools. To achieve that goal, the City, represented by several government agencies, accesses various resources and organizes funding, workforce, and time (New York City Department of Education). The immediate outputs are reflected in built schools and data collected for developing and sustaining community schools (New York City Department of Education). The outcomes are stated clearly in the Strategy Plan and are divided into two levels, which are student and school (New York City Department of Education). The results at the student level include increased attendance and engagement, improved academic performance, developed social and emotional skills (New York City Department of Education). At the school level, the outcomes consist of improved school culture, parent engagement, and collaboration with partners (New York City Department of Education). Community schools’ logic model is reflected in the Strategic Plan, the main goal, required resources, and several expected results.
The Organization’s Structure
The NYC Community Schools Strategic Plan does not provide the organization’s structure, but one can create an Org Chart based on available information. As the Plan refers to the City as the implementer of the strategy, the City can be considered the main partaker (New York City Department of Education). The City consists of the Mayor’s Office, Department of Education (DOE), City Hall and supports collaboration between schools, parents, and CBOs (New York City Department of Education). While parents primarily account for enhanced family engagement, CBOs and schools have wider duties (New York City Department of Education). School staff and CBOs ensure attendance, transition planning, and college preparation (New York City Department of Education). CBOs employ a director who works as a coordinator, whereas schools are operated by a principal who accounts for teachers’ and students’ performance (Maier et al., 2017; New York City Department of Education). Finally, teachers facilitate the learning process and provide help to students (Maier et al., 2017). The Org Chart presented in Figure 1 is constructed with regard to the Strategic Plan and a related report, considering the alliance of communities and school staff.
Areas for Improvement
While the NYC Community Schools Strategic Plan can be successful at building new schools, one should remember that the main idea revolves around collaboration between communities to promote equitable education. The results of such education are meant to reduce the achievements gap and increase academic performance (New York City Department of Education). Although one cannot identify specific issues of a particular school since all community schools vary, they have common outcomes and similar problems related to those outcomes (New York City Department of Education). Therefore, it is crucial to constantly monitor community schools and assess whether they support students in developing certain skills and enhancing academic performance (New York City Department of Education). There are various methods for such assessment, with one of them focusing on labor productivity (Poister et al., 2015). Since the Strategic Plan has crucial for society goals, it is important to work on improving employee performance.
Plan for Change
Certain root causes are related to the problems of productivity. However, before analyzing those causes, one should remember that productivity and performance are closely connected, with the former referring more to outputs (Poister et al., 2015). In relation to community schools, productivity and performance can be monitored by focusing on the amount of work completed or the number of students who require more support (Poister et al., 2015). With that being said, the overall performance of a community school depends on a partnership between teacher unions, management, and communities (Maier et al., 2017). Maier et al. (2017) mention that teachers, parents, and community members can work together if they have time and space to assess issues. Furthermore, better performance requires specific goals which cannot be identified without successful communication (Maier et al., 2017). Therefore, the problems affecting performance and productivity can be caused by poor collaboration characterized by factors such as lack of time or communication.
Since time and communication are significant for productivity and achieving goals of community schools, an intervention may be required. However, while community schools have a common purpose, each is unique, and interventions can vary (New York City Department of Education). Therefore, most community schools can begin changes by implementing Total Quality Management, which was developed by Edward Deming, who believed in the importance of management-labor cooperation (Poister et al., 2015). Total Quality Management can be helpful for community schools as it emphasizes adopting new philosophy, leadership, teamwork, training, and removing barriers (Poister et al., 2015). For instance, Maier et al. (2017) suggest the significance of collaborative leadership in community schools but also mention the lack of leaders to facilitate activities. Furthermore, training is important since community schools work with students with diverse needs, such as children who do not speak English well or have disabilities (New York City Department of Education). Overall, while interventions should be oriented at a specific school, Total Quality Management can increase the performance of community schools in general.
Conclusion
To summarize, community schools are meant to assist students’ special needs during education. While each school is unique and its organizational structure may be different from others, most of them are based on close cooperation between parents, school staff, and various communities. Community schools in New York City are supported by the City and Mayor in developing and implementing strategies oriented at accomplishing several goals, including the promotion of equitable education. As students in community schools depend on the collaboration of multiple parties, each school’s overall performance may be at risk due to poor communication or lack of time. To increase stakeholders’ productivity, they need to understand the importance of their contribution and work more on developing their skills as a team.
References
Maier, A., Daniel, J., Oakes, J., & Lam, L. (2017). Community schools as an effective school improvement strategy: A review of the evidence. Learning Policy Institute. Web.
New York City Department of Education. (n.d.). New York City community schools strategic plan. Web.
Poister, T. H., Maria P. A., & Jeremy L. H. (2015). Managing and measuring performance in public and non-profit organizations: An integrated approach (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Appendix A
Change Announcement
- DATE: December 16, 2021
- TO: Stakeholders
- FROM: *Student Name*
- SUBJECT: Change Announcement
I would like to thank you all for the hard work you have been doing this year and congratulate you on the accomplishments of our students and school. Although we have reached a significant amount of our goals, we need to continue increasing our performance to provide more opportunities for the children. Therefore, I would like to announce that for the upcoming year, we will implement a few changes to ensure that our students, our children, receive all support they need during education.
As a school and one community, we need to pull closer together and realize the significance of our work for the future. In collaboration with our partners, the school’s management will organize more training for teachers to work with the unique needs of each student. To better address those needs, I am asking the parents to help and be more engaged in the children’s school life. Last but not least, we will need some support from our beloved City in our future endeavors.
I will provide all of you with more details on the changes and I hope that each of you will be as enthusiastic about them as I am. The changes will help our school achieve its strategy by improving our skills in communicating with the students and each other and by helping us become a team with strong leaders. Although some of you may be wary about changes, I want you to remember that everything we do is for our students, and for them to do better, we need to do better.