College of Education becomes the hub of the Maryland Center for Community Schools
By Jaylen Beaner-Walker
Towson University announced that its College of Education (COE) will become the new home of the Maryland Center for Community Schools (MCCS). Funding for the program was made available July 1, 2024.
According to Jessica Shiller, professor of the COE and director of MCCS, talks began over two years ago when the Blueprint, a special legislation for funding and investment of education throughout schools in Maryland, was passed in 2021. Maryland State Superintendent of Schools Carey Wright granted TU the opportunity to create a center for community schools within the COE.
“What makes a community school very different is that it really tries to build very close and reciprocal relationships with families and community members,” Shiller said.
Since the passing of the Blueprint, schools throughout Maryland have undergone the transition of becoming community schools in efforts to serve both families, children and the overall community.
For the last 10 years, the COE has given students of all different majors the opportunity to go into community schools and learn alongside community school coordinators about the work within community schooling as stated by Shiller. In recent years, a specialized effort has been made to enlist education students into the program to build experience and learn skills of family and community engagement.
According to Shiller 20 students work within community schools throughout Baltimore City per semester.
“Getting faculty and students really knowledgeable about how these schools operate, how they’re different, what the role of the teacher is, that is different in these schools,” Shiller said.
The initiative of the community school program emphasizes the importance of facilitating a safe space for families, children and members of the community to find social support in teachers and faculty within schools.
Loyola University Professor and Program Director of Curriculum Stephanie Flores-Koulish has worked on the MCCS program.
“Teaching in a community school aims to have students see their communities as the curriculum, to better understand how to “read their worlds,” and make their communities stronger,” Flores-Koulish said in an email.
An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that concentration of poverty grants defined a community school. This has been removed. The Towerlight regrets this error.