The movement gained momentum in the Chicago area, where the Federation for Community Schools is working to disseminate the model throughout the public-school infrastructure.
The American Federation of Teachers defines a community school as one that has:[5] Several leading universities have established centers to investigate the community-school-family triad.
Fordham University's National Center for Schools and Communities[8] has a slightly narrower focus, emphasizing quality education for minority and low-income students.
At Johns Hopkins University, the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships[9] augments academic research with guides to best practices and workshop resources for parents, educators, and activists.
In a 2005 article for The Journal of Educational Research,[11] she and colleague Steven Sheldon not only established the link, via data collection and analysis, between school-family-community partnerships and improved student attendance, they also laid out several activities to reduce chronic absenteeism.