The Role of the Community School Manager: Facilitating Partnerships and Programs to Support Teaching and Learning

The Community School Manager (CSM) in Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) integrates a school's partnership work with its academic mission. The CSM collaborates with principals to: (1) identify school goals; (2) align partners and resources to those goals; and (3) build relationships with families, students, and the community. At mature OUSD full-service community schools, the CSM operates as a school-level administrator who manages, leads, and coordinates partnerships and programs to support school and student needs. Over time, the CSM has helped formalize structures and processes designed to bolster conditions for teaching and learning in community schools. This brief offers insight into the CSM role as it occurs in Oakland schools, emphasizing the CSM's contribution to teaching and learning goals. The three briefs in this series present findings from the third and final year of the present study, focusing on system-, school-, and student-level outcomes. These findings will guide district leaders' efforts to scale-up and select appropriate implementation strategies to achieve OUSD's long-term ambition to become the nation's first full-service community school district. [The Gardner Center would like to acknowledge OUSD partners as well as the Kaiser Foundation Hospital Fund for Community Benefit Programs at East Bay Community Foundation for their support. For "The District Approach to Building a Full-Service Community School System: Assuring Universal and Equitable Access to Learning for College, Career, and Community Readiness," see ED604092; for "Oakland Unified School District Full-Service Community Schools Outcomes: A Retrospective. Shifting School Culture & Relationships with Families and the Broader Community," see ED604095.]