Recognizing Community Voice and a Youth-Led School–Community Partnership in the School Climate Improvement Process

A growing body of school improvement research suggests that engaging all members of the school community, including community members and lead-ers, provides an essential foundation to successful school improvement efforts. School climate surveys to date tend to recognize student, parent/guardian, and school personnel voice but not the voice of community members. The Community Scale and the youth-led School–Community Partnership Process ac-knowledges the perceptions of community members and the importance of school–community partnership. This process engages secondary students to be active co-learners and co-leaders. The Community Scale is a short survey that asks community members about their perception of the school climate, the level of school–community partnership, and the extent to which they would be interested in learning about and supporting the school’s improvement goals. In the School–Community Partnership Process, students are involved in administer-ing this survey to various sectors of the larger school community. The results are then used to develop partnerships between community organizations and the school. This paper details one school’s experience piloting the Community Scale and School–Community Partnership Process. The aim of this study was to better understand community members ’ perceptions of school climate and their level of interest in working with schools to improve it