Community Based Organization (CBO) Study Project

The central aim of this detailed Community Based Organization (CBO) Study Project assessment is for the students to see schools as situated within a community context.  Part of this conceptualization of schools entails taking into account the social, cultural, linguistic, and economic contexts of the students and their families. It is important for us that our candidates perceive the positive aspects and the strengths of the families and the community contexts in the area of the Bronx in which we work. There exists a rich and varied collection of community-based-organizations that work with schools, children and families in our local and surrounding neighborhoods, and we aim for our students to discover and study these institutions, with an eye toward seeing how these organizations complement and interconnect with schools, how they support education, and how they provide for and support families.

The goals of this assignment should include the following: (1) to understand the CBO as situated in its community context (2) to understand the structural interconnections among the CBO, school, and its local, city, state and federal  policy context (3) to better understand the role of families in the process of education (4) to identify local community resources; (5) to take into account the positive resources of the cultural and linguistic makeup of the population constituting the school community, (6) to use the internet to identify community resources.

(1) A candidate visits and observes in a CBO and interviews an administrator of the CBO to collect information on relationship of the CBO to the area schools and the ways the CBO supports the children and families in the local community. During the visit, the candidate is to collect brochures and photos of the CBO & surrounding community. (2) In addition, s/he completes a detailed structured interview with a knowledgeable parent/parent leader in the community such as an active parent, PTO/PTA leader, or parent coordinator of the elementary or early childhood school in the community chosen for this assignment.  This interview provides important information about how the parents are involved with their children in CBO activities as well as how the school in general welcomes the parents as partners in their child’s educational process.  (3) The teacher candidate is also responsible for collecting data from the Internet on other community features such as community demographic information, e.g., information about adults/parents/children/families living within that community, and public art.

The information from the internet research, artifacts collected from the CBO, and the interviews is used to write a description of the how the CBO is situated in the community as a resource to parents and compares what is learned to recognized models of school/community/parent collaboration, e.g., Epstein’s model, Comer’s model.  In addition, the candidate writes a letter to the parents describing what a CBO has to offer them and to encourage participation and a letter to Teachers describing what a CBO can offer them as professionals/ bilingual and diversity.