The Bull City Community Schools Partnership

Under the leadership and guidance of the National Education Association (NEA), The Bull City Community Schools Partnership is responsible for supporting 4 different community schools within Durham Public Schools (DPS).  A collective of students/staff/faculty from Duke and NCCU are engaged in a student-engaged research project designed to replicate some of the Partnerships’ methods in order to identify how local universities can best support the community schools effort in Durham.

Research and Evaluation

  • Although many students cited clear intrinsic motivation for engaging in local schools, early data revealed gaps in training and preparation, particularly with regard to cultural competency training, context-setting, and content and teaching strategy.
  • The 2020-2021 project team will conduct additional data analysis, refine asset maps of resources, and compile a database to match identified needs with identified resources.
  • Using the data collected from the asset mapping project, the team will compile a database of relevant resources found at Duke and North Carolina Central to match the identified needs of the community schools to the identified resources present at each university.

Partnership Highlights

The Duke/NCCU research collective was funded for two consecutive years to lead over 30 undergraduate students in an internal asset and needs assessment (ANA) designed to explore how the local universities can best support DPS. The collective designed year-long curriculums rooted in centering the expertise of community school practitioners in Durham. Additionally, the collective conducted site-visits to learn from different community schools and UACS models around the country. The ANA allowed students to interview university students, university staff/faculty, and DPS teachers about the history of their partnerships, and where there are areas for improvement and innovation.

Links

For more information

Alec Greenwald
alec.greenwald@duke.edu