In 2022, the New York City Office of Community Schools launched the Next Generation Community Schools pilot program to add academic enhancements to the existing community schools strategy. In this report, the authors examine how the pilot was designed and rolled out, how schools implemented the enhancements, and what factors enabled or hindered implementation. They also offer considerations for policymakers considering similar initiatives.

Next Generation Community Schools in New York City

An Implementation Study of Academic Enhancements in Community Schools

Lauren Covelli, Ashley Woo, Catherine H. Augustine

ResearchPublished Feb 19, 2026

Community schools partner with community-based organizations and families to share leadership responsibilities and offer an array of services that support student learning and well-being. Community schools have expanded nationwide because they have proven to be a promising strategy for improving student outcomes, particularly in high-poverty communities.

New York City's Community Schools Initiative (NYC-CSI) is the largest citywide system of community schools in the country. The initiative is a program of NYC Public Schools (NYCPS) and serves almost 200,000 students per year in more than 400 schools.

Historically, the community schools strategy focused on meeting students' nonacademic needs as a prerequisite to academic success. With NYC-CSI well established, the NYC Office of Community Schools (OCS) (which is part of NYCPS) launched the Next Generation Community Schools pilot in 2022 to add three academic enhancements to the community schools strategy: (1) collaborative leadership development, (2) instructional leadership development for school leaders, and (3) a cocurricular enhancement for kindergarten math. OCS implemented these enhancements over a period of two years (2023–2024 and 2024–2025) in 20 schools.

In this report on the pilot's implementation, the authors draw on original surveys and interviews they conducted of different stakeholder groups (e.g., OCS staff, school district leaders, school leaders, and service providers). They examine how the pilot program was designed and rolled out, how schools implemented the enhancements, and what factors enabled or hindered implementation. The authors also offer considerations for other practitioners and policymakers considering similar academic enhancements in their community schools initiatives.

Key Findings

  • A short rollout timeline contributed to logistical and staffing challenges, confusion about expectations for leaders at pilot schools, and a lack of coherence across the three enhancements, although this coherence improved over time.
  • Implementing enhancements in newly established community schools rather than veteran community schools hindered success; many schools began the pilot without the necessary staff and were still developing their understanding of the community schools strategy.
  • Staff from schools that participated in the pilot had overwhelmingly positive perceptions of the instructional leadership supports and found coaching to be an effective capacity-building mechanism.
  • During the pilot, school staff developed foundational understandings of collaborative leadership and were engaged in the critical collaborative leadership practice of including diverse stakeholder groups in school decisionmaking.
  • Interview participants reported that collaborative school leader mindsets and trusting relationships among school leaders enabled the implementation of all three enhancements.
  • Many community school directors in the pilot schools lacked classroom teaching experience, which limited their capacity to effectively engage in the instructional leadership enhancement.

Recommendations

  • Before launching a new pilot program, give adequate lead time to program leadership for coordinating, contracting, hiring, and onboarding to ensure clarity and coherence across program components and with other system-level priorities.
  • When piloting enhancements, select established community schools with evidence of success in using the community schools strategy rather than newly established community schools.
  • Intentionally design complementary program enhancements at the outset of a pilot and provide training and written guidance about how enhancements should fit together.
  • Select enhancements that align to the community schools strategy or adapt enhancements to the community schools strategy prior to implementation.
  • Invest in on-site and personalized coaching, which proved to be an effective capacity-building mechanism during the pilot, to support academically oriented community schools.

Topics

Document Details

  • Copyright: The Fund for Public Schools
  • Publisher: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Web-Only
  • Year: 2026
  • Pages: 101
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.7249/RRA4386-1
  • Document Number: RR-A4386-1

Citation

Chicago Manual of Style

Covelli, Lauren, Ashley Woo, and Catherine H. Augustine, Next Generation Community Schools in New York City: An Implementation Study of Academic Enhancements in Community Schools. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2026. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA4386-1.html.
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This research was sponsored by the New York City's Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity, in partnership with NYCPS, the Fund for NYCPS, and Robin Hood and conducted in the Education and Employment Program of RAND Education, Employment, and Infrastructure.

This publication is part of the RAND research report series. Research reports present research findings and objective analysis that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND research reports undergo rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity.

RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.