"Our mission is to ensure a high-quality and coherent birth-to-adulthood learning and development system to build the capability of every young Victorian" (Blueprint for Education and Early Childhood Development, 2008)

Introduction

At the heart of every community are children, families and students. Among the sources of care and support are obviously the extended family, friends, neighbours and the wider community.

The community includes schools, colleges, universities, community organisations, libraries, sporting clubs, local and state government services, businesses and medical centres and health agencies. These institutions are obviously pivotal in supporting all children, families and students to develop their potential.

A key strategy is to bring together the resources of at least one school - and ideally a group of schools or a school network - with local family and community resources. While it is relatively easy to make informal links, building strong, formal links is more difficult.

Doing so requires practical work toward what the Blueprint terms a 'coherent birth-to-adulthood learning and development system'. Similar to this, a coherent K-20 system refers to a seamless learning continuum from kindergarten to the end of university.

Such systems greatly expand the capacity of schools, other education providers and the community to significantly improve learning outcomes and life opportunities for all students.

coherent k-20 systems

The specific details of a coherent system will vary according to the needs of the children, famillies and students in each community and availability and adequacy of resources and support.

Despite the variation, a local birth-to-adulthood learning and development system or K-20 system, as informed by the past and current work of many schools and their partners, may aim to:

• Break down barriers in education. Developing a more coherent model of education is a process of purposefully breaking down barriers between primary and secondary schools, academic and applied learning and schools and community-based learning. Your community and school may thus ask: are we building a unified model of education? Or are we perpetuating the old divides? 
• Develop schools as community hubs. The work of many schools, along with adult education and training, challenge the view that schools close when children leave. Hubs are the community centres of the future. Many may be based at schools. They may include welcoming and useful community meeting spaces, access to community information, evening learning and co-located services. Your community and school may thus ask: can we develop a community hub?
• Promote grass-roots participation. A new system let alone an education revolution cannot be remote-controlled. It has to happen school by school and community by community. Families and students need to have a major voice in setting goals. Your community and school may thus ask: how can we engage large numbers of parents, teachers, students, local businesspeople and others in helping to build a new system?
• Make improvements system-wide. Many communities have a school or two that are perceived (rightly or wrongly) as ‘better’ schools relative to others. Your community and school may thus ask: what are we doing to really spread innovations, promising practices and real improvement throughout a cluster and network of schools? Do teachers, principals, parents and students have opportunities to meet and share ideas and experiences across year levels and schools?
• Promote democratic governance. The governance of a local learning and development system must equalise power so that decision making appropriately reflects all stakeholder groups. Your community and school may thus ask: what will we do to make sure that the leadership team is inclusive of all who can contribute knowledge, skills and perspectives (including teachers, parents and students)?

The last point is important. Real reform in education cannot be achieved if community involvement is limited to professionals or if 'token' participants simply 'sign off' on decisions made by others.

Genuine involvement of a wide range of representative families and community members is the catalyst for ultimately improving learning outcomes and life opportunities for all. This means building the capacity of all stakeholders so that they can competently participate as enfranchised and informed decision makers.

Practical steps

What are some of the practical steps involved in developing a local learning and development or K-20 system? Based on the experiences of schools and their partners, the possibilities include:

1. Holding a dialogue about the future of education. A community dialogue is the first step in identifying key issues and opportunities within a community that can lead to better educational provision. It is a forum that draws participants from as many parts of the community as possible. It is about active listening to develop deep, shared understanding.
2. Beginning to build a governing body. A representative council is formed that commands widespread respect and support for its work. Teachers, parents and students must have a key stake in the council. The aim is shared decision making involving schools, families and community members.
3. Writing a brief paper that begins to work out the way forward. A writing team is established to prepare a set of ‘talking points’ that clarify the rationale and suggest a framework that will guide the development of a coherent birth-to-adulthood learning and development system.
4. Developing a four-year strategic plan. Following further discussions, a working party is established to draft a strategic plan that looks at: (a) the development of a coherent system and (b) the steps to be taken to accomplish these systemic changes. A draft of the plan is circulated to: (a) to elicit suggested revisions from key stakeholders and (b) as part of a process for building real consensus.
5. Moving the strategic plan to implementation. The governing body ensures that key stakeholders finalise and approve the strategic plan and begins to develop the action plan for initial implementation.

The risk of 'projectitis'

In the absence of such a process, there may be a propensity, however well-meaning, to act before partners (including families and students) have established a sense of trust and ownership of a shared vision. With the result that a local educational cluster or regeneration program may lose momentum or even come to a halt.

Worse still, in the absence of deep participation among many stakeholders, including families and students, there is the risk of 'projectitis', i.e., superficial change as distinct from really restructuring resources into a learning and development system or systemic change. With the consequence that there will not be significant improvements in outcomes for families and students!