Today, parental support alone is just not enough to provide high-quality learning opportunities for the vast majority of Ohio's students. Given that the percentage of households with school-aged children has fallen to about 20% in most communities, broader community support is a necessity for nurturing achievement.

Most Ohioans say they want to be more involved in their local public schools, regardless of their parental status. In fact, over 90% think community members should be able to advise their public schools on important decisions. Meanwhile, over 74% say they would like more opportunities to learn about the decisions being made by these schools.

Not only do community members want to be involved in their public schools, they show great potential for improving them. Community engagement in school improvement efforts can:

• improve teaching and learning in classrooms
  
• build greater community trust in schools
  
• deepen parent and community involvement
  
• increase the financial, physical, and human resources available to schools
  
• develop and support legislative policy reform

Successful Early College high schools that engender long-term community support -- both financial and volunteer -- involve their communities in key decisions. Here's how:

• Early College high schools are developed by a planning team which includes a parent representative, community member, college/university representative, district representative, principal, and educators and union representatives from both the high school and higher education partner.
  
• Key decisions about the school are made in collaboration with the community, because the initiative supports "authentic community engagement," meaning substantive conversation that engage a broad array of stakeholders, including parents, business