Chapter 4: Examining How Partnerships in a Full-Service Community School Influence the Educational Experiences of Immigrant and Refugee Youth

The purpose of this chapter is threefold. First, to discuss how the community school model that leverages partnerships between school and community resources aligns with needs of immigrant and refugee youth (IRY). Second, to outline the mutual benefit of school-university research partnerships in evaluating impact on student outcomes to inform continuous improvement in meeting IRYs’ needs. Third, to illustrate a case example of a school-university partnership while reporting on an impact evaluation study of academic and nonacademic student outcomes. Discussion of findings is framed in the IRY and community school literature. Integrated across the three purposes are strategies for addressing methodological challenges and engaging the school and university in studying the impact of community schools on IRY.