This paper is concerned with the relationship between educational and social disadvantage, and the capacity for education policy to intervene in that relationship. It aims to set out the limits of what can be achieved in tackling these issues through school ‘improvement’ alone, and to assess the additional contribution that can be made by ‘community focused’ school approaches. These are defined as approaches to schooling that see students’ learning in the classroom as inseparable from their lives beyond the school gates, and therefore seek to link efforts within the classroom to work with students outside the classroom, including work with families and communities. In the UK, many European countries, the USA, and elsewhere, ‘full service’ schools have been the dominant example of such approaches (see, for instance, Dryfoos, 1994, Szirom et al., 2001, Tymchak, 2001, van Veen et al., 1998). However, the terminology used, funding regimes, governance structures, and the practices and provision made by schools vary from context to context. Moreover, the literature has tended to focus on advocacy rather than on critical analysis (Wilkin et al., 2003). With this in mind, the paper offers a framework within which different conceptualisations of community focused schools can be understood, and seeks to assess critically the evidence for the impacts of such schools. The paper adopts a critical pragmatic perspective (Kadlec, 2006) in which social issues are understood in relation to structures of power and interest, but where such an understanding is seen as the basis for – rather than an obstacle to – deliberative and rational ameliorative social action. Although, therefore, educational disadvantage is seen as rooted in deep social inequalities, both of these phenomena are understood as susceptible to incremental change through deliberative policy and practice. More specifically, the paper draws on a theory of change approach (Connell & Kubisch, 1998) to analyzing the possibilities and limitations of community focused school initiatives. Such initiatives are seen as purposeful interventions implying a (local) theory about the nature of educational and social challenges in a particular context, the long-term outcomes that are desirable, and the ways in which community focused schools can generate changes the starting situation to produce those outcomes. By analyzing these theories critically, it is possible to reach an assessment of what is likely to be achieved by such approaches and how they might be developed to achieve more.

The paper synthesises three streams of enquiry: • An analysis of the implicit and explicit theories of change in policy and advocacy texts relating to community focused schools, drawn from a range of national systems, including the USA, England, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Scotland, and the new democracies of eastern and central Europe • A review of evaluative studies of outcomes from such initiatives. In both cases, data come from a range of national contexts. • A series of evaluative studies, led by the author, of community focused school initiatives in England. These include the national evaluation of ‘full service extended schools’ (Cummings et al., 2007). This three-year study involved the analysis of outcomes data from all schools (160+) involved in the initiative, detailed case study work in 17 schools, and cost benefit analyses in 10 schools

The paper concludes that likely effects from community focused schools can be identified in relation to student learning, family engagement, school effectiveness and community vitality (Blank et al., 2003). However, these effects are diluted: by the lack of a single, coherent rationale for such schools; by the school-centric nature of these rationales, and the deficit views of local communities they embody; and by the inability of schools to bring about changes in socio-economic structures at the local, let alone national, level. Nonetheless, there are examples where the work of community focused schools escapes these limitations and is linked into wider local strategies. These cases offer important indications of the way policy and practice in this field might usefully develop.