A Chalkbeat article on a Chicago Public Schools initiative to give high-poverty schools about $500,000 annually for wraparound support cited UCLA Luskin’s Isaac Opper, who has studied the effectiveness of community schools models elsewhere.

The Sustainable Community Schools program supports partnerships with nonprofits to transform some of the city’s most disinvested campuses into service-rich neighborhood hubs.

A Chalkbeat analysis, however, suggests that the investments have not yet led to widespread improvement in how likely students are to attend school regularly, graduate from high school, or pass key reading and math tests. Chicago school officials say the model needs more time to show results; it plans to triple the number of campuses in the program by 2027.

Research has shown that well-implemented programs can yield measurable student gains, said Opper, an assistant professor of public policy who helped evaluate New York City’s community schools program. Over several years, it produced attendance gains, graduation rate increases, and modest but notable test score improvements, he said.

In Chicago, said Opper, “If you are seeing no difference, one story is that Sustainable Community Schools isn’t working. Another is that it is working, but so are other things the district is doing.”