Vice Provost for Urban Research and Community Engagement and Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning Jason Reece has guest edited (with Mildred Warner and Xue Zhang) a thematic issue of the journal Community Development focused on the role of schools in community development and planning. The issue brings together the leading scholars and provides comprehensive research on several topics related to schools and planning.

Schools are a critical element of community infrastructure that has been historically understudied in the context of community development and city planning. As Howell Baum wrote two decades ago in his critique of smart growth policies, planning’s avoidance of urban education undermines the field’s ability to address planning issues such as urban development and urban sprawl (Baum, Citation2004).

Schools can have a tremendous influence on community development. Schools are essential community infrastructure vitally important to child development, workforce development, and community wellbeing.

Read more at Community Development