This report analyzes New Song Academy (NSA) within the broader context of a comprehensive faith-based neighborhood development effort led by New Song Urban Ministries (NSUM) in the Sandtown neighborhood of Baltimore. A cornerstone of the effort is NSA, part of a Community Learning Center that serves students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and also helps parents and other community adults pursue education. New Song’s overarching values include resident leadership that strengthens families, a relentless drive to achieve measurable results, and a belief that relationships—both within and outside the neighborhood—are the centerpiece of a powerful development strategy. New Song’s achievements, and the challenges it continues to face, offer useful lessons about the factors that support or undermine education in poor but revitalizing communities. This report documents those lessons and their implications. It is intended as a resource for school and district leaders considering similar enterprises and for people with an interest in such policy issues as the role of charter and charter-like schools in contemporary public education, or the links between education and community development. New Song also provides an excellent example of the principle that development cannot move ahead of the neighborhood’s desire and capacity for action. Developing its program components organically, in response to community demand, helped to ensure that results were authentic and sustainable.