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Transforming School Leadership and Management to Support Student Learning and Development
The Field Guide to Comer Schools in Action
Edited by:
- Edward T. Joyner - Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, CT
- Michael Ben-Avie - Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, CT
- James P. Comer - Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, CT
Other Titles in:
Group Facilitation | Leadership & Management | School Change, Reform, & Restructuring
Group Facilitation | Leadership & Management | School Change, Reform, & Restructuring
June 2004 | 240 pages | Corwin
`A unique feature of James Comer's school improvement is the comprehensiveness of his ecological approach. It necessarily involves all of the key players in each individual school setting and provides guidelines for their interaction. . . .The domain of educational change is not without good ideas, but it is rare to find them translated into the substance and strategies necessary to getting them into school practices. This handbook will help enormously to keep alive what James Comer and his colleagues have so carefully crafted over the years' - John I Goodlad, President, Institute for Educational Inquiry
For more than 35 years, the Yale School Development Program (SDP) has been pioneering the Comer Process for planned change in schools. From initial planning and preparation, through foundation building, transformation, institutionalization, and renewal, the Comer Process provides school leaders with a comprehensive and effective framework for transforming their schools and districts into learning communities that support the growth and development of every child and every adult.
Edward T. Joyner
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
J. Patrick Howley and Michael Ben-Avie
1. Introducing the Comer Process to the Faculty for the First Time
Michael Ben-Avie, Edward T. Joyner, and James P. Comer
2. Essential Understandings of the Yale School Development Program: A Reference Guide to the Comer Process
Miriam McLaughlin, Everol Ennis, and Fred Hernandez
3. The School Planning and Management Team (SPMT): The Engine That Drives the School
SuAnne Lawrence, Michelle Adler Morrison, Michael Ben-Avie, Jonathon H. Gillette, and Gretchen Myhre
4. Identifying the Problem You Are Trying to Solve with the Comer Process
Michael Ben-Avie, Trudy Raschkind Steinfeld, and James P. Comer
5. All Decisions Must Be Made in the Best Interests of Children: SDP's Most Important Standard
Valerie Maholmes
6. Designing the Comprehensive School Plan
Malcolm N. Adler and Jan Stocklinski with contributions by J. Patrick Howley, Sherrie Berrien Joseph, and the Comer Staff of Prince George's County Public Schools, Maryland
7. School Planning and Management Team (SPMT) Subcommittees: Where the Work of the Comprehensive School Plan Gets Done
Larry Dornell Burgess
8. Community Investment in Schools
Michael Ben-Avie
9. Forging Strong Home, School, and Community Links
Sheila Jackson, Nora Martin, and Jan Stocklinski
10. Families as Partners: Parent Teams and Parent/Family Involvement
William T. Brown and Sherrie Berrien Joseph
11. The Student and Staff Support Team (SSST) and the Coordination of Student Services: "Nine Different People Were Helping One Child"
Felicia D. Gil
12. The Student and Staff Support Team (SSST) and Child Development
William T. Brown and Rebecca Werner
13. The Students Have Ruled That "School Should Not Hurt": One Comer School's Approach to Bullying and Other Student Interpersonal Problems
Vivian Loseth and the Youth Guidance Staff, Chicago
14. Letters from an Experienced Facilitator: Promoting a Team Approach to Educational Change
The Yale School Development Program Staff
15. The Comer Facilitator and Teaming Skills for Meetings
Trudy Raschkind Steinfeld and Michael Ben-Avie
16. SDP Facilitators Model Communication Excellence
Michael Ben-Avie, Trudy Raschkind Steinfeld, and James P. Comer
17. Making Decisions: Reaching Consensus in Team Meetings
Edward T. Joyner
18. The School Development Program (SDP) Implementation Life Cycle: A Roadmap to Planned Change
Resources
Reminder Cards
Role Expectation Cards
Index
Michael Fullan
Foreword
Meets "the highest standard of evidence" for comprehensive school reforms that improve student achievement.
"A unique feature of James Comer’s school improvement is the comprehensiveness of his ecological approach. It necessarily involves all of the key players in each individual school setting and provides guidelines for their interaction."
Institute for Educational Inquiry
Sample Materials & Chapters
Chapter 1: Introducing the Comer Process to the Faculty for the First Time
