About the Book
Meets "the highest standard of evidence" for comprehensive school reforms that improve student achievement.
Review of Educational Research, 2003
"This Field Guide to Comer Schools in Action provides exactly what its title offers: guidelines to curricula, instruction, and educational development necessary to implementing the Comer process. . . . 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
The tried, tested, and true approach to instructional leadership and staff development that support academic achievement and life success!
Schools are the only universally accessible institutions where there are enough adults to provide continuous support for children's growth, development, and success in life. Using the process pioneered by renowned child psychiatrist Dr. James P. Comer and his colleagues at the Yale School Development Program (SDP), this unique field guide offers school leaders, school staff, and teachers a comprehensive and effective framework for providing curriculum and instruction that help all children grow and develop along the pathways that support success both in school and in life.
Combining research; evidence-based best practices; essential tools for planning, data analysis, assessment, and program evaluation; and a generous collection of charts, tables, and graphics, Dynamic Instructional Leadership to Support Student Learning and Development offers educators a state-of-the-art guide to:
- Mobilizing all of the stakeholders in the learning community to support instructional excellence as a system responsibility
- Modeling of instructional excellence by school principals, district leaders, and university partners
- Aligning curriculum, instruction, and assessment with standards and research-based best practices
- Linking child development to challenging and rigorous classroom instruction based on respect, trust, and high expectations for all students
- Teaching essentials of literacy, math, and science that provide positive developmental experiences for all learners
- Teachers helping teachers for professional development and school improvement
Dynamic Instructional Leadership to Support Student Learning and Development is the first-ever published field guide to the tried, tested, and true methods used by the Comer Process to promote academic achievement and life success for all children.
Table of Contents:
Foreword - Michael Fullan
Preface - Edward T. Joyner
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
1. The Comer Process: Tried, Tested, and True - Edward T. Joyner
2. Essential Understandings of the Yale School Development Program: A Reference Guide to the Comer Process - Michael Ben-Avie, Edward T. Joyner, and James P. Comer
3. Systemic Reform: The School Development Program′s Answer to Fragmentation - Edward T. Joyner and Christine L. Emmons
4. Systemic Reform: We Started with One School - Alice Hart, Miriam McLaughlin, Everol Ennis, and Steve Stone
5. Curriculum Structure and Teacher Planning: Balancing, Aligning, and Assessing Students in the Standards-Based Curriculum - David A. Squires and Camille J. Cooper
6. "Comer-in-the-Classroom": Linking the Essential Elements of the Comer Process to Classroom Practices - Fay E. Brown and Valerie Maholmes
7. A Demonstration of Comer-in-the-Classroom - Carol Pickett Ray
8. Mobilizing Schools for Instructional Excellence: Instructional Leadership Is a System Responsibility - Edward T. Joyner
9. Maintaining Student Momentum Through Instructional Leadership: "And We Will Do It Again" - Marie B. Chauvet-Monchik
10. "And This Is How We Will Do It": Comer Youth Voice Their Opinions About the Comer Process - The Comer Club Ambassadors of P.S. 138, Brooklyn, NY
11. Performance Management: The Principal′s First Priority - M. Ann Levett-Lowe
12. Teachers Helping Teachers: A Process That Honors and Supports Teacher Development - J. Patrick Howley and Dawn K. Kelley
13. Turning Nonreaders into Readers Through Essentials of Literacy - Fay E. Brown
14. Student Learning in Math and Science: Youth Development Matters - Michael Ben-Avie
15. Guidelines for University-School Collaborations: A Report of Experience - Francis Roberts
16. Implementation of Systemic Reform: Step by Step From Vision to Reality - Constance Clark
17. Assessing Systemic Reform: How Do You Know That the Comer Process Is Making a Difference in Your School or District? - Christine L. Emmons
18. The Best Education for All Our Children - Edward T. Joyner
Index
About the Author :
Edward T. Joyner, Ed.D., is the Executive Director of the Yale School Development Program. He served as the SDP′s first director of training, was the original designer of the SDP Leadership Development Academies, and initiated university-public school partnerships to strengthen local school reform efforts. He is the architect of the SDP′s systemic initiative to coordinate the work of the school board, central office, building staff, and the larger school community to create an optimal environment for teaching and learning throughout each school district. He currently oversees all of the operations of the Yale School Development Program and serves as the lead implementation coordinator for New York. Michael Ben-Avie directs the Impact Analysis and Strategies Group, which studies corporate, nonprofit, and government partnerships that promote youth development and student learning. He conducts national studies designed to evaluate the effectiveness of mentoring programs and psychological interventions on children′s lifepaths. He has co-edited books about the Yale School Development Program with James P. Comer and colleagues, and has published numerous book chapters, journal articles, and reports on educational change initiatives, high schools, parent involvement, and the relationship between youth development and student learning. James P. Comer, M.D., is the founder and chairman of the Yale School Development Program, Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center, and Associate Dean of the Yale University School of Medicine. He has been the recipient of the Grawemeyer Award in Education, the John and Mary Markle Scholar in Academic Medicine Award, the Rockefeller Public Service Award, the Harold W. McGraw, Jr., Prize in Education, the Charles A. Dana Award for Pioneering Achievement in Education, the Heinz Award for Service to Humanity, and many other awards and honors, including 41 honorary degrees.
Review :
Meets “the highest standard of evidence” for comprehensive school reforms that improve student achievement.
"This Field Guide to Comer Schools in Action provides exactly what its title offers: guidelines to curricula, instruction, and educational development necessary to implementing the Comer process. . . . This handbook will help enormously to keep alive what James Comer and his colleagues have so carefully crafted over the years."
