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Dynamic Instructional Leadership to Support Student Learning and Development
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Dynamic Instructional Leadership to Support Student Learning and Development
The Field Guide to Comer Schools in Action

Edited by:

May 2004 | 288 pages | Corwin

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.


Michael Fullan
Foreword
Edward T. Joyner
Preface
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Authors
Edward T. Joyner
1. The Comer Process: Tried, Tested, and True
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
Edward T. Joyner and Christine L. Emmons
3. Systemic Reform: The School Development Program's Answer to Fragmentation
Alice Hart, Miriam McLaughlin, Everol Ennis, and Steve Stone
4. Systemic Reform: We Started with One School
David A. Squires and Camille J. Cooper
5. Curriculum Structure and Teacher Planning: Balancing, Aligning, and Assessing Students in the Standards-Based Curriculum
Fay E. Brown and Valerie Maholmes
6. "Comer-in-the-Classroom": Linking the Essential Elements of the Comer Process to Classroom Practices
Carol Pickett Ray
7. A Demonstration of Comer-in-the-Classroom
Edward T. Joyner
8. Mobilizing Schools for Instructional Excellence: Instructional Leadership Is a System Responsibility
Marie B. Chauvet-Monchik
9. Maintaining Student Momentum Through Instructional Leadership: "And We Will Do It Again"
The Comer Club Ambassadors of P.S. 138, Brooklyn, NY
10. "And This Is How We Will Do It": Comer Youth Voice Their Opinions About the Comer Process
M. Ann Levett-Lowe
11. Performance Management: The Principal's First Priority
J. Patrick Howley and Dawn K. Kelley
12. Teachers Helping Teachers: A Process That Honors and Supports Teacher Development
Fay E. Brown
13. Turning Nonreaders into Readers Through Essentials of Literacy
Michael Ben-Avie
14. Student Learning in Math and Science: Youth Development Matters
Francis Roberts
15. Guidelines for University-School Collaborations: A Report of Experience
Constance Clark
16. Implementation of Systemic Reform: Step by Step From Vision to Reality
Christine L. Emmons
17. Assessing Systemic Reform: How Do You Know That the Comer Process Is Making a Difference in Your School or District?
Edward T. Joyner
18. The Best Education for All Our Children
 
Index

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
Key features
  • The primary resource for all Comer schools and for all schools and districts that want to use Comer principles to improve student learning and development.
  • A key training and administrative resource for urban schools and districts that must meet No Child Left Behind standards for "highly qualified" teachers
  • A key resource for schools and districts considering school improvement and restructuring
  • A key text for teacher education and educational administration courses on curriculum development, standards-based education, developmentally appropriate education, instructional leadership, literacy, math and science education, and program evaluation. 
  • Includes staff development activities, diagrams, forms, checklists, sidebar features, and sample presentations for students, staff, and parents