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Transforming School Leadership and Management to Support Student Learning and Development
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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:

May 2004 | 240 pages | Corwin

Meets "the highest standard of evidence" for comprehensive school reforms that improve student achievement.
Review of Educational Research, 2003

"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

The tried, tested, and true approach to school leadership using consensus, collaboration, and no-fault problem solving!

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.

Combining research; evidence-based best practices; essential tools for planning, data analysis, assessment, and program evaluation, and a generous collection of sample letters, sample presentations, charts, tables, and graphics, Transforming School Leadership and Management to Support Student Learning and Development offers educators a state-of-the-art guide to:

  • Identifying the problems the school wants to solve through reform efforts
  • Designing a comprehensive school plan that includes assessment, modification, and staff development
  • Using facilitators to model excellence and to promote team approaches
  • Using teams for school planning and management, student and staff support, and promoting parent/family involvement and community investment in schools
  • Training for teaming skills that support and develop consensus decision making
  • Implementing and sustaining the school's transformation into an effective and efficient operating system that supports student and staff growth and development

  • Transforming School Leadership and Management to Support Student Learning and Development is sure to be the essential resource for every school leader charged with creating schools, districts, and communities that foster the healthy development of young people and challenge them to the highest academic standards.


    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.

    Review of Educational Research, 2003

    "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."

    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 educational administration courses on school change, school administration, school leadership, and urban education 
    • Includes diagrams, forms, checklists, reminder cards, sidebar features, and sample presentations for students, staff, and parents