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| Dr. James P. Comer |
The School Development Program 50th Anniversary:
Looking back and looking forward
By James P. Comer, MD, MPH
The 2017-2018 academic year is a special time for us at the Yale Child Study Center School Development Program (SDP). It is the run-up year to the 50th anniversary of our work. In 1968 I, along with colleagues from the Child Study Center, began to create the SDP in two of the lowest performing elementary schools in New Haven, Connecticut. The outcome was the first codified and reported school intervention model in which the test scores, behavior, and attendance of poor and or socially marginalized students improved dramatically.
Most school interventions, past and present, focus primarily on improving academic achievement as measured by test scores. The SDP focuses significantly on creating a school culture that enables educators, parents, and students themselves to embrace academic learning and preparation for life; which leads to improved test scores. It requires the application of child and adolescent development principles and strategic planning by school participants in a way that can lead to program stability and flexibility; to positive student development, high-level school achievement, and effective adult functioning.
This process model was successfully field tested and widely disseminated through universities and other partners. The model has been evaluated extensively by several noted university researchers. By 2002 our SDP team was providing training in the use of the model to nearly 2000 educators annually from most regions of the country. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation and movement narrowed the national education focus to academic basics, and led to greatly decreased use of our SDP approach, especially the infusion of child development knowledge and principles into teaching and learning practices.
The SDP model has been the genesis and springboard to the growing Whole Child movement. (I am the Honorary Chair of the Aspen Institute National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development.) Our SDP focus has been on the creation of a place-based collaborative involving a school district, an educator preparatory program, and our School Development Program. The main goal of this collaborative is to enable educators to create developmentally supportive programs and practices that can be sustained over time despite changes in school leadership and other staff, and shifts in political realities.
We are planning a 50th anniversary symposium to take stock and renew our longstanding commitment to our position that the missing piece in education reform is the centrality of child development; and its integration with academic learning. We are interviewing educator colleagues to help us understand how the SDP model served them and benefitted their students. There will be a critical analysis of all aspects of our work; and responses by expert panels. And, local, state, and national education thought leaders will participate as part of a strategy to help turn a half century of research and intervention into pervasive everyday use; particularly for the benefit of our most vulnerable young.
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Comer School Development Program 50th Anniversary
SAVE THE DATES
Celebration & discussions: Monday, October 22, 2018
Symposium:
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Both events will be at the Omni Hotel at Yale in downtown New Haven, CT. Hotel, schedule, and other information will follow.
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W.K. Kellogg Foundation grant to expand Collaborative for Developmentally Centered Education
By Cynthia R. Savo
The grant builds upon initial support from the Kellogg Foundation to launch the Collaborative in two New Haven schools: L.W. Beecher Museum Magnet School of Arts and Sciences and Brennan-Rogers School of Communications and Media. Two schools will join the Collaborative: Columbus Family Academy, a dual language school, and Strong 21st Century Communications Magnet and SCSU Lab School which will be built on the University's campus.
To increase the child development knowledge and principles of prospective school social workers, the Collaborative now includes the SCSU Social Work Department in the School of Health and Human Services. BSW and MSW interns have been placed at Beecher and Brennan-Rogers. Plans include placement of social work interns at the other two Collaborative schools during the 2018-19 academic year. The grant supports clinical supervision and additional professional development opportunities for the interns, and the involvement of a member of the Social Work faculty on the Collaborative leadership group.
The grant will also support the Parents, Peers and Partners Program, a peer-led approach to increasing parent knowledge of child development through conversations among parents of children from birth to 5. The community-based program will be implemented in the four Collaborative schools. Parents from Columbus and Brennan-Rogers participated in a 5-day training session in September and are recruiting other parents to participate in the program.
The Academy for Developmentally Centered Education, a four-day professional development opportunity for SCSU teacher candidates and teachers and other staff in the Collaborative schools, will continue with support from the Kellogg Foundation. (See the article below about the 2017 Academy.)
The grant also supports professional development sessions at the Collaborative schools as well as student-organized seminars on the SCSU campus. Fay E. Brown, Ph.D., the SDP's Director of Child and Adolescent Development, will conduct a seminar, "Balance: Pathways to Teaching and Learning" on November 8, 2018 from 3:30 to 4:30 pm in Room 301 at the Adanti Student Center at SCSU.
"We're delighted that the W.K. Kellogg Foundation has funded the expansion of the Collaborative. We believe the Collaborative can play an important role in bringing a child development perspective to all parts of the education enterprise; improving academic achievement and better preparing students for life," said Dr. James P. Comer, the founder and director of the School Development Program.
Dr. Stephen J. Hegedus, Dean of the School of Education at Southern Connecticut State University added, "I wish to thank the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for its support to focus our educational programs in the effective preparation of students to understand the needs of child and adolescent development at this time. I am truly thankful for the collaborative work of Yale, New Haven Public Schools, and Southern Connecticut State University."
Interim Superintendent of New Haven Public Schools Dr. Reginald Mayo said, "Personal development of students is a major focus of our work to prepare young people for success in college, career, and life. This grant award from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation will expand our partnership with Yale University's Comer School Development Program and strengthen our efforts to support the whole child. We look forward to continuing our work with Dr. Comer and Southern Connecticut State University to expand the Collaborative for Developmentally Centered Education on behalf of students."
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Dr. James P. Comer: Distinguished University of Michigan alumnus
James P. Comer, MD, MPH was featured in the Spring 2017 Bicentennial issue of The Michigan Alumnus as a U-M alumnus that "has made an impact on the world." In 1964 Dr. Comer received an MPH from the U-M School of Public Health. Also featured in the issue were former President Gerald R. Ford, Clarence Darrow, actor James Earl Jones, and Larry Page, co-founder of Google.
Click here to read "LBJ Changed My Life" by James P. Comer, MD, MPH about the impact of President Johnson's historic "Great Society" commencement address at the University of Michigan in 1964.
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The 2017 Academy for Developmentally Centered Education
By Fay E. Brown, Ph.D.
One element of the work supported by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation is the Academy for Developmentally Centered Education (ADCE), a four-day professional development opportunity for teacher candidates from Southern Connecticut State University and in-service teachers from L.W. Beecher Museum Magnet School and Brennan-Rogers School of Communications and Media, two New Haven schools participating in the Collaborative for Developmentally Centered Education.
The key objectives of the Academy are to underscore the SDP's notion of the four major components of teaching and learning: curriculum, instruction, relationships, and development; to reinforce the critical importance of the Developmental Pathways framework to guide and support instructional practices and interactions with students; and to provide participants with information, tools, and strategies that will help them integrate knowledge of child development into their existing practices.
The ADCE model of pre-service and current teachers learning and working together on a variety of learning activities over several days is a powerful one. Teacher candidates learn about applied child development theories, including aspects of neuroscience beyond what they are generally exposed to in their education courses. Also, very important to this grant, it provides the unique opportunity for students to have in-depth discussions with, and learn from, current teachers. Even during student teaching, some pre-service teachers are not afforded the chance to have such deep and meaningful discussions with their mentor teachers. The learning is mutual; participating teachers have expressed their appreciation for learning new ideas from prospective teachers.
The 2017 Academy included new participants during the first two days who were joined for an additional two days by past participants in the 2014 and 2015 Academies.
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The Academy for Developmentally Centered Education, Class of 2017 |
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School Development Program Mission and Vision
Our Mission
The School Development Program is committed to the total development of all children by creating learning environments that support children's physical, cognitive, psychological, language, social, and ethical development.
Our Vision
Our vision is to help create a just and fair society in which all children have the educational and personal opportunities that will allow them to become successful and satisfied participants in family and civic life.
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Cynthia R. Savo
Editor
Cynthia.Savo@yale.edu |
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