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

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.

Available Formats

ISBN: 9781412905107	Hardcover	Suggested Retail Price: $94.95	Bookstore Price: $75.96
ISBN: 9781412905114	Paperback	Suggested Retail Price: $42.95	Bookstore Price: $34.36

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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