The School Development Program is
now on:
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"Education Giants": We're Heading in the Wrong Direction
 On May 4,
the
Forum for Education & Democracy held a Capitol Hill policy briefing, Bridging Difference: What Works in Schools, to inform the public discourse about the reauthorization of ESEA, the No Child Left Behind Act. Maya Rockeymoore, the CEO of Global Policy Solutions, introduced the panelists as "education giants" with more than a century of experience working to improve public education in the United States.
Forum convenors Dr. James. P. Comer and Deborah Meier were joined by New York University scholar and education historian Diane Ravitch and Douglas W. Anthony, Director of School Leadership in the Prince George's County (MD) Public Schools. Meier and Ravitch, who over the years have been on opposite sides of education policy issues, write the Bridging Differences blog on the Education Week website.
Close the Gap by Focusing on Development
Dr. Comer talked about what he has learned over the past 43 years about what it takes to transform low-performing schools and what schools can do to provide children with the developmental experiences that will allow them to become positive and successful contributors in family, work, and civic life. While he provided the test score data to show how Davis Street Arts & Academics Inter-district Magnet School in New Haven had closed the achievement gap in Connecticut, he also read several quotes from Davis students who had learned collaborative problem solving and the developmental pathways necessary for academic learning:
Shemar: "I used to get into a lot of trouble but now that I know the Comer Pathways I changed a little... I learned to think before I act."
Brianna: "The best thing I learned at morning meeting is ToV-tone of voice-and it's not what you say to a person but how you say it."
Mekhai: "Last year in my 4th grade class we didn't have a morning meeting so when I had problems I had to keep them to myself. It gave me a lot of anger and frustration. I didn't really understand the lesson because I was focused on other things...So in a class with morning meeting I learned how to speak to other people and now I can focus and I learned a lot more stuff in class."
Best-selling Book Resonates with Educators
For the past two months Diane Ravitch has traveled around the country promoting her latest book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. Everywhere she has gone teachers thanked her for giving voice to their issues and concerns about the negative impact they think NCLB has had on them and public education. "Teachers are very demoralized all over the country," said Ravitch. "NCLB has been punitive and stigmatizing." Ravitch has reversed her position and no longer supports charter
schools, school choice, and other market-oriented reform strategies in
education.
She thinks that the No Child
Left Behind Act should not be reauthorized because high-stakes testing in reading and math have narrowed the curriculum, leaving little time for things like social studies, art, music, and other subjects. She was critical of the Obama administration's education agenda particularly Race to the Top, which she said was never authorized by Congress and is "bribing states to do all the wrong things" and that "attaching competition to Title I is a terrible idea."
What Undermines the Work of Educators
Doug Anthony began his presentation by humbly describing himself as "perhaps tall but not a giant." He acknowledged Dr. Comer's influence on his work as a principal and in his current position of directing the Office of School Leadership in the Prince George's County Public Schools. "Dr. Comer is a very modest man. We call it the Comer Process, he
doesn't."
Anthony identified four things that he thinks are undermining the work of educators: inappropriate assessments that are not diagnostic; characterizing schools as failing which has a negative impact on the morale of staff, students, and parents; the lack of public discourse about education policy; policy makers' lack of knowledge about the context in which educators work; and practitioners not being part of the policy making process.
He thinks that policy makers should focus on "understanding, cultivating, and replicating what effective teacher leaders and administrators do and to build the capacity of every stakeholder in the organization to improve the development of every child through effective and meaningful professional development." Anthony believes that it is important to create a learning environment in which "it is OK to take a risk."
No Real Consensus About How to Improve Education
Deborah Meier began her presentation by holding up a copy of a March 1958 issue of Life magazine with the headline "CRISIS IN EDUCATION." The former Soviet Union had launched Sputnik, the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite on October 4, 1957. This watershed event resulted in, among other things, the federal government pumping millions of dollars into science, engineering, and mathematics at all levels of education. "Apparently, we beat the
Russians without improving our schools," said Meier.
Meier has lived through other "crises in education," having spent more than four decades working as a
teacher, writer, and public advocate. She was the founder and teacher-director of a network of
highly successful public elementary schools in East Harlem. In 1985 she
founded Central Park East Secondary School, a New York City public high
school in which more than 90% of the entering students went on to
college, mostly to 4-year schools.
"We're told that there's a consensus about how to improve education, but there's not real agreement," said Meier. "We are going in the wrong direction," a viewpoint she shares with the other panelists.
To learn more about the Forum for Education and Democracy's recommendations about ESEA, click here.
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In Chicago, the Comer School Development
Program has boosted reading and math test scores, using parent
involvement as a core tenet.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
Mom Congress, Georgetown
University
May 3, 2010 |
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Joyce Herron-Taylor, Esq.
 In 2001 Joyce Herron-Taylor received the Patrick Francis Daly Memorial Award for her outstanding leadership of Anthony Wayne Elementary School in Detroit, Michigan. She currently serves as the Quality Schools Coordinator for the Michigan Association of Public School Academies (MAPSA). She directed Detroit Public Schools' Highly
Qualified Teacher Assessment and Verification Center and was a
Leadership Development Specialist for the district's Center for School
Leaders. Joyce has also held Principal
Leadership Coaching positions with the Wayne Regional Educational
Service Agency.
Reflections on the Comer Process
When I became principal at Anthony Wayne
Elementary School in Detroit, I suspected we were a staff of very nice people accustomed to a mentality of
"teachers will be able to improve student achievement if teachers' needs are
met." Something was missing in our lives, yet it was as if we were looking for
an answer, but we did not know the question! With 850 students, no assistant principal,
social worker, counselor, or critical support staff, I searched the educational
literature to find models for change that would keep our building healthy,
efficient, and successful. Once I admitted to the staff that I was absolutely
overwhelmed and needed their support, we embraced several initiatives that
ultimately clarified for us what we needed to do; we needed to be
child-centered, instead of teacher-centered.
Through our research of
continuous improvement models, we eventually encountered the Comer Process
(School Development Program). Everything
we were attempting to piece together was finally presented in one, logical, and
magical package. The nine elements made so much sense to us that when the Detroit
Public Schools (DPS) offered to provide funding for a few schools to adopt the
Comer Process, we easily convinced the grant reviewers that we were ready for
implementation.
This model changed my life
as an administrator and it continues to influence my style as a change agent
for children. If what we are doing isn't positively supporting and impacting
the best interests of children and families, it does not deserve significant
attention. I shared this advice often with
legislators, educators, and organizations whose decisions touch children's
lives.
When I left the district,
the Wayne staff selected my predecessor, Theresa
Matthews. She was already familiar with the School Development Program and continued
to drive the Comer Process, even though Detroit Public Schools no longer provided funding implementation support. Once again this year Wayne
Elementary School has met the standards to be designated a
Skillman Foundation High Performing Good School.
In my present position as
Quality Schools Coordinator for the Michigan Association of Public Schools Academies and the Michigan State University Good Schools Resource Center, I am
always mindful of the Comer Process. Building strong relationships is one of the cornerstones of my position. Additionally, in our data-driven systems, I
focus leaders on other elements of the SDP model, such as assessment and
modification of the school program, and effective planning and no-fault problem solving. I am very grateful to
have been a part of such a wonderful, child-centered initiative.
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Visit the School Development Program's new website using any of the following addresses:
www.schooldevelopmentprogram.org
www.comerprocess.org
medicine.yale.edu/childstudy/comer
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What I Learned in School: Reflections on Race, Child Development, and School Reform
By James P. Comer, M.D., M.P.H.
What I Learned in School highlights, in one volume,
the major contributions of world-renowned scholar Dr. James P. Comer,
whose visionary work has dramatically shaped the fields of school
reform, child development, psychology, and race. This small collection
of Dr. Comer's work is beautifully arranged and includes an
introduction and engaging updates from the author. These works paint a
remarkable picture of what we've all learned so far, and what we all
must learn going forward.
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Our Mission
The School Development Program is committed
to the total development of children and adolescents by helping parents,
educators, and policy makers create 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 support for development that will allow them to become
positive and successful contributors in family, work and civic
life.
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Please forward this newsletter to friends and colleagues and visit our YouTubeand Facebook pages.
Sincerely,
Cynthia R. Savo
Communications Director
To go fast, go alone. To go far, go together.
- African proverb
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