NCATE unveiled the report at a press conference on October 5th at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Developmental sciences, which include the science of child and adolescent development and neuroscience are given short shrift in educator preparation a and school reform, according to the study. Titled "The Road Less Traveled: How the Developmental Sciences Can Prepare Educators to Improve Student Achievement: Policy Recommendations," the report was prepared by a multi-disciplinary panel of experts and draws on more than a decade of research linking teachers' ability to address social, emotional, and cognitive development with increased student achievement results. 

"Teachers cannot educate the 'whole child' if they are only half-prepared. And they cannot improve learning if they don't know how to help address the social, emotional, and cognitive needs of children and adolescents," noted Comer. "A well-functioning school, or a good school culture and climate, can seamlessly reinforce and build on development that took place before school. A dysfunctional or ineffective school environment can interfere with the development of all students, but particularly among those who did not have a good pre-school experience."

Dr. Comer said that many teachers and administrators, through no fault of their own, have not been prepared to create a school climate or culture that will intentionally focus on development in the service of academic and overall learning and development.

Two commissioned papers were also released at the press conference: "Increasing the Application of Developmental Sciences Knowledge in Educator Preparation" and "Principles and Exemplars for Integrating Developmental Sciences Knowledge into Educator Preparation." The latter report highlights the implementation of the Comer School Development Program in the Asheville City Schools in North Carolina as an exemplar of school- and district-wide application of child development knowledge and principles. See Close the Achievement Gap By Closing the Development Gap below.

Report Findings

• Teacher preparation programs provide inadequate coursework in the developmental sciences, including cognitive science and the science of child and adolescent development.
• Programs must integrate academic study in the behavioral sciences with real opportunities to implement child and adolescent development best practices in classrooms and communities.
• Policy makers must consider the importance of child and adolescent development as they design new standards and assessments of evaluating student and teacher performance, particularly when turning around low-performing schools, whose students are often in particular need of developmental supports to improve achievement.
  

Recommendations
The NCATE report urges policy makers, higher education institutions and other teacher preparation programs, and other stakeholders to revamp educator preparation programs to improve teachers' knowledge of child and adolescent development by: 

• Acknowledging the need to address developmental issues in turning around low-performing schools. Most turnaround models currently focus on management, data use, leadership, and school organization to improve student learning. Evidence suggests that culturally specific knowledge of child and adolescent development can improve student learning in schools that serve high-poverty, high-need communities.
• Incorporating child and adolescent development research throughout the curriculum as part of a framework that explores the interconnections between how students develop and learn.
• Ensuring that educator candidates have opportunities to apply child and adolescent development principles.
• Developing new tools and resources to guide educators in learning and improving developmentally sensitive instructional techniques.
• Including child and adolescent developmental strategies in standards and evaluation systems.
  

Close the Achievement Gap by Closing the Development Gap

Carol P. Ray, the principal of Asheville High School, described how she and the staff of Hall Fletcher Elementary School used the Comer SDP to make dramatic gains in student achievement. When Carol became the principal in 1998, only 50.2% of Hall Fletcher students had achieved proficiency on the North Carolina state tests. Her determination to turn the school around was both personal and professional. Her daughter was in the 4th grade and had attended Hall Fletcher since kindergarten.

Carol outlined the steps she and her staff took to use the Comer SDP for "total school reform." She got a laugh from the audience when she said that they didn't change the children, 78% of whom were African American with more than 85% qualifying for free or reduced lunch. Hall Fletcher served children and families in nine federal housing projects.

Carol and her staff used the three guiding principles of no-fault problem solving, collaboration, and consensus decision making to build strong relationships with all the stakeholders: the students, parents, faculty, staff, and the community. "By using a no-fault approach, we identified the areas of the school that needed improvement. And we went public, asking for assistance from parents and the community," she said.

In the second year of Comer SDP implementation, they began to "actively engage and empower our students in their developmental process, and we did this by our intentional and specific instruction of the six developmental pathways." Dr. Comer has identified six areas of developmental that are critical to academic learning: physical including brain development, social-interactive, psycho-emotional, moral-ethical, linguistic, and cognitive-intellectual.

They wanted all the children and their parents to know about each of the pathways and what they meant to them "as a student, as a community member, but most important, as a human being. And we called this strategy simply Comer in the Classroom." Hall Fletcher teachers were "intentional in weaving the developmental pathways into all areas of the curriculum." Working through their School Planning and Management Team they aligned all existing programs with the developmental pathways, "moving child development theory into practice."

When the district saw the dramatic achievement gains Hall Fletcher students had made after the second year of implementing the Comer SDP, the Asheville City Schools agreed to participate in a Comprehensive School Reform Quality Initiatives grant the SDP had received from the USDOE to work systemically in five school systems. The following charts are examples of the gains that Hall Fletcher and the other Asheville elementary schools made:

 When Hall Fletcher began implementing the Comer SDP in the 1998-99 school, 59% of the 5th graders had achieved proficiency in reading on the North Carolina state test, the lowest of Asheville's elementary schools. By 2004 the percentage jumped to 100%. The other elementary schools made comparable gains.

Grade 5 students at Hall Fletcher and the other Asheville elementary schools made equally impressive gains in math. Carol thinks their greatest achievement was closing the gap between African-American and white students.

In 1999 there was more than a 40% proficiency gap between African-American and white 5th graders in reading. By 2004 the gap closed to within 6%. The gap in 5th grade math scores also closed to within a few percentage points.

In recognition of her outstanding leadership as a principal, Carol received the prestigious Patrick Francis Daly Award for Excellence in Educational Leadership from Yale University in 2004. She received the 2001 Asheville City Schools Principal of the Year Award, the 2001 North Carolina Western Regional Principal of the Year, and received the Congressional Black Caucus Leadership Award for empowering families and communities.

To view Carol's presentation at the NCATE press conference, click here and to view Dr. Comer's presentation, click here.