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 SDP Newsline

December 2010 

In This Issue
James. P. Comer, M.D., M.P.H.
Dr. Herman Clark, Jr.
Barbara M. Stern
Lorraine Flood
Joanne Corbin, Ph.D.
 
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JPC photoSisyphus and School Reform
By James P. Comer, M.D., M.P.H.

The Comer-Zigler (CoZi) partnership at Bowling Park Elementary School in Norfolk, Virginia is a good example of the problem in education and why it's so difficult to sustain and institutionalize successful programs. Both of our programs, the School Development Program and School of the 21st Century (21C), were successful. Together we were successful in Bowling Park, and yet when we ran out of money we couldn't continue.


But there's another part of the Bowling Park story that demonstrates the problem in education. They went from being last in achievement in the district to first. The superintendent called in the principal, Dr. Herman Clark, Jr., who thought he was going to be rewarded and praised for the great job he had done. The superintendent said, "You know your kids can't do that well."

 

We don't know whether it was bias against poor, black kids, however, by accusing them of cheating without explanation, the superintendent communicated through his actions that he didn't believe that they were capable of doing that well. He could have learned what they were doing so he could make improvements in the entire school system. There was a big newspaper story about the "scandal." Everyone in the school and the churches rallied behind those kids and teachers, because they were upset and made to feel bad. The superintendent sent people from the central office to monitor the re-testing.

 

When the children did better than the first time, the results were buried in a newspaper article. The superintendent let a number of teachers leave. He pulled Dr. Clark out and claimed that he was going to have him share his strategies with other principals, but gave him no support, making it impossible for him to be successful with other school leaders. The superintendent made no effort to understand what had made it possible for the children to make such dramatic gains in their test scores which makes you think that he really wasn't interested in finding out how to do it. The program fell apart and they went right back down to where they were in the beginning.

 

Just by chance the summer after the collapse, I was in the airport and met the young black woman who was the science teacher at Bowling Park. She was very bright, very interested, and very committed to helping poor black children do well in school. She was on her way to take a job with a chemical company, because she was so upset about what had happened and did not want to stay in education.

 

Bowling Park had gone from the very top back down to the bottom, not because the staff wasn't making every effort but perhaps because of the bureaucracy or a biased individual. Small-minded people did not make the most of those findings, and that's why you can't build on anything. There's no mechanism for learning and building on and growing what is successful. There is no funding for supporting what is successful, and so things come and they go, and disappear. People come, and go, and disappear. We continue to have a poor educational system when it is possible to have a very good system. There's very little change.


To view Dr. Comer talking about Bowling Park and the challenges of sustaining school change, please click here.
Reflections on the Comer-Zigler (CoZi) Initiative at Bowling Park
By Cynthia R. Savo

Several months ago Dr. Herman Clark, Jr. sent me a copy of "19 Years Later: A Principal's Reflection on Parent Involvement in an Urban Community School," a paper he had written about Bowling Park, an elementary school in Norfolk, Virginia that he had led for ten years. Norfolk was one of the first school districts to implement the School Development Program as a framework and process for transforming under-performing schools. Under Dr. Clark's leadership, Bowling Park became an exemplary Comer School that received national attention.

 

In 1991 Bowling Park was selected to be the first national demonstration site of the Comer-Zigler Initiative (CoZi) that combined the work of Dr. James P. Comer's School Development Program and the School of the 21st Century conceptualized in 1987 by Dr. Edward Zigler, a developmental psychology professor at Yale University who helped found the Head Start program. At the time, Dr. Comer and Dr. Zigler had been involved in school reform and advocacy for children for more than three decades.


In 1995 Dr. Clark received the Patrick Francis Daly Memorial Award from Yale University for his outstanding leadership of Bowling Park CoZi School. That year Redbook magazine named Bowling Park one of the top 50 schools in the U.S. for its overall excellence. The U.S. Department of Education also recognized Bowling Park as an exemplary Chapter I school (renamed Title I). Educators, social service providers, and others from around the country came to Bowling Park to learn how to use the CoZi model to transform their schools and communities.

 

As the nation embarks on an ambitious and costly effort to overhaul public education, particularly the lowest achieving schools, there are lessons to learn from the CoZi model that was launched with major foundation support during the last great wave of school reform in the 1990s. Dr. Herman Clark, Jr., Lorraine Flood, Dr. Jack Gillette, Barbara Stern, and Dr. Joanne Corbin reflect on their CoZi experiences. 

Herman Clark headshotHerman Clark, Jr., Ed.D.
The CoZi model connected our families to the school through early childhood services for children in infancy through 36 months. Four preschool classes for three- and four-year-olds were also included. After-school care and summer camp were opened to preschoolers as well as children in the elementary program, and these services promoted the continuous engagement of parents in their children's development and learning.


When we began reforming the school to include various family support services, I noticed an increase in parent participation. Bowling Park CoZi School was well on its way to becoming a full-service program meeting the needs of parents and children. The majority of the students received free or reduced lunch and most lived in two of the public housing communities in which Bowling Park was located, yet the parents had formed a parental network that was recognized by the late Peter Jennings on the ABC News program. 


As a part of President Obama's focus on early childhood education, he is urging states to engage parents in their child's early learning and development. He is dedicated to making sure that our young children are ready for school by supporting a seamless and comprehensive set of services from birth through age five.

My purpose is to describe what was and can still now be, if schools and communities do their job of creating the environment necessary for welcoming and engaging parents in real ways. Can parents be mobilized and through a parent leadership initiative create a network of support for their children's learning during the early years? Can community connections help in mobilizing parents?

I am joining with other community partners to explore offering leadership training to interested parents,
particularly those from low-income communities, so that they can support their children's development and learning. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is implementing a quality initiative to improve Head Start by expanding its focus on early care and learning from birth to age eight. The Head Start Roadmap to Excellence lays out specific activities, one of which promotes positive outcomes for young children when parents and teachers provide children with quality interactions.

A strong relationship between the home and school is critical to ensuring that children achieve positive educational outcomes. It is also important for the community to rally around the school in its support of parent involvement in their children's education. That is what we experienced at Bowling Park when I was the principal of the school.

To download "19 Years Later: A Principal's Reflection on Parental Involvement in an Urban Community School," by Dr. Herman Clark, Jr., click here.

Dr. Clark is currently an assistant professor  in the Regent University School of Education in Virginia Beach, Virginia. 
Barbara SternBarbara M. Stern
I was the project manager for CoZi for five years. The Carnegie Corporation of New York  funded CoZi, and I was hired to implement the idea at Bowling Park. Lorraine Flood was the on-site coordinator in Norfolk, and Jack Gillette also played a role in the training and development of the model.

I will never forget the first meeting Jack, Lorraine and I had at the Holiday Inn in New Haven. None of us were really sure what CoZi was and Jack said, "It is going to be what we make it to be." We were all inspired to bring the best of the Comer and Zigler models into one concept, and we worked together closely over the next five years not only to make it work at Bowling Park, where we already had Herman Clark committed to its implementation and philosophically on board, but also over time in other schools and states.

 
Managing this project was a huge growth experience for me both personally and professionally. I had to be very entrepreneurial and creative and exude confidence that I knew what I was doing when actually we were inventing the plane as it was flying. However, having the support of both the Comer and Zigler organizations, and their amazing staff, and a strong philosophical underpinning, all combined to give me the
confidence to move it forward, recruit new sites, and re-apply successfully to Carnegie for further funding to keep it going.

There are a number of lessons in my view. First of all, the model itself was beautiful. Marrying the early childhood and family support pieces to the Comer school improvement model had the potential of creating a learning organization fully committed to the success of children and families on so many levels. As I look around me today I still see the need for this type of school and it wouldn't require inventing anything new. Organizationally I also understand now that for a model to take hold it has to be owned by the organization in its very mission and not tied to the personnel of the moment in time. CoZi didn't continue and grow because it wasn't owned by either organization and was too closely connected to me personally.

I left CoZi to become a principal of my own school. I wanted to try out all the things I had been "consulting" about in the real world. I spent the first three years as the principal of a K-6 elementary school in East Haven. I wrote grants and got funding for a Family Resource Center, which included a preschool class, an adult education program, and a Parents as Teachers program. I then had the opportunity to move to Cheshire where I have been principal for the past ten years of the Darcey School, the town's early childhood center. My school houses 16 kindergarten classes, ten preschool classes as part of an early intervention center servicing children with special needs as well as typically developing children, a Birth-to-3 program, and a Parent Center and outreach component that support children, families, and the local nursery schools and daycare centers throughout the town.

Of course I also implemented many of the Comer elements of CoZi. I have a School Leadership Council that has representatives of all the adult stakeholders in the school community, and they have learned all about no-fault decision making!  I learned so much about supporting children and families when I managed the CoZi initiative, and it has informed my practice as an administrator every single day.

Lorraine K. FloodLorraine Flood
One day as I was walking down the hallway at Bowling Park CoZi School, and I saw a little girl in the distance, bouncing her way towards her kindergarten classroom. As I came closer, I noticed her taking four books out of her backpack. I stopped at her classroom door where she was sitting and said, "Oh, I see that you are about to read all of those books."  She replied, "I can't read all of those books. My mom ain't got me hooked on phonics yet!"  I laughed and moved on.
 
I came away from that experience changed. From then until now, I share the "phonics story" with others pointing out that children really look to learn from their parents. Many children view their parents as their primary teacher, and some parents don't even realize that their children are waiting for them to teach them the basic things: the ABCs, the 1..2..3's; "Stop, look and listen before you cross the street"; "Please" and "Thank you," and much more. 
 
Parents involved in children's education and learning gained my attention during the early 1990s when I learned that some states and school districts were beginning to launch early childhood programs as a school reform strategy. It was during that time that the Comer-Zigler (CoZi) Initiative was launched in the Norfolk Public Schools at Bowling Park Community School. Bowling Park was one of the ten Comer schools in Norfolk that were implementing the School Development Program (SDP) as a way to better meet the developmental and academic needs of all of its students.

Dr. Herman Clark, Jr. had been the principal of Bowling Park for about 10 years and had gained the respect and confidence of parents and teachers. The community also embraced his energetic leadership style and supported the school program. When the school district agreed to pilot CoZi, I was selected to coordinate the effort and worked closely with Barbara Stern and Jack Gillette, who offered ongoing technical support as we moved through the various phases: start-up, implementation and evaluation.
 
Bowling Park was flanked by two public housing communities, and parents living there became an integral part of the school's culture. They were involved at the school in various ways: attending school programs and events; participating in workshops and training sessions; volunteering in the office and library; starting a family literacy breakfast club; and helping to make decisions as members of the school's governance team. According to Dr. Clark, he saw a difference in parent involvement as a result of CoZi. CoZi also changed the school by expanding the academic program to include services for the families of children from infancy through the elementary grades. The Parents as Teachers (PAT) program was implemented by two parent educators who were housed at the school but worked with parents and children in their homes.

Bowling Park CoZi School was a school of change, and that change has affected me both personally and professionally and continues to characterize much of the community work in which I am currently involved. Professionally, my role as coordinator of this pilot initiative allowed me to operate as a change agent. It began with the technical support provided by Barbara Stern, a member of the School of the 21st Century staff and Jack Gillette, from the School Development Program. 


My first assignment was to gather and compile data to informed us about the availability and affordability of child care in the school community. We used this information to design a needs assessment for Bowling Park's parents regarding child care and preschool services. The information collected from both the child care community and Bowling Park's parents was published in a Comer-Zigler data guide and was used as a factor in making the decision to move forward in piloting the CoZi Initiative. That experience, which I call a growth experience, was one activity which allowed me to create a useful data system which proved to be effective in our decision-making process.


Other activities that enhanced my professional growth and increased my ability to function effectively included planning and conducting CoZi site visits from schools in the state, region, and beyond. These visits focused on the early childhood programs and parent services which were featured as a part of the Virginia Department of Education Early Childhood Demonstration Project. As a result of me taking the lead in writing the proposal and with help from Yale's CoZi technical support team, the state of Virginia awarded Bowling Park demonstration grant funds to establish four preschool classes, hire two parent educators, and to implement the Parents as Teachers (PAT) program.

This grant gave us the start-up funds we needed to restructure the school to include services for children and families, an educational program with an academic focus, collaborative principles for decision making, and bonding strategies to support changes in the school's culture. During an evaluation interview one parent described Bowing Park CoZi School as, "like a second family." The initiatives, tasks, and activities helped to strengthen the reform process and increased the school's ability to function effectively to meet its mission.
 
The impact of CoZi on me was not only professional but also personal. I became an advocate for early childhood education and parental leadership. I believe that true school reform addresses the essentials of learning and starts at the very beginning. Whenever one builds a structure, attention is given to the foundation. Should we do any less with children? The early years are the foundation years for making certain that all children are provided quality care and early learning programs and experiences for school readiness and beyond. Parents and children together is my personal theme and posture for advocacy. I have dedicated my voice to this cause.

Dr. Herman Clark, Jr. and I have submitted a grant application for three years of funding for Norfolk Parents as Leaders (Norfolk PALs) which will mobilize parents for leadership training. We want parents to develop their own voices to advocate for their children's education and learning, and we are currently establishing  community connections towards this cause. Yes, we are change agents, and I believe it's a CoZi thing!

Lorraine Flood is currently the President/CEO of L. Kelley Flood Consultant Service and a league manager with the Hampton Roads 7 Cities Pro-Am Basketball League, Inc. in Norfolk, Virginia.

Jack GilletteJack Gillette, Ph.D.

Barbara Stern and I worked together as the initial implementers of CoZi, so we both went to Bowling Park a number of times. The model made so much sense. Dr. Edward Zigler had originally set up Head Start separately from the public school system as he was deeply distrustful of their ability to serve young children well. It was a change in his thinking that led to the creation of his model, School of the 21st Century (21C), as he was convinced that schools had to be worked with, offered important resource opportunities for all-year development of children, and wanted to minimize the difficulties of various transitions for the child: from family to preschool and then from preschool to elementary school. He saw the School Development Program as a way to strengthen the way adults worked on behalf of children and the philosophies were a match concerning child development, the role of parents as significant partners, etc.

I really thought the combined model would be a huge addition to our overall work, but this did not turn out to be the case, I think for a number of reasons. First and foremost, dual programs of any kind are a challenge to schools. They may, and often do, multiple programs, but it can, and usually is, haphazard and receives little coordination. To manage the entry of two programs was more than most wanted. Second, many who already had 21C added the SDP to their existing structures. The SDP raised a more systemic change effort for them, one they may not have had any real felt need for, so we "grew" almost no schools that began as 21C schools. Finally, I think we were all overextended and never were able to roll out the model sites and national faculty to the degree we might have if we had more resources.

Bowling Green Elementary School was an amazing place and Herman Clark, Jr. deserves enormous credit for it. It was a safe and calm oasis for kids. I especially remember how photos of people were up in the lobby including me and Barbara Stern. Herman was very high on gender segregation. and I recall the story of a set of twins, one boy, one girl. They were together in kindergarten, and the boy did slightly better. The next year, he was in a boys' class, and she in a girls' class; he flatlined and she soared, so I guess gender dynamics are powerful.
 
The key force for implementation, beyond Lorraine Flood's terrific work was a strong friendship between the first Cozi preschool teacher and a well regarded 5th grade teacher. Their relationship led to lots of curriculum changes in the higher grades as they saw and used more child-centered approaches based on what they saw in CoZi early childhood rooms.

 

I think there are real lessons for reform that can and should be learned from CoZi.

 
Jack Gillette, Ph.D. is currently the director of the Teacher Preparation and Education Studies Program at Yale University.


Joanne Corbin, P.H.D.Joanne Corbin, Ph.D.
My role with CoZi was as a researcher. In 1992 Barbara Stern asked me to conduct qualitative interviews of parents as part of the larger, very  detailed CoZi evaluation. I interviewed 4-5 parents about their experiences with CoZi; questions related to their interactions with their children, parenting issues, child behaviors, things they were doing differently with their children as a result of CoZi, and so on. They reported wonderful things from my perspective as a social worker. One parent talked about learning that it was important to let her son talk. She had often told him to be quiet. She said she learned talking was good for his development and so not only was he talking around the house, he was singing. 
 
Another parent spoke about going into their child's classroom and observing that the teacher had the names of objects taped to those objects, i.e., the word "door" taped to a door and so on. She said that she could do this as well. She went home and taped words to objects around her home as a way of teaching her daughter the words. Another parent spoke about developing social networks. She spoke about not having anyone that she trusted to leave her children with if she went out, not even her parents. She did not approve of the way her parents would discipline her children. During her first year of involvement with the CoZi program, she developed friendships with 1-2 other parents to the extent that she did leave her children with them from time to time. The last example is a parent who talked about participating in the Jazzercise classes. She learned that when she de-stresses herself, she is better able to interact with her son.
 
Listening to these parents' stories was so powerful, that I wanted to do more with this information. I was listening to powerful stories of personal change. When I started my doctoral work, I convinced my faculty advisor at the Yale School of Epidemiology and Public Health to let me develop a dissertation based on examining the outcomes of the CoZi model; specifically school climate, social support, stress, and parent efficacy. Dr. Herman Clark, Jr. was extremely supportive of my doing this work, and Lorraine Flood was fabulous, supporting me every step of the way even hosting after-school meetings for the parents. Lorraine, a parent, and I presented the findings as a team at a conference. It was a very good experience.  
 
I think the lesson that still needs to be reinforced in many schools (beyond CoZi) is that it may be just as important if not more important to engage parents in schools in order for greater development to occur. I've been working to increase social workers' connection to parents in schools and sometimes these relationships are only forged when there is a problem. We have to change this mentality.

Joanne Corbin, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the School for Social Work at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Visit the School Development Program's website using
any of the following addresses:


www.schooldevelopmentprogram.org
www.comerprocess.org
medicine.yale.edu/childstudy/comer

WILIS cover
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.


New Videos Added to the SDP's YouTube Page

www.youtube.com/comersdp

James P. Comer, M.D., M.P.H.
Public Education for African-American Youth
40th Annual Congressional Black Caucus Legislative Conference

Presentation at the October 5, 2010 NCATE Press Conference
 on Increasing the Application of the Developmental Sciences
to Educator Preparation

Carol Ray
Using the Comer Process to Close the Achievement Gap in Asheville, NC


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.

Please forward this newsletter to friends and colleagues and visit our YouTube and Facebook pages.

Cynthia R. Savo
Editor
[email protected]