Rallying the Whole Village: The Comer Process for Reforming Education

For three decades now, the Yale School Development Program’s “whole village” approach has been transforming schools into places where students learn, develop, and thrive. Even students at risk become eminently successful in the same schools when SDP practices are established. With nearly 600 school communities across the nation trained in child psychiatrist James Comer’s holistic model of child development and comprehensive plan for school reform, the SDP now presents the specifics of that model and plan in action.

Rallying the Whole Village: The Comer Process for Reforming Education is prepared for easy inclusion in graduate and undergraduate courses in education, special education, and social work, and for school administrators, district superintendents, researchers, and policy makers at all levels. Topics discussed by the authors include children’s psychosocial development, group dynamics of effective school communities, teacher preparation and school/university partnerships, appropriate alignment of classroom content to standardized tests, increased student engagement and learning time, research and evaluation, community health, government initiatives, and school/business partnerships.

This volume will be an invaluable resource in the creation of school communities populated by healthy, well-functioning adults and children whose bright dreams of the future are truly attainable goals.

James P. Comer, M.D., is Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center, associate dean of the Yale University School of Medicine, and director of the School Development Program (SDP). Norris M. Haynes is an associate professor at both the Yale Child Study Center and the Department of Psychology and research director of the SDP, where Edward T. Joyner is the acting director and Michael Ben-Avie is a predoctoral research fellow.