Transforming School Leadership and Management to Support Student Learning and Development: The Field Guide to Comer Schools in Action

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.

Edward T. Joyner, Ed.D., is the Executive Director of the Yale School Development Program. He served as the SDP′s first director of training, was the original designer of the SDP Leadership Development Academies, and initiated university-public school partnerships to strengthen local school reform efforts. He is the architect of the SDP′s systemic initiative to coordinate the work of the school board, central office, building staff, and the larger school community to create an optimal environment for teaching and learning throughout each school district. He currently oversees all of the operations of the Yale School Development Program and serves as the lead implementation coordinator for New York.

Michael Ben-Avie directs the Impact Analysis and Strategies Group, which studies corporate, nonprofit, and government partnerships that promote youth development and student learning. He conducts national studies designed to evaluate the effectiveness of mentoring programs and psychological interventions on children′s lifepaths. He has co-edited books about the Yale School Development Program with James P. Comer and colleagues, and has published numerous book chapters, journal articles, and reports on educational change initiatives, high schools, parent involvement, and the relationship between youth development and student learning.

James P. Comer, M.D., is the founder and chairman of the Yale School Development Program, Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center, and Associate Dean of the Yale University School of Medicine. He has been the recipient of the Grawemeyer Award in Education, the John and Mary Markle Scholar in Academic Medicine Award, the Rockefeller Public Service Award, the Harold W. McGraw, Jr., Prize in Education, the Charles A. Dana Award for Pioneering Achievement in Education, the Heinz Award for Service to Humanity, and  many other awards and honors, including 41 honorary degrees.