An increasingly important and appealing concept for school renewal is that of school as community. While community holds multiple promises for schools, little is known about the practice of community in schools. This collection furthers our understanding about the nature of school community, its practice in public schools, and the role of leadership in this practice. Of particular importance is the question of how community can be created and sustained in K–12 public schools with highly diverse populations.
A picture book for all ages from painter Thomas Locker! "Most of all, he thanked the wilderness for teaching him to see in a new way." In Blue Mountains is about the love of nature and the importance of beauty. It tells the story of an artist who sets out to explore wilderness and discovers a new way of seeing. Bewildered at first by the profusion of nature -- There are so many leaves, he could never paint them all! -- Gradually, he learns to see its wholeness and to trust his feelings. As he does so, he embarks on an adventure of learning: about light and shadow, the way color changes through the day, and how looking at nature leads to a new understanding of himself and the world. This illuminated story is set in America's first wilderness, the Kaaterskill Clove in Upstate New York, made famous by the Hudson River School of painters -- many of whose pictures are reflected in this book. Thomas Locker's In Blue Mountains is a personal, deeply moving testament to the power of beauty and art to nurture our children's natural love of the world. Indeed, it can inspire childlike wonder in people of all ages. In Blue Mountains is a wonder-filled book that makes a great gift for both children and adults. It contains 13 full-page, color reproductions of the artist's paintings of Kaaterskill Clove and the beautiful, blue Catskill Mountains.
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 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. “Over the last quarter century, often working against fearsome odds, James Comer’s School Development Program has achieved notable success in improving the quality of education in many American schools. In this wide-ranging book, Comer and his senior colleagues explain how they have accomplished this remarkable feat.” —Howard Gardner, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University “This compelling volume shows educators and parents how much can be accomplished when we make the success of the child in every aspect of development our constant focus and our ultimate goal.” —Edward Zigler, Sterling Professor of Psychology, Yale University “ SDP is both insistent and humane, a rare combination. And it works. This new book brings SDP’s many friends up to date on the extraordinary work that started in New Haven in 1968.” —Theodore R. Sizer, Brown University
From the Winner of the Grawemeyer Award in Education in 2007 "In the world of education reform, where silver-bullet ideas, ideologies, and intellectual fashion clamor for influence, James Comer's thinking has long been a sea of calm, balanced, and humane wisdom focused on the needs of the whole person. Reading Comer you see the incompleteness of so many other approaches to reform, as well as learn an integrated approach to making schools work. And now, here it all is in a single book. If you want to see how schools can actually work, as opposed to affiliate with a prior belief about how they should work, this is a must read." —Claude Steele,professor, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University "The best introduction?professional and personal—to the remarkable world of James Comer: physician-educator, par excellence." —Howard Gardner, Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts "James Comer is a rare constellation among social scientists: a great intellect, a keen analyst, a creative problem-solver and a man of enormous empathy. His writings are required reading for anyone interested in education reform or improving the odds for poor children." —Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO, Harlem Children's Zone
Among the many models of school reform that have emerged in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, one has endured for more than 50 years: the School Development Program (SDP). Established in 1968 by renowned child psychiatrist James P. Comer and the Yale Child Study Center, the SDP is grounded in the belief that successful schooling—particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds—must focus on the whole child. With that in mind, the SDP encompasses both academics and social-emotional development, and it is founded on positive and productive relationships among students, teachers, school leaders, and parents. With the Whole Child in Mind describes the SDP's six developmental pathways (cognitive, social, psychological, physical, linguistic, and ethical) and explains how the program's nine key components (in the form of mechanisms, operations, and guiding principles) create a comprehensive approach to educating children for successful outcomes. Firsthand recollections by Comer, school leaders and teachers, and SDP staff members provide an inside look at the challenges and successes that eventually transformed severely underperforming schools into models of excellence. Linda Darling-Hammond, one of the country's foremost experts on K-12 education, and her colleagues argue persuasively for the continuing relevance of the SDP. Far too many schools still operate in a high-pressure environment that emphasizes testing and standardized curricula while ignoring the fundamental importance of personal connections that make a profound difference for students. Fifty years on, the SDP is still just as powerful as ever.
Empowering Family-Teacher Partnerships: Building Connections Within Diverse Communities by Thomas M. Coleman prepares students to work collaboratively with families and community professionals in support of children's early education and development. The author takes a student-centered approach to delivering substantive information and framing activities. Students are invited to develop a personal philosophy of family involvement to guide their work with families and to join a community of learners in relying upon their collective insights and problem-solving skills to address family involvement challenges.
In this new book, the editors from the best-selling volume Rallying the Whole Village (1996), move beyond theory to present powerful, day-to-day experiences of change in school communities. Community members, business leaders, school board members, superintendents, principals, teachers, and parents across the country share their experiences as they have tried to create school communities in which all adults help young people develop and learn. The professional development activities described in this book will help prepare preservice and in-service teachers, administrators, and parents to do the kind of collaborative diagnostic and problem-solving work that has been so successful in transforming schools across the country.
Gregg Stokes can tell you exactly when his life took a turn for the worse. It was the day his new stepsister, Amy, joined the starting line-up of his hockey team, and everyone immediately felt the deep chill between them. Can they thaw their icy relationship for the sake of the team and their new family? Fry Reading Level - 3.4]
Primary topics include definitions and practices of full service schools, a review of the literature and setting up, the organizational effects on schools from structure to stories, key steps in starting a full service school and the critical importance of collaboration, including art and social science based on the tenets of art and meeting the non-curricular needs of children and families. A 3-Step Model is presented, containing key phases in action planning within the school community, building commitments, parent empowerment, harmonizing school-owned and community-based health and social services, identifying professional development needs, and planning supports for teachers and ways to improve life in classrooms.
This double issue presents summaries of the scholarly and practical-reform accomplishments of the first five years of the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk (CRESPAR). This bold, five-year initiative addressed several of the problems that most directly challenge the values and practical aspirations of modern democracies. The included articles emphasize how CRESPAR has focused on the schools in many of America's most challenging communities. It has both helped local schools improve themselves and advanced the nation's research base. This issue was written in commemoration of the life and work of John Henry Hollifield, Jr., founding coeditor. For 28 years, Hollifield served as an editor and administrator at Johns Hopkins University's Center for Social Organization of Schools. When JESPAR was just an idea, Hollifield was one of the people who most strongly advocated its development. He had a ready smile, a fine editorial touch, and a relentless will to produce each excellent issue. This issue, summarizing much of the research from CRESPAR's first five years, is presented by the full team of authors in his loving memory.
