News & Events
News
Comer: LBJ Changed My Life
Dr. Comer, Students Dialogue About the Developmental Pathways
At Michele Alex’s invitation Dr. Comer visited her 6th grade class at Benjamin Jepson School in New Haven on February 16, 2012. “My class presents projects 4-5 times per school year. They decide who to invite, when the presentations will be held, and which students will present. My class wanted to go all out for Dr. Comer's visit. Each student had a job. Some made posters, some shared their projects, including a biography of Dr. Comer, others read their poems and raps, and one student decided to play some music."
In Memoriam: Robert R. Dunwell, Ed.D.
In Memoriam: Deborah Davis
Deborah Davis, the former Comer-Zigler (CoZi) coordinator at Wexler-Grant School in New Haven and a team leader at the Comer Kids’ Leadership Academy, died on February 10, 2012.
Dr. Comer Receive Award from Historic New Haven Church
Student Success Plans & Comer Model a "Perfect Fit"
By the beginning of the 2012-13 school year, Public Law 11-135 mandates that all public school students in Connecticut in grades 6 to 12 must have a Student Success Plan (SSP) that includes a student’s career and academic choices. Dr. James P. Comer was the keynote speaker at the two Student Success Plan technical assistance forums organized by the Connecticut State Department of Education in November and December.
Dr. Comer Featured in TC Today, The Alumni Magazine of Teachers College, Columbia University
Dr. James P. Comer was featured in the December 16, 2011 issue of TC Today, The Alumni Magazine of Teachers College, Columbia University in "Bottling Common Sense," by Barbara Finkelstein.
New Haveen Schools Inspire Hartsville, SC Comer Facilitator
Comer SDP a Key Component of Revitalization Effort in Pittsburgh
Dr. Comer Keynote Speaker at Nellie Mae Education Foundation Grant Program Launch
Dr. Comer Panelist at Bank Street Capitol Hill Policy Briefing
Drs. Wyatt and Comer Present at SACS on Higher Education Partnership Strategy for School Transformation
Collaboration Key to Successful Comer Conference in Hartsville
More than 150 people attended the Whole Child-Whole Village Comer Conference in Hartsville, South Carolina on November 4, 2011. The conference brought together staff members of Southside Early Childhood Center, Washington Street Elementary School, Thornwell School for the Arts, and West Hartsville Elementary School, Darlington County School District central office administrators. Camille Cooper, the SDP’s director of Teaching and Learning and the implementation coordinator for Hartsville, welcomed participants to the conference that was held at Hartsville Middle School.
Dr. Jack Gillette Named Dean of Lesley University School of Education
Dr. Jack Gillette, the former director of Professional Development and Consultation at the Comer School Development Program (SDP) at the Yale Child Study Center, was recently appointed dean of the Lesley University School of Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Gillette played a key role in the scale up and implementation of the SDP across the United States and in Trinidad. He managed the national leadership academies that over the years brought thousands of educators from around the United States and other countries to Yale to learn how to implement the Comer Process in their schools and districts. He also managed eight university-district partnerships including the Bay Area, Detroit, New Orleans, and San Diego.
Dr. Comer Speaker at Community Wellness Seminar in San Diego
Comer's on the Move in Hartville, South Carolina
The bulletin board in Tara King's new office at Washington Street Elementary School sums up the status of the Comer Process implementation in Hartsville, South Carolina: Comer's on the Move! Much has been accomplished in the year since a group of education and business leaders met with Dr. Comer and the SDP faculty to discuss implementing the Comer SDP in Hartsville.
Merrow: Comer Schools are "Beacons of Hope"
In his August 30, 2011 Huffington Post Taking Note column, Two Town Halls, and a Peek into the Future, PBS Newshour education correspondent, John Merrow expressed his dismay over media coverage of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute’s Annual Martha's Vineyard Event, "Separate but Unequal: Closing the Education Gap" held on August 18th at the historic Old Whaling Church in Edgartown.
Dr. Comer on Educational Disparity and Minority Youth Panel
Dr. James P. Comer was a panelist at the symposium, “Educational Disparity and Minority Youth,” co-hosted Yale Law School and Quinnipiac University School of Law. The event was held September 16, 2011 at the TD Bank Sports Center on Quinnipiac’s York Hill campus.
Japanese National Ministry of Education Funds Research about SDP
Dr. Comer on College Board Panel at Harvard
Nearly half of young men of color ages 15 to 24 who graduate from high school will end up unemployed, incarcerated or dead. This is just one of the many statistics highlighted in two new reports released by the College Board Advocacy & Policy Center at an event at Harvard University on June 20, 2011. The reports are The Educational Experience of Young Men of Color: A Review of Research, Pathways and Progress and Capturing the Student Voice.Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director, W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard, co-hosted the event.
Sen. Blumenthal: I Want to Comerize the Senate
Nathan Hale, a Tier I Comer School in New Haven, was one of four exemplary schools in Connecticut that U.S. Senator Richard M. Blumenthal visited on May 16, 2011. As a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), he is preparing for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)/No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). He wanted to talk with educators and students about how they became great places to learn and develop.
Nathan Hale Turn Around Room a Safe Zone for Kids
With the support and encouragement of their principal, Lucia Paolella, veteran teachers, Pat Consiglio and Donna Ryan, transformed the classroom where they co-teach the Read 180 program for struggling readers into the Turn Around Room. They had worked together closely when Pat was the special education teacher assigned to work with Donna's 6th grade class at Nathan Hale. As the name implies, the Turnaround Room is a place where any student in the K-8 school can come to turn their day around. Everything they do in the Turn Around Room "is based on the Comer philosophy and the six Developmental Pathways," said Ryan.
Dr. Comer Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from Greater New Haven NAACP
Citing his numerous accomplishments during more than his 40 years as a professor at the Yale University School of Medicine, Bruce Alexander, Vice President for New Haven and State Affairs and Campus Development at Yale, presented Dr. James P. Comer with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the NAACP of Greater New Haven on Saturday, May 14th at the Yale Commons. The theme of the 94th Annual Freedom Fund Dinner was “One Nation, One Dream: The Politics and Challenges of Education Reform.
SDP Joins Unique Public-Private Partnership in South Carolina
The SDP has joined a unique public-private partnership formed to implement a comprehensive scholastic excellence program in the Hartsville, South Carolina public schools. The PULSE (Partners for Unparalleled Local Scholastic Excellence) Program is a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership involving the Darlington County School District, The South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics(GSSM), Coker College, and Sonoco, which announced the initiative at a press conference on February 21, 2011 at Thornwell School for the Arts in Hartsville.
CASEL Forum Brings Together Long-Term Collaborators in Washington, DC
Faces of Learning Features a Defining Moment in Dr. Comer's Education
Dr. Comer is one of fifty people in Faces of Learning: 50 Powerful Stories of Defining Moments in Education who share inspirational stories about transformational teachers, powerful learning environments, and pivotal moments of self-discovery. Taken together, these their stories uncover a common understanding of what it feels like and what is required to discover one's purpose, passion, and capacity for greatness.
Dr. Comer on No Labels Education Reform Panel
Dr. James P. Comer was on a education reform panel sponsored by No Labels on May 9, 2011 at RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison, Connecticut. The other panelists included David Cicarella, president of the New Haven Federation of Teachers who was instrumental in producing a four-year union contract considered by President Obama to be a national model; John Rathgeber, president and CEO of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA) and a member of the Connecticut Early Childhood Education Cabinet; and David M. Walker, the president and CEO of the Comeback America Initiative (CAI).
Roxanne Coady, the bookstore owner, and Dr. Debra Hauser, a clinical psychologist on the faculty of the Yale Child Study Center and a co-chair of No Labels Connecticut, facilitated the bipartisan discussion about current education practices and reform efforts.
Bank Street College of Education Honors Drs. Bettye Fletcher Comer and James P. Comer
The Board of Trustees of Bank Street College of Education honored Drs. Bettye Fletcher Comer and James P. Comer at the 2011 Annual Dinner, the College's annual fundraiser, at The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers in New York City on April 12, 2011. They were recognized for their outstanding contributions to education and their developmentally focused values and philosophy that they share with the founders and current faculty and leadership of Bank Street. Richard D. Parsons, the chairman of Citigroup, Inc., was the master of ceremonies.
When We Know What Works, Why Don't We Do It?
In his welcome to the School, Family, and Community Engagement Forum, Allan B. Taylor, president of the Connecticut and the national State Board of Education organizations, acknowledged Dr. Comer's work, then posed a compelling question that quieted the packed ballroom: "When we know what works, why don't we do it? Nothing is more important than answering that question."
Dr. Comer on 2011 Charles W. Hunt Lecture Panel at AACTE Annual Conference
Dr. James P. Comer was one of the five presenters on the 2011 Charles W. Hunt Lecture panel, “How Children Learn and Develop: What Ed Schools Should Teach,” at the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) annual conference on February 25th in San Diego. Dr. Jon Snyder, the chief academic officer and dean of Bank Street College of Education, moderated the panel that he said was outgrowth of the work of the national expert panel of the NCATE Initiative on Increasing the Application of Developmental Science Knowledge in Educator Preparation that Dr. Comer co-chaired with Dr. Robert C. Pianta, dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia.
Sheila Jackson Named to SDP National Faculty
Sheila Jackson, M.S., the director of the Department of School Improvement in the Prince George's County Public Schools in Maryland, has been named to the SDP's National Faculty. "Sheila moved from parent volunteer to parent facilitator to a number of leadership positions in the Prince George's County Public Schools. She brings a spectrum of knowledge to the work of the SDP that's enormously important," said Dr. James P. Comer.
Two Veteran Educators Named to SDP National Faculty
Shelia G. Brantley, a veteran teacher and the District Comer Facilitator in New Haven, Connecticut, and Carol P. Ray, the principal of Asheville High School in Asheville, North Carolina have been named to the SDP National Faculty.
Community Forum on School Governance Councils and SPMTs
A community forum about the new School Governance Council (SGC) legislation (Public Act 10-111) was held at Cooperative Arts High School in New Haven on November 29, 2010. SGCs are mandated in schools that are among 5% of the state’s lowest performing, and that failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in math and reading at the whole school level.
Educators Ill Equipped to Close the Achievement Gap Without the Developmental Sciences
Despite growing evidence that developmental issues impact students' learning, little effort has been made to ground school reform and educator preparation in the developmental sciences, according to a new report issued by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), the professional accrediting organization for schools, colleges, and departments of education.
The report, "The Road Less Traveled: How the Developmental Sciences Can Prepare Educators to Improve Student Achievement: Policy Recommendations," is based on the work of the three-year period of an expert panel that was co-chaired by James P. Comer, M.D., M.P.H., the director of the Yale Child Study Center School Development Program (SDP), and Robert C. Pianta, Ph.D., dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia.
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.
Dr. Comer Promotes Development at the 40th CBC Annual Legislative Conference
At the request of Congressman Elijah Cummings (MD-7), Dr. Comer participated in a town hall meeting, Door to the Future: Transforming Public Education for African-American Youth, at the 40th annual Congressional Black Caucus Legislative Conference at the Washington Convention Center on September 16, 2010.
"Education Giants": We're Heading in the Wrong Direction
On May 4, 2010 the Forum for Education & Democracy held a Capitol Hill policy briefing, Bridging Difference: What Works in Schools, to inform the public discourse about the reauthorization of ESEA, the No Child Left Behind Act. Maya Rockeymoore, the CEO of Global Policy Solutions, introduced the panelists as "education giants" with more than a century of experience working to improve public education in the United States. Forum convenors Dr. James P. Comer and Deb Meier were joined by New York University scholar and education historian Diane Ravitch and Douglas W. Anthony, Director of School Leadership in the Prince George's County (MD) Public Schools. Meier and Ravitch, who over the years have been on opposite sides of education policy issues, write the Bridging Differences blog on the Education Week website.
