Evidence of SDP Impact

Comprehensive in nature, the School Development Program (SDP) addresses the levers that have an impact on student development and well-being, and on their academic performance, including school organization, school climate, curriculum and instruction, and parent and community involvement; with relationships and child and adolescent development principles as the foundation.

Such a comprehensive reform model requires an evaluation design that can address the interplay of a wide variety of variables, many of which are not under the control of the program designers, if order is to be brought to the process and meaning to the results. The SDP program evaluation process is designed to capture the complexity inherent in whole-district and/or whole-school reform, and to attempt to trace the lines of causation from causes to effects; and of correlations among and between variables.

Regular feedback of information through formative evaluation contributes to the quality of implementation of the model. Emmons and Comer (2009) provide a detailed description of the Yale Child Study Center School Development Program evaluation process.

• Anson, A.R., Cook, T.D., Habib, F., Grady M., Haynes, N.M., Comer, J.P. (1991). The Comer School Development Program: A theoretical analysis. Journal of Urban Education, 26 (1), 56-82.
• Borman, G., Hewes, G., & Brown, S., (2002). Comprehensive School Reform and Student Achievement: A Meta-Analysis. CRESPAR, November 2002, Report No. 59.
• Borman, G. (2009). National efforts to bring reform to scale in America’s high-poverty elementary and secondary schools: Outcomes and implications. Washington, DC: Center on Education Policy.
• Comer, J. P. & Emmons, C.L. (2006). The research program of the Yale Child Study Center School Development Program. The Journal of Negro Education, 75(3): 353-372.
• Cook, T.D., Murphy, R.F., Hunt, H.D. (2000). Comer's School Development Program in Chicago: A theory-based evaluation. American Educational Research Journal, 37(2), 535-97.
• Emmons, C. L. & Comer, J. P. (2009) Capturing complexity: Evaluation of the Yale Child Study Center School Development Program, in R. Deslandes (ed.) International Perspectives on Contexts, Communities and Evaluated Innovative Practices: Family-school-community partnerships. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 204-219.
• Millsap, M.A., Chase, A., Obdeidallah, D., Perez-Smith, A., Brigham, N., & Johnston, K. (2000). Evaluation of Detroit’s Comer Schools and Families Initiative. Final Report. Cambridge, MA, Abt Associates, Inc.
• Noblit, G.W., Malloy, W.W., & Malloy, C.E. (2000). The kids got smarter: Case studies of successful Comer Schools. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, Inc.
• Stevenson, M.F. & Engstrom, D. (1999). Evaluation of the Comer-Zigler Initiative, 1996-1999. Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy, Yale University.
• Turnbull, B.J., Fiester, L., & Wodatch, J. (1997). "A process, not a program": An early look at the Comer Process in Community School District 13. Washington, DC: Policy Studies Associates, Inc.
• Wong, P.L., Oberman, I., Mintrop, H., & Gamson, D. (1996). Evaluation of the San Francisco Foundation Bay Area School Reform Portfolio. Summary report. Stanford, CA: Stanford University.

Over the years, the SDP evaluation process has been funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Education: CFCA#: 84.332B, PR01#: S332B050015; PR/Award #: R215U980019.