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.
Principal Lucia Paolella led the tour that also included Dr. James P. Comer, superintendent Dr. Reginald Mayo, NHPS Comer District Facilitator Shelia Brantley, Dr. Fay E. Brown, the SDP’s director of Child and Adolescent Development who leads the SDP implementation in New Haven, Sen. Blumenthal’s senior advisor, Michael Thomas, and Lily Adams, his state press coordinator.
The Turn Around Room
The first stop was the Turn Around Room, an inclusion classroom, where veteran teachers Donna Ryan and Pat Consiglio co-teach the Reading 180 program and provide a developmentally focused alternative to in-house suspension. “The Turn Around Room is what the name implies,” said Ryan. “Any child in the school can request time in the Turn Around Room to turn their day around. Their teacher may also send them here if they think the child is getting frustrated and may act out, for a negative behavior, or they just need a short break from one another.”
“Sometimes someone just needs to come in and sit down and chat because something happened at home like the death of a pet or a problem with a family member,” Ryan said. “They can come in and take a test in a quieter atmosphere. When they come in here it’s a safe zone for them where they know they can trust us, and we can trust them to be open and honest with us.”
Pat Consiglio and Dr. Brown showed Sen. Blumenthal the Comer Pathways Tree that has a branch for each of the six Developmental Pathways: social, physical, psychological, language, cognitive, and ethical. Students write about how they have used the pathways to respond differently to situations in school, at home, or in the community that in the past would have triggered an angry reaction or inappropriate behavior. Then they attach the cards to the relevant pathway branch.
Applying and Integrating the Developmental Pathways in the Classroom
While one can see the application and integration of the Developmental Pathways in any classroom at Nathan Hale, Larissa Giordano’s 4th grade classroom was a must-see stop on the tour. When Sen. Blumenthal and the rest of the group entered her classroom, she was doing a lesson on copyright using the Development Pathways to frame the discussion. Sen. Blumenthal asked how the pathways related to copyright laws. A student said, “You can’t just put you name on something someone else wrote,” referencing the ethical and language pathways.
After participating in Dr. Fay E. Brown’s workshop on how to apply and integrate child and adolescent development knowledge and principles into the classroom, Mrs. Giordano pasted sections of the SDP’s Student Development Survey into a composition book for each student. As they learned about each of the Developmental Pathways, they used their journals to reflect on their own development and to ask questions or raise issues and concerns. Mrs. Giordano would respond in writing to them in their composition books. She would also eat lunch with individual students to talk with them about what was on their minds. She began to journal about her own development and set goals for self-improvement.
Mrs. Giordano gave Sen. Blumenthal an example of how the Developmental Pathways have had a positive impact in her classroom. Several months ago on the day of the book fair, a student came to her and said that he had found a $20 bill in the hallway. The student was concerned that whoever lost the money would be upset. Mrs. Giordano took the money, and they found out who had lost the money.
The student who found the money said to her, “You know, Mrs. Giordano, I sure am an ethical boy.” She thought it was great that he felt good about being honest and had used the pathways language. She let him use the phone to call his mother to let her know what he had done.
Dr. Brown is working with Mrs. Giordano so she can share her strategies for applying and integrating the Developmental Pathways in her classroom with teachers in other Comer schools in the district.
“The Wrinkled Heart”
During a brief visit to Andrea Bailey’s 5th grade classroom, Sen. Blumenthal asked is someone would give him an example of the Developmental Pathways. A girl pointed to a heart made with red construction paper on the board next to him. “When you say something mean to someone, the heart folds and makes a wrinkle. If you apologize, the heart opens but the wrinkly remains,” she said. “So you have to be careful what you say to people, right?” asked Sen. Blumenthal. The students nodded their heads in agreement.
Lessons Learned
Following the classroom visits, Sen. Blumenthal had a conversation with Dr. Comer, Dr. Mayo, Mrs. Paolella, Dr. Brown, and Mrs. Brantley about what he had learned. “I learned a lot today. I learned about a “Comer moment,” the Comer Pathways, and being Comerized. I want to go back and Comerize the Senate,” said Blumenthal. “It would be great if you could get them to use no-fault problem solving,” said Dr. Brown.
“I used Jim’s ideas 35 years ago as the principal of Jackie Robinson,” said Dr. Mayo. “When you get parents, teachers, and administrators working together and on the same page, you get a good climate of relationships that provides a built-in support system for kids so they become morally developed, socially developed, and healthy. It’s about the whole child. Jim has said for years that there are a lot of smart people in jail.”
Sen. Blumenthal said that the measurement of teacher performance will be major issue in the ESEA reauthorization process. Mrs. Paolella said that the results indicators in New Haven’s teacher evaluation (TVAL) are linked to the goals in Nathan Hale’s School Improvement Plan that draws heavily on the School Development Program process and framework.
Dr. Comer talked about how the SDP model “allows school people to do what they need to do to help children grow and develop, and at the same time improves test scores. Once children develop well, it’s easy to help them learn. And the more you tie the learning directly to their development then you get good outcomes.” That’s because learning and development are inextricably linked. While 60% of the students at Nathan Hale qualify for free or reduced lunch, they score at or above state proficiency levels on the Connecticut Mastery Tests.”
Mrs. Paolella ended the meeting with an example of how much Dr. Comer’s model and ideas have permeated the Nathan Hale school community. An irate father had called the school and demanded to speak with her. She was in a meeting and couldn’t come to phone. When she called him at home, and his wife answered. “Mrs. Paolella, I am so sorry for the way my husband acted. I told him, ‘We don’t act that way. We’re a Comer school. You don’t demand to speak with the principal. You ask politely and express your concern.’”