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."

More than 200 school, parent, and community leaders attended the Forum at the Farmington Marriott on March 26, 2011. The event was sponsored by the Connecticut State Department of Education in collaboration with Connecticut Parent Information and Resource Center (CT PIRC).

“We must redefine parents’ and guardians’ roles and find new ways to assure that they are involved fully in supporting the instructional program and their children’s success, said acting Education Commissioner George Coleman.

The Forum organizers tapped three presenters with deep knowledge of schools and the importance of parents, families, and communities working in partnership with educators to support student development and learning:

Anne T. Henderson, a senior consultant with the Annenberg Institute for School Reform in Washington, DC, who for the past 25 years has written the Evidence series, which reviews the research on the effects of parent and community involvement on student achievement. Her most recent book is Beyond the Bake Sale: The Essential Guide to Family-School Partnerships.
Penny Bender Sebring, Ph.D., a senior research associate at the University of Chicago and founding co-director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute, who co-authored Organizing School for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago with Anthony S. Bryk, John Q. Easton, Elaine Allensworth, and Stuart Luppscu.
James P. Comer, M.D. who began working in two of New Haven's lowest performing schools with colleagues from the Yale Child Study Center in 1968. In School Power: Implications of an Intervention Project, he chronicled the transformation of the two schools that went from the bottom to the top in student achievement, pro-social behavior, and parent involvement. The School Development Program model has been used in more than 1000 schools in the U.S., England, Ireland, South Africa, and other countries.

Anne T. Henderson acknowledged Dr. Comer's influence on her work. "What he said about children learning from the people they bond with infused all of my work," said Henderson. Aren't children more likely to do well when they bond with their teachers? Knowing their families is the best way to really know kids. If parents are out of the loop on children's learning, there is no loop. They must be partners."

Lessons from Chicago

When the Chicago Public Schools decentralized in 1988, Local School Councils gave parents and communities control over significant resources and the authority to reform their schools in dramatic ways, including hiring and firing principals. Over a seven-year period Dr. Sebring and her colleagues at the Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR) tracked the effects of this bold experiment. They identified one hundred elementary schools that had substantially improved and one hundred that had not. Their research focused on identifying what the successful schools had done to improve student learning.

They identified a comprehensive set of practices and conditions that were key factors for improvement, including school leadership, the professional capacity of the faculty and staff, a student-centered learning climate, and family and communities ties. They concluded that "schools must have strengths in multiple areas, and a sustained weakness in only one of these areas undermines virtually all attempts at improving student learning," said Sebring.

In her introduction of Dr. Comer, Elaine Zimmerman, the executive director of the Connecticut Commission on Children, used a powerful image to describe him. She said he is “the oak tree of our state who has the deepest roots,” alluding to the local legend of the Charter Oak where the colony charter was hidden in a cavity in late 1687. The unusually large oak was blown down in a violent storm 150 years later. The Governor’s desk and the chairs of the leaders of both legislative chambers were made from wood salvaged from the Charter Oak. “He is a man who has been telling the truth for a long time,” she said. “He is the forerunner of modern school reform and a pioneer.”

Dr. Comer’s presentation focused on why meaningful parent and family participation is important. "Families and educators must know how to promote development and learning simultaneously; because, neuroscience findings over the past 25 years, together with longstanding social and behavioral science findings, provide strong evidence that child development and learning are inextricably linked, and reciprocal." he said.

He presented the nine elements of the SDP school transformation model and described the School Planning and Management Team (SPMT) as the “engine” that drives change in a school. A number of the questions asked of Dr. Comer by the audience following his presentation focused on SPMTs and School Governance Councils. Public Act 10-111, the school reform law enacted in 2010, mandates the establishment of School Governance Councils in the state’s lowest performing schools, some of which have functioning School Planning and Management Teams.

Since there wasn’t enough time for Dr. Comer to respond to all of the questions posed by Forum participants, he has responded to questions asked by a number of people. The following is his response to the question about whether and how School Planning and Management Teams and School Governance Councils can be melded:

“This may not be possible. The School Planning and Management Team (SPMT) and the School Governance Council (SGC) essentially serve the same functions.

I advise against having two groups with similar functions in a school. In our experience it causes confusion and potential power struggles and conflict. Our SDP model, with the SPMT as the core, is designed to promote good relationships, prevent blame, and to focus adult attention on student needs rather than their own. Voting as opposed to consensus decision making, and no voice for particular groups creates discontent.

The Forum concluded with a special session for members of newly formed School Governance Councils. Bob Rader, the executive director of the Connecticut Association of Board of Education (CABE), described the training modules he and his staff co-developed with Dr. Paul Flinter and Dr. Judy Carson from the Connecticut State Department of Education. Dr. Penny Bender Sebring shared lessons learned from Local School Councils in Chicago.