School Development Program

Developed by child psychiatrist Dr. James P. Comer and his colleagues at the Yale Child Study Center in collaboration with the New Haven Public Schools, the School Development Program (SDP) is a research-based, comprehensive K-12 education reform program grounded in the principles of child, adolescent, and adult development.

The work that led to this process model began in the two lowest income and lowest achieving schools in the city in 1968. By combining developmental and learning science principles the team identified the most critical elements involved in staff, student, parent, school, and community functioning in school, observed their interactivity, and then codified and systematized their operation and expression in a way that led to synchronous and positively synergistic school activity. The two schools eventually rivaled the highest income schools, had the best attendance record, and no serious behavior problems.

Over the past 40 plus years the SDP model has been implemented in more than 1000 schools in 26 American states, the District of Columbia, Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa, England, and Ireland.

Though a principal led but shared management framework, organizally, and/or primarily by the school staff, organizational, management, and communication issues are pulled together in a way that promotes collaboration, assessment, capacity building, and a focus on teaching in a way that leads to the integration of student development and academic learning. By minimizing confusion and conflict in the building system through this process, educators can make sound programmatic decisions based on student behavioral, developmental, and learning needs; and intentionally prepare students for school and mainstream life success. Our outcomes suggest that when students are developing well they will learn well.

While the School Development Program helps building level participants bring about change, it has been used as a framework for system-wide reform, providing mechanisms by which school boards and district central administration can coordinate and support the reform work at each school.

more...