With the Whole Child in Mind: Insights from the Comer School Development Program

Among the many models of school reform that have emerged in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, one has endured for more than 50 years: the School Development Program (SDP). Established in 1968 by renowned child psychiatrist James P. Comer and the Yale Child Study Center, the SDP is grounded in the belief that successful schooling--particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds--must focus on the whole child. With that in mind, the SDP encompasses both academics and social-emotional development, and it is founded on positive and productive relationships among students, teachers, school leaders, and parents.

With the Whole Child in Mind describes the SDP's six developmental pathways (cognitive, social, psychological, physical, linguistic, and ethical) and explains how the program's nine key components (in the form of mechanisms, operations, and guiding principles) create a comprehensive approach to educating children for successful outcomes. Firsthand recollections by Comer, school leaders and teachers, and SDP staff members provide an inside look at the challenges and successes that eventually transformed severely underperforming schools into models of excellence.

Linda Darling-Hammond, one of the country's foremost experts on K-12 education, and her colleagues argue persuasively for the continuing relevance of the SDP. Far too many schools still operate in a high-pressure environment that emphasizes testing and standardized curricula while ignoring the fundamental importance of personal connections that make a profound difference for students. Fifty years on, the SDP is still just as powerful as ever.

Linda Darling-Hammond is a professor of education at Stanford University, where she founded the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education. She is past president of the American Educational Research Association and recipient of its awards for Distinguished Contributions to Research, Lifetime Achievement, and Research-to-Policy. She is also a member of the American Association of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Education. From 1994 to 2001, she was executive director of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, whose 1996 report What Matters Most was named one of the most influential reports affecting U.S. education in that decade. In 2006, Darling-Hammond was named one of the nation's 10 most influential people affecting educational policy. In 2008, she served as the leader of President Barack Obama's education policy transition team.

Channa M. Cook-Harvey is the director of social and emotional learning at Folsom Cordova Unified School District. In collaboration with Instructional Services and Special Education, she is working to strengthen FCUSD's efforts to educate the whole child. In this role, she provides leadership, planning, coordination, and management to support the development of infrastructure that creates the conditions, culture, and competencies to guide social-emotional learning districtwide.

Lisa Flook holds a PhD in (Clinical) Psychology from UCLA. She is a senior researcher at the Learning Policy Institute, involved in translating research on children's learning and development to inform practice and policy. She has conducted research in educational settings for over 15 years. Her earlier research focused on the negative consequences of academic and interpersonal stress on children and adolescents. A strong interest in prevention and intervention led her to investigate approaches to mitigate the negative effects of stress and to promote health and well-being starting in childhood. She has studied the effects of mindfulness in school settings at UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center and at the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Madelyn Gardner is a research and policy associate at the Learning Policy Institute. There, she has conducted research on issues of access and quality in state early learning systems and on effective preparation and development of teachers and school leaders. Previously, Gardner worked at the Next Generation think tank, where she supported evidence-based children and family policy development in California, and taught English as a foreign language at Payap University in Thailand. She holds an MA in International Education Policy from Stanford University.

Hanna Melnick is a research analyst and policy advisor at the Learning Policy Institute, where she coleads the Early Childhood Learning team. Her research there has focused on school climate, social and emotional learning, accountability, and building effective early learning systems. Previously, Melnick conducted research on California's Local Control Funding Formula and early learning systems. She began her career in education as an elementary teacher. Melnick holds an MPP from the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley and received her BA from Harvard University.