SCHOOL CULTURE
Comer School Development Program
Dr. James P. Comer and his colleagues at the Yale Child Study Center began to create the School Development Program (SDP) in 1968. The SDP is the first reported school intervention program in which the test scores, behavior, and attendance of poor and/or socially marginalized students improved dramatically. Also, it was the first intervention in which the application of child and adolescent development principles was used school-wide to create interactions and/or relationships that prepared students to learn and to begin to take responsibility for their own learning; and enabled teachers, school staff and administrators to support student personal development and learning. The Comer Process is not a project or add-on, but rather an operating system—a way of managing, organizing, coordinating, and integrating programs and activities. Three teams—the School Planning and Management Team (SPMT), the Student and Staff Support Team (SSST), and the Parent Team—work together to create a Comprehensive School Plan (CSP); to design and conduct staff development aligned with the goals of the Comprehensive School Plan; and to assess and modify the plan as necessary using a wide range of student and school-level data to ensure that the school is continuously improving. The teams are guided by three principles: decision making by consensus, no-fault problem solving, and collaboration. At Nathan Hale we have created relationship experiences and a culture in our school that helps students grow along six developmental pathways needed for school success—socialinteractive, psycho-emotional, ethical, cognitive, linguistic and physical. The main goal is to integrate child development and academic content. Our teachers at Hale teach curriculum units, that involve students and often parents, engage all students of all economical status with the kind of experiences that promote executive function and social skills that all children should acquire in their families.
TRAKS
RULER
At Nathan Hale School, we understand that emotions matter and we are excited to continue using RULER, an evidence-based approach to social and emotional learning that helps school communities integrate the practice of emotional intelligence into daily life.
Why do we care about social and emotional skills? Decades of research shows that emotional intelligence is essential to effective teaching and learning, sound decision making, physical and mental health, and success in school and beyond. Research also shows that when schools and homes partner to support children’s emotional development, children not only feel better, but they do better.
RULER teaches five key skills of emotional intelligence:
Recognizing emotions in one’s self and others.
Understanding the causes and consequences of emotions.
Labeling emotions accurately.
Expressing emotions appropriately.
Regulating emotions effectively.
We will integrate RULER skills into our academic curriculum and provide opportunities for students and all the key adults involved in their education – teachers, administrators, and family members – to learn, model and practice these skills.
One of the ways we will incorporate RULER into our school and home lives is through the discussion of FEELING WORDS each week. As a school, we are going to introduce a new word family as a school and share it with parents through our parent connection. In the classroom, each grade level is going to introduce a synonymn for these word families that is age appropriate for your child. These words stem from Yale’s Center For Emotional Intelligence’s Feelings Word Curriculum (FWC).
Teachers and Staff at Nathan Hale hold our students to high expectations for citizenship, kindness and consideration right alongside academic expectation in reading, math, science and social Nathan Hale School Handbook 28 studies. The school culture at Hale encompasses a comprehensive merit system, by which students earn privileges and autonomy through the choices they make. Our Hale culture is consistent across classrooms; teachers are expected to arrive on time, wearing appropriate attire, and ready to meet the demands of the day. By recognizing small acts of citizenship (from holding doors to picking up a wrapper in the stairwell), we seek to reinforce the message that their school is what they make it. We encourage them to think beyond rewards based on good behavior to a community-minded, internally driven approach to decision making and action critical to post-secondary success. We do all this through our TRAKS Program. TRAK Teaching Responsibility and Awarding Kids (TRAK) is a Tier 1 school wide program which tracks behavior in the areas of responsibility, respect, citizenship, and perseverance. Using a spreadsheet daily data for each of the 20 indicators, merits and demerits, related to those 4 character traits is tracked for each student by the teachers. Spreadsheets are handed in daily so that data can be inputted and analyzed. Based on the data collected, students who have exhibited positive behaviors are celebrated. Using the data generated, parents are sent letters at the end of each marking period. Updates about the TRAK program are included in each parent letter, along with their child’s areas of strength and areas of growth. Parents of children with a 504 plan with behavioral concerns or an IEP are given a separate letter with data is that modified based on their child’s goals. Postcards are another form of communication with parents. Postcards are sent to individual student’s homes when a teacher observes a child going above and beyond in one of the character traits.