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In an editorial in Education Week’s annual Quality Counts report (January 5, 2006), James Comer, professor of child psychiatry at Yale University, observed…

“The movement for standards-based education has had a powerful impact on policy and practice.  But it has done little to address the primary mission of schools �" the preparation of the young for success in childhood, adolescence, and adult life.  To function adequately across the life span, children and youth need formative experiences that aid their growth and development along the physical, social-interactive, social-emotional, moral-ethical, linguistic, and cognitive pathways. Indeed, academic learning is not an isolated capacity, but an aspect of development.  The two are inextricably linked and mutually facilitative.

”Through the developmental process, children must gain the capacities to regulate and control their aggressive energies and emotions, express themselves in constructive ways, manage tasks, negotiate and solve problems, get along well with others, and more.  Students who are developing well overall are more likely to perform well academically.  Most students who are underperforming in school are in fact underdeveloped.

”The standards movement focuses primarily on teaching subject matter, on achievement outcomes as measured by test scores, and on accountability sanctions;  it does not stress development.  So the attention of the entire education enterprise �" preparatory institutions, practitioners, students, parents, and policymakers �" has been riveted on academic-achievement outcomes, not on developmental issues.  Thus, despite a large body of research showing the connection between development, learning, and desirable behavior, supporting development continues to receive inadequate attention, in the preparation of educators as well as in education practice.”

This entire editorial can be found at: http://mail.ccie.com/go/eed/954

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