Yale Education Expert Details Plan for Reform

At a'speech at the Harvard Education Forum last night, education reform expert Dr. James P. Comer criticized "silver bullet solutions" to educational problems and stressed the need for a deeper, long-term reform effort.

"School problems are many-layered and many-faceted, and we're not going to make a difference overnight, "Comer said, while describing the conclusions of his recent book, Waiting for a Miracle: Why Schools Can't Solve Our Problems and How We Can.

"Problems in our schools and education are reflective of problems in society and culture as a whole," Comer said to the about 150 educators, parents and students gathered at the Graduate School of Education (GSE).

Comer said attempts to reform America's schools should include efforts to remedy the economic and social problems of America's communities that cause problems in the schools.

Comer called for giving teachers additional training in child development. He said that relationships and experiences within the home and the community, rather than innate abilities, are the key to academic success.

Comer, the Falk professor of child psychology at Yale University and the director of the Yale Child Study Center Development Program, was introduced by Richard F. Elmore, professor of education at Harvard, as "a towering figure in education reform."

A recent recipient of the Heinz Award in the Human Condition, Comer was honored "for his profound influence on thousands of disadvantaged children through his visionary approach to public education."

Comer described how his parents-a domestic worker and a steel mill employee-raised their children in rural Mississippi and helped all five earn college degrees.

His background led Comer to wonder why he and his siblings had achieved the educational success that eluded many of their peers in school.

Comer said he concluded that the quality of interaction at home and within the community is often the basis for academic success. His conclusion has influenced much of his work since.