2013-14 Princeton Project 55 Fellows' Blog

At times it seemed like this time would never come, but at long last, Christmas and my first real vacation since starting work at the Character Education Partnership are finally here! It has been so wonderful to spend some extended time with my family at home. I know I will appreciate this vacation, short though it may be, more than any I had during college--I forgot how nice having a flexible schedule and sleeping in multiple days in a row can be!

Now that I have a little bit more down time to reflect on my time at CEP, I wanted to write briefly about what exactly character education is. When I tell friends from home or people I meet in DC that I work for an organization that advocates for character education in K-12 schools, I oftentimes get confused, skeptical looks. I completely understand this reaction. It's a reflection of the very limited, narrow approach to character education that represents many individuals' (myself included) only experience with the field. It’s characterized by inspirational posters on the wall, times set aside throughout the school year to didactically teach students about a particular character trait, and outdated videos that oversimplify the nuances and challenges facing young people developing a personal code of ethics. Yes, the core values highlighted on the posters and in the designated “character times” are concepts we can all agree upon—surely, no parent would not object to his or her child learning about respect, responsibility, integrity, and perseverance. Yet this rather half-hearted attempt to promote the values essential to a student’s (and society’s) optimal development is not particularly effective, and it has created a widespread misconception of character education as the “soft” part of education that is difficult to dispel. As a national advocate for character education, CEP fights an uphill battle against this stereotype on a daily basis.

However, as I have learned over the past few months, the case for character education is certainly there, and it is strong. Numerous studies I have come across in my quest to understand that case (Angela Duckworth’s grit scale and Joseph Durlak’s meta-analysis of SEL programs come to mind) have shown that particular character traits—such as being able to persevere in the face of failure, make responsible decisions and goals, recognize and manage emotions, establish positive relationships, and constructively handle interpersonal situations, among others—predict success above and beyond IQ. Given that schools were created to equip young people with the skills necessary to succeed in and eventually lead our society, it seems irrefutable that they should not only help their students to attain certain test scores, but also intentionally work to develop these personal qualities in students that enable them to succeed beyond the classroom as well.

The framework for developing a comprehensive, successful character education program is also in place. A growing number of schools across the country have used the Eleven Principles of Effective Character Education—the core tenets upon which everything we do here at CEP is based—in order to bring staff, parents, and, most importantly, students, together to create a more caring and productive learning environment. Those schools we have worked with that received the highest marks according to the 11 Principles assessment tool saw numerous concrete indicators of whole school improvement. For example, students were treating others with more respect. Violence and bullying decreased. Substance abused declined. Teacher morale and retention improved. Parental involvement increased. And, of course, that linchpin of all good schools, academic achievement, also significantly improved.

The question remains, then, how to take these success stories to the masses and publicize what effective character education really looks like. If teachers knew that effective character education is the cultivation of a nurturing classroom culture rather than an additional item to fit into the busy school day, they wouldn’t feel as though their agenda were too jam-packed for character. If parents knew that their children would be encouraged to reach their fullest potential in a more respectful environment, they wouldn’t view character education as an attempt to undermine their role as primary moral educators. And if students were involved in creating their own character development initiatives, they wouldn’t dismiss them as an outdated waste of time.

During my brief time at CEP, I have come to the realization that this question is central to all that we do here. It’s not just a matter of how to improve schools, or how to graduate students who are both caring and successful. We have seen that character education can be the agent of these changes. Instead, it is a matter of educating others that effective character education is in fact this transforming agent. It’s a matter of communicating what effective character education is and what it is not. As the primary author of many of the grants proposals we write, I have taken a number of different approaches to making the case for character education, and I know that my approach will continue to develop, and hopefully improve, as I continue to do so in 2012.