Gulp....character education programs might not be all that!
Recent study from the US Dept. of Education titled Efficacy of Schoolwide Programs to Promote Social and Character Development and Reduce Problem Behavior in Elementary School Children. How is that for a mouthful?!
Not sure I would print this (all 656 pages of it) instead I would read the summary linked above at EdWeek.
In a nutshell it appears that researchers have the impact of various "character education" programs and found that basically after several years of implementation with many factors considered the programs don't appear to have conclusive impact on the students they are meant to "mold and shape" despite other conflicting reports that have shown various programs to have a positive impact on students behaviors and value systems.
As a teacher I am a bit disappointed as our school has pushed its own hybrid of programs for several years now. It has been a substantial commitment in materials and time with regards to teacher training and classroom implementation efforts.
However as a parent I am not surprised. I would like to think that the values I raise my children with are the values that they take with them to school. Unfortunately for teachers, there is no one set of universal parent values although I think the vast majority of parents could agree on a pretty good core set....religious or not.
Our school doesn't really collect meaningful data that can be contributed to the success or failure of our own unique program called SEEDS. However, as someone who has observed the program since its inception in our school I will say one positive aspect of the program is the common set of vocabulary and expectations related to student behavior.
1 comment:
Thanks for the references, i am really happy to read out all this information.
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