The California State Department of Education is in partnership with the Sacramento County Office of Education, Citizenship and Law-Related Education Center, five elementary and five middle schools in six districts to develop models of character education for California schools. This character education project utilizes a staff development approach to teach character concepts within the five elementary and five middle school test sites. In terms of outcomes, multiple measures will be used throughout the project to assure the reliability of findings. Sources of evidence to document change include: attendance, discipline, parental and community involvement, faculty and administration involvement, morale, and student staff, and parent perceptions of the impact of character education on daily activities and behavior. FY95: $250,000; FY96: $250,000;
FY97: $250,000; FY98: $250,000.
Contact: Marleen Allin, (916) 657-4656
The New Mexico State Department of Education has established the Partnerships in Character Education Pilot Projects with the Albuquerque Character Counts Coalition in Chaves County, and five public school districts, including rural, urban, and suburban districts. The goals of the partnership are: 1) raise awareness for character education in New Mexico; 2) involve youth in the promotion of character; 3) utilize the "Character Counts" program to support students as they strive to meet the challenging state content standards. The evaluation plan calls for formative evaluation to shape and modify the plan over the duration of the project, as well as a comprehensive summative evaluation by an external evaluator. The evaluator will use a three tiered approach that will examine the system, the program, and the participants' levels of understanding within each component of the plan, and will look at training, the degree of program implementation at school sites, development of materials and products, and the number of new participants, including Native American schools and communities.
FY95: $250,000; FY96: $250,000; FY97: $250,000.
Contact: Patricia Concannon, (505) 827-6525.
The Utah Community Partnership for Character Development includes seven school districts, Utah State University, and the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation. The six major objectives of the program are: 1) have the community articulate a common philosophy; 2) empower school-community teams to adapt the philosophy; 3) through the SEA, implement staff development; 4) create character development instructional methodologies, learning strategies, and curriculum; 5) provide for statewide expansion of partnerships; 6) develop and implement a comprehensive evaluation plan. An outside evaluator will work in cooperation with the stakeholders to: 1) assess the model as an application to foster the desired elements of character in students; and 2) understand the factors and conditions related to ongoing development and implementation of the model so that decision makers can refine and encourage others to replicate the model.
FY95: $246,997; FY96: $248,991; FY97: $248,593; FY98: $248,923.
Contact: Kristin Fink, (801) 538-7948.
