by Lara Maupin, Director SSOC/NSOC

Kristen Pelster, Principal at Ridgewood Middle School in Missouri

Joe Mazzola and I attended the Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools annual conference this week. We were quite pleased to see the Department’s emphasis on how school climate can enhance the conditions for learning reflected in the selection of keynote speakers and workshops. Researchers and practitioners shared how improving school climate can improve academic achievement and reduce bullying.

We were especially thrilled that the Department asked dynamic principal Kristen Pelster of Ridgewood Middle School in Missouri to be the kickoff keynote speaker. Kristen told her school’s powerful story of transformation from the worst school in the district to National School of Character. How did they do it? Character education! By holding kids to high expectations and giving them the support they needed to meet those expectations, Ridgewood culture began to change. Over time, Kristen was able to empower her teachers and students. Without changing anything about how they taught academics, Ridgewood students improved academically. Of course, this is a story we know well at CEP. We see it repeated time and time again in our National Schools of Character. But it was gratifying to see over 1500 conference participants from around the country “get it” too.

Throughout the conference, we heard the message repeated:  Our kids deserve to be safe in school. Once they are safe, they can learn. We can do better. We know that our nation’s teachers are working hard for kids. They simply need our support – and they need tools which will enable them to build positive classroom cultures. Character education provides these tools, without adding “one more thing” or taking time away from academics. As researchers at the conference confirmed, we now know that when we focus on the social, emotional, and character development of students, we gain “time on task,” which results in academic improvement.

As Kristen said when she was asked how could she spend time on character, “How could I not?”

According to Interim Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr., Atlanta Public Schools will work toward achieving “a culture of integrity” as well as a “more open and transparent culture” among its schools, administrators, and teachers.  Too little, too late?  Certainly not. It’s a monumental step in the right direction, and CEP would like to offer information and resources to help the Atlanta Public Schools however possible.  Character educators know that even after a scandal of epic proportions such as this, it’s never too late to embrace our proper role as models and show our students that we, too, make mistakes sometimes (big ones, even).  And that we, as adults, can step up to the plate, do the right thing, hold our head up high, and keep on going.  Let’s show our students the right way to do things, and the right reason for doing them. Let’s bring integrity and ethics back into ALL our schools, let’s acknowledge where these qualities are lacking, and let’s take steps to show our nation’s impressionable youth how to act with integrity, character, and pride in our work. 

These students who watched our nation’s educators make colossal mistakes are our leaders of tomorrow.  They’ve witnessed the actions, they’ve seen the carnage that resulted, and now they’re watching what we’re all doing in the aftermath.  Let’s stop pointing fingers, casting blame, and castigating Atlanta Public Schools.  Let’s applaud them for taking the right steps in their commitment to creating a culture of integrity in their schools, and let’s help them succeed.

It’s worth taking a look at what these countries are doing to see if we can learn from them. If these countries don’t debate school choice, teacher accountability, or high-stakes testing, why do we? Will all of our interventions and measurements really make our students achieve more? Perhaps Merrow is right to point to our divergent state policies and lack of support or respect for teachers as weak areas of our educational system.

Even so, that leaves us with the question, “What do we focus on right now?” We at CEP propose one word to serve as the foundation of every effort: relationships. Schools should not be failing our kids. In fact, unless the buildings are falling apart, schools can’t fail them. It’s the breakdown in communication and interaction between teachers and students, between administrators and parents, between faculty and staff, between educators and the wider community. It’s been heartbreaking to see recent stories on teachers leaving the profession because of iron-fisted administration policies or facing daily threats with a lack of recourse.

Students, teachers, and parents at these schools all lose, because the environment doesn’t encourage the development of positive connections and relationships that would lead to an atmosphere of teamwork. Contrast that with the inspiring tales of how parents taking charge can become partners in a school’s improvement efforts. While we agree with Merrow that there are no “magic bullets,” there are many ways that fostering relationship-building can benefit a school.

One mom heard that the elementary school down the block from her new home was horrible and that she should search for another school to send her kids to. After visiting the school and seeing its dilapidated condition, she instead chose to take action. With support from the principal, she enrolled her kids and gathered together a coalition of parents who came together to help make changes the school could not afford or accomplish on its own—painting classrooms and changing the neighborhood perceptions of the school, allowing the teachers to focus their efforts on teaching.

Another mom also started taking action when she heard about the facility conditions at her son’s school. She hung a shower curtain on a bathroom stall when none of them had doors and then took larger action to build a partnership with other parents that enabled them to develop a compelling case that the school district’s board members could not ignore. Now she’s the president of a reinvigorated PTA that is helping to develop more effective parent-teacher partnerships at other local schools.

While parents can have a powerful impact on schools, teachers have the most direct impact on student learning. To be effective, teachers need to work in an environment where they feel comfortable suggesting ideas, collaborating with others, and working together with parents and the school administration to gather feedback and make changes. This is why the importance of school leadership cannot be overemphasized. A caring school community can be developed through effective school policies that encourage the development of connections among staff as well as with students and parents. One of this year’s National Schools of Character is accomplishing amazing things while still managing to leading the district in closing the achievement gap—or perhaps they have closed the achievement gap because of these relationships.

Uthoff Valley Elementary School is a public school in Fenton, MO, that has about 20% of its students on free or reduced lunch. While everyone in the school works hard on building relationships, just one example of these efforts comes through monthly early release days, where cross-grade buddy activities are planned by staff teams. Each month, 20 – 30 parent volunteers will come in to the school that day and help run these activities. This frees up the staff, who can therefore be engaged in full-day professional development and planning opportunities. Staff members take the time to recognize and appreciate each other for their actions as well, both publicly and privately, often for something the staff member may not realize he or she had done.

How can we build on these individual school efforts? Great things are happening on a smaller scale—now we need to find a way to bring these empowering stories into the limelight and build some powerful momentum in a larger undertaking.

If you could come up with your own way to acknowledge the hard work of all of our teachers, school leaders, and the faculty and staff as a whole, what would you do?

Here’s one idea that was recognized as a 2010 Promising Practice.

S.E.S. Hall of Fame

Sullivan Elementary School in Sullivan, MO, took the need to teach students the school’s adopted character traits and turned it into a year-long opportunity to recognize staff members. Students are selected to interview school staff members on a bi-monthly basis. Staff members and students are chosen by a 5th grade committee and after the interview, a visual display is created as a new spotlight in the Hall of Fame.

Don’t forget the importance of recognizing your staff members throughout the year, whether by offering a simple thanks for kind acts or honoring them in more public ways. A little bit of appreciation goes a long way, and it seems in this current atmosphere of high-stakes school critiquing, we need to show it more than ever.

Building a caring learning community goes beyond the four walls of a classroom.  At Lake Carolina Elementary, the faculty and staff have been deliberate in their approach to developing a caring community since the school opened in 2002.  We have worked to foster authentic relationships among students, faculty, families, and other members of our surrounding neighborhoods. We acknowledge that each of these stakeholders is an essential part.

As a team of educators, we realize that in order to build a strong school community, it is imperative to invest in each other as colleagues.  Teachers participate in professional workshops and outside-of-school activities to cultivate genuine relationships with each other and develop the faculty into a cohesive team. What we learn as professionals is then transferred into individual classroom communities by incorporating strategies such as daily morning meetings and end of day closure gatherings that give students the opportunity to connect with one another.

Students are encouraged to personally use and highlight others’ use of the school’s core values throughout the day. The core values are incorporated into academic lessons and deliberately used in classroom conversations. Students frequently work together in small groups or pairs. We know that learning is a social activity and this collaboration is essential in developing a caring learning community.

At other times, multiple classes are able to collaborate together. The school’s reading buddies program is a cross-age mentoring program that allows upper grade levels to work together with younger students.  Another way classes collaborate among each other is when they all work together as a team to keep the school’s Peace Flag flying.  On days when the flag flies, it serves as a tangible symbol of Lake Carolina’s caring community. On the other hand, when major discipline infractions occur the Peace Flag cannot fly. Administrators, teachers, and parents use the event as a learning experience to help students discover what better choices were available and which of the school’s core values should have been used to avoid the Flag not flying.

A caring school community not only involves teachers and students, but also parents and community members. Teachers at Lake Carolina view themselves as active, invested members of the greater school community. They attend students’ extracurricular activities such as sporting events and dance recitals in the community.  They also partner with parents to organize community events such as a family heritage night that embraces our school’s cultural diversity, family game nights, and service learning projects.  Community members also participate in these events and frequently serve as volunteers during the school day, mentoring and reading with students.

The faculty and staff’s efforts to build a strong school community result in students feeling comfortable enough to openly share with adults at school their concerns about academic struggles, conflicts with peers, or difficulties at home. In many ways, the greatest attribute of a School of Character is its caring community.

In a town settled by Quakers, otherwise known as Friends, Principle 10 wasn’t too difficult to sell. A small bedroom community outside of Houston, Friendswood was founded with core values in mind. But knowing about character and putting character into action are two different things, so in 1987 a group of 120 concerned citizens gathered to decide which values would be important to focus on for the students and families in the Friendswood Independent School District. And so our character education initiative began.

When it needed a booster shot, the School Board revitalized and consolidated the initiative by adopting the Character Counts! (CC!) framework in 2001. Westwood Elementary, one of six schools in the district, has been weaving the Six Pillars of Character into the very fabric of our school ever since.

Stakeholders help make Westwood Elementary School a caring community. Our character-building efforts today are extensive; parent and community volunteers clock an average of 1,210 hours per month. Westwood’s Parent-Teacher Organization intentionally organizes family gatherings outside of the school day like grade-level Skate Nights, Donuts with Dudes and Divas, BEAR (Be Enthusiastic About Reading) Night and the annual Round-Up Carnival. These moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas are vital to our school success.

They get very creative in their fundraising efforts by offering teacher treats as silent auction items, creating great connections for kids. For example, the principal donated a bowling outing, the counselor donated a cooking lesson, the assistant principal donated a canoe trip, some teachers donated a movie night, and another teacher donated a picnic in the park. These outings really energize students because they get to spend some quality time with their character role models and faculty, and the treats energize faculty because they get to better know their students more personally while the school benefits financially.

Teenagers from Friendswood High School regularly visit our campus. As Peer Assistance and Leadership (PAL) students, they come to us weekly to mentor. As Math Club members, they tutor. As Hometown Heroes, they lead pep rallies and serve as role models. As Future Farmers of America, they bring their animals once a year for a Go Texan Day. Health Occupations Student Association  students serve as Germ Busters and come to teach us healthy habits. Integrity Teams prepare and teach a monthly character lesson.

Adult mentors from all walks of life are also vital to our character building. Principal’s Partners volunteer to tutor and read one-on-one with students who need a little extra boost. Mystery Readers from the community share their favorite books to make a literacy connection. Parent volunteers cover classes so teachers can participate in our Lunch Bunch program that treats staff to a lunch out with others who have a birthday that month.

Also, The Rotary Club partners with us to help bring our service-learning projects full circle; last year they put money aside to ship the items that we had collected for two “adopted” soldiers on active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Friendswood Police Department sends a D.A.R.E. officer to conduct safety trainings with our students and teach them refusal skills, courage, and safety.

The local Knitting Guild volunteers to assist in our Knit-For-Service Club efforts. These mentors help our students learn to knit so that they can make caps for newborns and patches for blankets in their quest to reduce the infant mortality rate and Warm Up America! Area and family Veterans are invited and honored by our first graders on Veterans’ Day.

When we hosted a Career Awareness Day last May, some 45 community workers signed up to join us and share information about their career paths with our future leaders.

Finally, the school intentionally works to welcome families to spend some time with us after hours. In a typical year, we’ll host Family Math and Wellness Night, Family Character Night, Literacy Night, What’s Up at Westwood Night, Grandparents’ Night, Parent Preview, and a Second-Grade Musical.

It truly does take a village to raise a child, and at Westwood, we appreciate the unique contribution of every villager as we constantly welcome new friends to the fold.

Here’s a community where commitment to character permeates everything they do. Four schools in the district have been recognized with National Schools of Character awards, and the school district was named a National District of Character. The mayor, city council, and Chamber of Commerce have also adopted the same core values, or expected behaviors, as the school district has. It truly makes for a community of character.

Puppione writes:

The City of Pleasanton, Pleasanton Unified School District and the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce actively participate in a Community of Character program that encourages people to work together to ensure that individuals and families are strong, homes and streets are safe, education is effective, businesses are productive, and citizens care for one another.

Following the principles CEP advocates and serving as the leading resource for the Pleasanton Program people and organizations in Pleasanton are integrating character education into their schools and communities.

Highlights of the Program include:

• Autonomy/school plans/committees
• District Committee
• Shared Vision
• Embedded in the curriculum
• School Newsletters
• School Brochure
• Shared Lessons
• Evaluations
• City Government Participation
• Chamber of Commerce Participation

The effort has permeated the entire community. A list of the expected behaviors hangs in city hall as well as in every school in the district. 

The mayor begins each town council meeting by reminding all those present that they are to use the Expected Behaviors in their interactions with one another. Businesses pledge to support the Expected Behaviors and display their signed pledge on their premises. Clergy preach the about the Expected Behaviors at worship. Every month, the Rotary Club recognizes a teacher who exemplifies the behaviors. A Character Education Coalition gives visibility to the program and honors an individual who has exemplified a certain expected behavior.

A recognizable unifying logo banners displayed at several key locations (including schools, businesses, and City facilities) promoting each character trait.

Register now for the conference and to experience this wonderful site visit to see effective character in action.