CEP is committed to being your eyes and ears regarding the latest character education news in our nation’s capital. Here are some highlights:

• CEP’s President & CEO Mark Hyatt attended the Department of Education’s Anti-Bullying Summit on Aug 6 and 7, a fantastic opportunity for thought leaders in the field to build off of one another’s wisdom and experience.

• The Race to the Top: Districts competition applications are due October 30th, and this year Districts are offered a “competitive preference” if they “’integrate public or private resources in a partnership designed to augment the schools resources by providing additional student and family supports to schools that address the social, emotional, or behavioral needs of the participating students.” CEP is happy to help any applicant get these bonus points! The official program website can be found here: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-district/index.html.

• Representatives from CEP attended the Office of Safe and Healthy Students Conference on August 8th and 9th. CEP Board Member Linda McKay met with members of the Conditions for Learning Coalition and representatives from the Office of School Turnaround.  Jon Terry, who leads the Coalition, held a follow-up meeting with Jason Snyder (Director of the OST), in which he advocated that schools working with the OST be encouraged to report data on school climate in their turnaround efforts. Mr. Snyder was supportive, but expressed a desire to see examples of how schools might collect this idea that aren’t too taxing on those preparing reports.

• Do you have examples of school climate data and assessments to submit to the Office of School Turnaround? Do you know of a model school who focused on measuring these issues in their effort to improve academic achievement? The Conditions for Learning Coalition is looking for both of these! Please send any leads to mjones@character.org.

By Lara Maupin, M.Ed. NSOC Director, CEP

As teachers we are increasingly required to meet the varied individual needs of our students. We receive in-service training on differentiation and the impact of poverty and executive function, for example. But how do we put it all together our increasingly crowded classrooms day in and day out? How do we help all our students reach their full potential?

Character education is here to help. When we focus on character development, we make our high expectations clear and meaningful to students while building strong, caring relationships with and among our students. When we do this, disruptions decrease and we gain time on task. As this happens, we also gain more time to meet individual needs and differentiate instruction. As an added benefit, when we know our students well and they trust us, we can better meet their needs. When they know we care, they are more motivated to work hard.

Our National Schools of Character (NSOC) tell this story over and over again. In schools of character, students feel safe, respected, and connected to those around them. As a result, they thrive academically and socially and they become motivated to give back to their communities. We see positive results in terms of academic achievement, student behavior, and school climate. Just take a look at these statistics from the 2011 NSOC:

• Average attendance rate:95%
• Low or declining referrals:89%
• Students participating in service learning: almost 100%
• Students that report feeling safe:87%
• Increase in reading and math scores (or over 90% passing):100%
• Made AYP:78%

These numbers don’t happen without meeting individual student needs. So what do character education and differentiation have in common? How can these two approaches complement each other and work together? What do we see in classrooms of character?

A focus on the essentials:Teachers “put first things first” (Covey). They ask: What are the fundamental needs of my students? What are the essential questions of my discipline? What are our core values as a community of learners?

Acceptance:Teachers accept students for who and where they are. Schools of character embrace and celebrate diversity and train staff and students to understand and respond to differences.

Relationships:Teachers listen carefully to students and invest in creating caring relationships with their students based on understanding of student needs. Teachers and students collaborate and students perceive teachers as caring.

Grouping:Teachers group students in order to facilitate and meet the important goals of equity and excellence. An essential component of differentiated instruction is flexible grouping. Character education is most effective with groups that meet student needs for affirmation, contribution, power, purpose, and challenge (e.g., cooperative learning groups, “buddies,” “families,” morning meetings).

Making Meaning:Teachers assign respectful tasks that enable students to create meaning and make important connections. For example, teachers focus student products around significant problems, use meaningful/authentic audiences, and help students discover how ideas and skills are useful in the real world.

Modeling: Teachers model appropriately – both in terms of their school’s core values and in terms of learning processes. Effective practitioners are “metacognitive teachers.”

Shared leadership:Getting the involvement of all stakeholders is essential to the success of all students. Teachers ask parents what they want for their children and explain the benefits of their approaches. They solicit student input on an ongoing basis and create leadership opportunities for students.

Reflection:Both character education and differentiation – in fact all good educational practices – require ongoing assessment, analysis, and reflection. They work best if they are intentional, proactive interventions. Teachers ask students to reflect on their work and they observe students every day. They collect data and use it as the basis for planning.

Persistence:The result of persistence and determination is increased student achievement. Persistent teachers find new ways to deliver instruction so that all students can meet important goals. They don’t give up on any student.

I truly believe that the best chance any of us has of preventing future school tragedies lies in ensuring that our students and teachers know each other so well that they can “feel” when such incidents may occur. We need lots of communication. Lots of meaningful relationships between coaches, teachers, students, and parents. Such collaborative efforts can go a long way toward helping us identify people who are not well. And once warning signs are detected, they need to spur swift and decisive action.
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As the leading national organization for character education and the only one located in our nation’s capital, CEP wants to be your voice capital when it comes to governmental initiatives that affect our field. To that end, we’ve joined the Conditions for Learning Coalition, headed by Jon Terry at Capitol Youth Strategies. Here’s the latest from Washington:
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The cheating scandals reported in the news this summer highlight the need for our country to educate an ethical citizenry.  Public education was founded with this purpose in mind.  The goal then and now is to resist the practices of corruption, which can lead to anarchy and the call to re-establish a monarchy.  When our teachers and administrators are cheating to improve standardized test scores, we undermine our moral authority to lead with integrity.

Read the full article by David Wangaard.