In the year 2000, Waterloo Middle School, located in the heart of New York’s scenic Finger Lakes region, was anything but an educational beacon. During Principal Michael Ferrara’s tenure, the school has undergone such a transformation that it is now regarded as an exceptionally fine middle school, the first recipient of the New York State School of Character award. Ferrara recalls his first impression all those years ago: “I knew immediately that the school I was now in charge of was in very serious condition. Staff morale was very low, student achievement was not a priority of the students or community, and school management was a serious problem.” After Ferrara and foreign language teacher Karen Moretti drafted an advisement proposal, Moretti visited 25 veteran teachers individually to get their input and to implement their suggestions. From these meetings came the PRIDE team, the PRIDE student advisement program (a 2004 Promising Practice), and the new vision that saw a dual emphasis on academics and character as leading the way to recovery. That vision, which has guided the team’s eight years of planning, implementing, assessing, and revising character-building practices, has indeed led the way to recovery. Moretti proudly points out that the school that was once considered “the black sheep of the district” is now “celebrated as a National School of Character.”

Read more about Waterloo in the 2008 NSOC book: “Transforming School Culture the Waterloo Way”

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