In the months prior to completing your application online, you will want to assemble a team that will collect and reflect upon the following data and information. Doing so will not only enable you to put together an excellent application; it will give you a snapshot of where you are on your character journey and where you want to go.
11 Principles Stakeholder Self-Assessment
The stakeholder group should assess your school or district’s character education initiative using the revised 11 Principles of Effective Character Education. The Scoring Guide can be found on the back inside cover of the 11 Principles document. An Excel score sheet that automatically calculates your scores is also available. You will be asked to enter the average scores you’re your self-assessment during the online application process.
If your school or district community has not yet selected core values, this group should determine a process for doing so and begin that process.
School Climate
During the application process, you will be asked how you know that your character education efforts have had an impact on your school culture and climate. The best evidence you can provide is climate survey data. Your school or district may already give climate surveys each year. If not, be sure to conduct a climate survey of students, staff, and parents during the spring or fall prior to submitting your application. Visit Assessment Tools for samples and resources. If no climate survey data is available, think about how else you can demonstrate growth in this area.
Note that CEP continues to explore ways to gather climate data from applicants. Finalists have been asked in recent years to provide data that supports Principle 4 (students feel safe/bullying is rare, students and teachers respect each other, students respect each other, and adults respect each other). CEP may pilot a stakeholder survey for Finalists only in 2013.
Student Impact
During the application process, you will be asked to demonstrate the impact of your character initiative on student behavior and academic achievement. Gather data on attendance, disciplinary referrals and infractions, suspensions, state test scores and AYP or other measures of academic achievement, performance of at-risk students, drop-out rates, and graduation rates as well as rates of college attendance (if applicable).
Principle 11 is your opportunity to make a persuasive case that your school (or district) has thoughtfully implemented character education. To demonstrate positive and significant results, be prepared to provide specific qualitative and quantitative evidence such as full data and analysis from climate surveys and other measurements. Plan to use numbers, not percentages, when reporting changes in student behavior (such as referrals or suspensions). Your narrative and supporting artifacts should clearly demonstrate that your community has gathered data, reflected upon it, and then acted as needed.
Implementation of the 11 Principles
You will be asked to explain how your character education initiative exemplifies the 11 Principles. Brainstorm responses to the following questions.
- What are your character education goals?
Define your school’s (or district’s) view of character education and the values your school community has agreed upon. Describe your philosophical approach, and explain what your character education initiative is trying to accomplish. Explain why you are doing what you are doing. Citing the texts, publications, or experts that have influenced your initiative helps evaluators understand your philosophy. - What is special about your school or district? In what ways is your school or district a model for others?
Explain what is special about your accomplishments in character education. What feature of your initiative would CEP want to hold up as a model of exemplary implementation of the 11 Principles? - How are you implementing character education?
Describe your accomplishments in each of the 11 Principles. Note that each principle has three or four “scoring items.” Include specific, illustrative examples and insert artifacts that address the scoring items. Keep in mind that to receive a score of 4 on an item, you must show evidence of all the key indicators of exemplary practice described under each scoring item. Refer to the 11 Principles document.
Tip: Many NSOC report that their teams used the following strategy. They put large sheets of newsprint around the room – one for each of the 11 Principles. They then asked each member of their broad stakeholder group to write activities or strategies that they knew were happening in the school that fit under each of the principles. This method of brainstorming gave the application writers a list of possible strategies to write about for each principle. Watch a short video of an NSOC Principal talking the benefits of this strategy.
Supporting Evidence
Gather artifacts that will amplify and support your claims. Examples include:
- Data on positive behavioral or academic change
- School climate survey results
- Mission statements and school mottos
- Examples of student work or student reflections
- Lesson plans or assignments that integrate character education into the curriculum
- Documentation of staff development or staff meetings
Tip: Limit the use of photos.
See 2013 Application (PDF) for more applicant tips and suggested evidence.
Additional Information to Gather
- If your school or district has previously applied, include and identify the changes that you have made since the last application in your narrative.
- If you see your school or district as a leader in helping others schools with their character education efforts or if you have outreach plans, describe your leadership efforts in Principle 9.
- If you are using a commercial program as part of your initiative, include a brief explanation of the program. Don’t assume evaluators are necessarily familiar with it.
- Be aware that evaluators may look at your website to see whether it reflects your character education initiative.
