New York State Department of Education | Community School District #3

New York State Department of Education Abstract

Contact: Cecelia Grasser
EPIC Every Person Influences Children
1000 Main Street
Buffalo, NY 14202
(716) 332-4118
grasserc@epicforchildren.org

New York State Partnerships In Character Education

Application Number: R215V980030
Project Period: 8/1/98–7/31/02
FY 1998 Award: $197,860
FY 1999 Award: $258,362
FY 2000 Award: $261,072
FY 2001 Award: $277,680

The New York State Education Department is partnering with Every Person Influences Children (EPIC), a national prevention program, in four school districts—Buffalo City Schools, Dunkirk City Schools, Manhattan CSD #4, Mamaroneck UFSD, and Teachers College-Columbia University—in a comprehensive project to refine existing character education programs. The project will support professional development for teachers and parents to promote home/school partnerships. The ultimate goal is to link character development and academic success.

During Phase I, teachers and parents from the four districts met to select the character traits for the program, review EPIC’s existing activities, and provide Teachers College with guidelines for the revision and writing of activities. Teachers College developed activities for teachers based on nine character traits and created parent/child activities to help parents reinforce the lessons being taught at school. An outside evaluator developed the instruments to assess the increase in positive behavior associated with the character traits being taught in the program and the increase in parenting skills among participants in the parent workshops.

During Phase II, the project will be implemented. Outreach materials for the districts, and a kickoff assembly program featuring EPIC’s new spokesperson for character education, National Hockey League superstar Pat LaFontaine, are planned. Teachers will incorporate the character-building activities into academic lessons and will meet with the EPIC coordinators to discuss implementation issues. Facilitators will be trained to lead EPIC parenting workshops, and parents will attend EPIC parenting workshops.

Evaluation of all components will be ongoing. The final teacher guides will be published in the final year of the project.

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Community School District #3

Contact: Michael Baker
154 West 93rd Street
New York, NY 10025
(212) 678-2918
mbaker2@nycboe.net

CHARACTER* in Community School District 3 is CRITICAL**
*Citizenship and High Academic standards, Reinforcing the Aspen Character Traits, and Ethical Reasoning
**Curriculum Restructuring, Implementation and Training, Integrating Computer Applications, and Learning standards

Grant Number: R215S020195
Project Period: 10/1/02 - 9/30/06
FY 2002 Award: $472,592
FY 2003 Award: $477,010
FY 2004 Award: $481,561
FY 2005 Award: $486,249

The title acronym, CHARACTER, summarizes the project's goals. Both of CHARACTER's two major models-Syracuse University Project LEGAL (James J. Carroll, Ph.D.) and The Center for the 4th and 5th Rs' Educating for Character (Thomas Lickona, Ph.D.)-will be implemented with 7,500 students in all of 16 public schools in Community School District 3 in New York City and in faith-based schools. Lickona and Carroll, two nationally renowned character educators, will personally serve as training and technical assistance consultants. Both programs are committed to meet our district's needs to develop the Six Pillars of Character-respect, responsibility, trustworthiness, caring, justice and fairness, and civic virtue and citizenship-both (1) within our mandatory elementary and middle school courses and (2) through implementing school-wide strategies.

The four project objectives (CRITICAL) are Curriculum Restructuring to focus on the Six Pillars in all content courses and on school-wide social problems (1.0), Implementation and Training among a minimum of four new target schools each year (1.0), and Integrating Computer Applications (3.0), all of which develop Learning standards (4.0) in both character (the Aspen Character Traits) and academic achievement related to the new New York content standards. This scientifically based, target/control group study will contribute to research on the effectiveness of combining a nationally validated content-based character education project (LEGAL) with Dr. Lickona's nationally renowned school-wide program in character education.

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