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We make the world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers.
-Carl Sagan
Education is not just about getting good grades. It's about opening doors, exploring new idea and developing a love of learning.
-Unknown
Character education is the component of social and emotional learning that promotes core virtues, moral sensitivity, moral commitment, ethical reasoning, and personal growth aspirations.
-Yael Kidron, Director of Character Education, Santa Clara University
This toolkit includes ideas, suggestions, and examples of ways to assess character education programs and initiatives using inventories, questionnaires, surveys, focus groups, scales, and checklists. Assessing character education efforts is a school-site responsibility and will reflect the "personality" of the people in a school. Schools differ in leadership, students, location, personnel, size, resources, climate, programs, curricula, facilities, and parent and community support and involvement.
Why should we evaluate?
Who should do the evaluation?
What should we evaluate?
How should we evaluate?
When should we evaluate?
What do we do with the results?
Are the character education initiatives meeting your goals and expectations?
Is there a payoff in what you are trying to do to foster the character development of children and youth?
Diane D. Johnson, BS (K--8), MA, has been teaching elementary and middle school in Connecticut for thirty-one years. She has been involved with the Best Training Mentor Program, Maritime Magnet Program, and Anti-Bullying Harassment Committee. Dee was also involved in Connecticut's character education efforts and community service programs. As an adjunct professor at Southern Connecticut State University where she co-taught two graduate classes focused on character education and multiple intelligences.
Edward F. DeRoche, MA, MS, PhD, was an elementary and middle school teacher and principal, a public school board member, a professor, a program evaluator, a teacher trainer, and a former dean of education at the University of San Diego. He is the director of the Character Education Resource Center. He has co-authored eight books and more than fifty journal articles. He is a recipient of several awards, including the Sanford N. McDonald Award for Lifetime Achievement in Character Education, the University of San Diego's School of Education's Outstanding Administrator of the Year Award, and the San Diego Union-Tribune's Educator of the Year Award.
