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This presentation is going to go through

- Our reason for character education
- The Florida Benchmarks for character education which are relatively new.
- Our School’s mission and vision and how this character education program supports the
mission and vision.
- Our school goals based on behavioral reports pulled fo the production of our school
improvement plan
And
- How other programs compare.

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In all the research you find supporting character education, one of the main reasons is that
it supports and promotes the development of good character through morals and values
that will sustain you through adulthood. (Read quotes)

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Let’s shed light on the following statistics from one of our researched articles on why
character education is important.
(Read quotes)

Students must learn to be free thinkers while also navigating a world where they are
bombarded by so many decisions. Character Education gives them the tools needed to
combat these statistics.

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Florida recently revised their character education benchmarks for each grade. And while
the benhcmarks may be different from grade to grade, the basic skills that each Florida
student should know stays the same regardless of age or grade.
-Character
-Responsibility
-Respect
-Success Skills
-Citizenship
-Trustworthiness.

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Jewett’s Mission states that our school with provide resources needed for students to
become responsible life-long learners. And our Vision states that we will make sure our
students have the opportunity to learn cultural awareness, acceptance of diversity and
community. These all start with teaching through a quality character education program.

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Character Counts! Is a comprehensive character education program that will align with our
school’s mission and vision using the 6 pillars of character; trustworthiness, respect,
responsibility, fairness, caring and good citizenship. Not only does this align with our
school’s goals of our mission and vision, but it also aligns to the Florida Character Education
Benchmarks.

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 (Character Counts, 2019)

By implementing a program such as Character Counts! We may see improvements in our

graduation, math, and ELA proficiency rates just like the Buffalo (New York ) schools did just
after two years of implementation. These statistics can be found online at their website.
(Character Counts, 2019)

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Character Counts! Is diverse enough for our Kindergarten through 8th grade students
because there are different parts used for different grades. Some highlights include the
Early Childhood kit which are lessons geared for young students in grades K-2. The journals
that are for implementation in all grades, and the family notes based on grade level for
discussions at home that mimic or mirror what is being discussed at school. I would like to
note that 6th grade and up also has real world application through the 7 Yards Film that
comes with this program.

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As a school, we need to improve our disciplinary data as our referrals are high because of
class disruptions, disrespect, behaviors on the bus and in the lunchroom and violent
interactions between students. Our goals are to
- Reduce class disruptions 15% from 340 referrals to 289 referrals
- Reduce violent interactions between students 30% from 101 to 71 referrals.
- Reduce bus, lunch and PE discipline referrals by 20% from 253 to 201.
- Reduce reports of repeated disrespect by 20% from 432 to 346 referrals.

Being smart and intentional with this character education plan will help us achieve these
goals.

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There are several evaluative pieces we will implement and allow all stakeholders to be
involved in. The two from Character Counts! are called Implementation Survey- this survey
is sent out to all stakeholders and conducted prior to the implementation to establish a
baseline. And, Culture of Excellence and Ethics Assessment. This assessment is also able to
be sent to all stakeholders which allows us to gather feedback on the implementation and
direction our stakeholders believe we are going. A qualitative data point will be the school
wide behavioral data reports on referrals that will allow us to count the difference and see
if it is actually helping.

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There are other programs that I was told to check out, like this program called Character
development and leadership. While they share an online platform, and social emotional
skills being integrated, the character development and leadership program would not allow
for our K-5th students to benefit and therefore it was not a viable option.

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Another program is called Character first education. While I can appreciate that this one
also made sure there was space for little ones to be in your lessons, there was no online
integration beyond the basic printable sheets. I ultimately did not choose this because of
the annual licensure, which is sometimes too expensive for schools to promise they will do.

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My recommendations for our next steps would be to hold a SAC committee meeting in
which we present what we have found out about this program and the quote while asking
fo the funds to pay for this through SAC funds.
I would next set up a training with the company to ensure that everyone is comfortable in
teaching this program. Next, we need to update our student, teacher parent compact to
reflect these changes. Finally, I believe we should hold a parent night to explain the
program and allow parents to ask their questions.

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