The Connecticut State Department of Education is collaborating with a statewide coalition focusing on character education to broaden the awareness and further their provision of technical assistance to districts and communities on the development of good character. The School for Ethical Education is a major stakeholder in the coalition and will co-sponsor a statewide conference on character education, with the State Department of Education highlighting the sixteen programs.
FY96: $250,000; FY97: $250,000; FY98: $250,000.
Contact: Barbara M. Westwater, (860) 566-5684.
The Maryland Partnership in Character Education has established a consortium of the state and five local school districts, Baltimore City, and Baltimore, Calvert, Frederick, and Prince George's counties. The Lt. Governor formed a partnership with the State Superintendent of Schools, the Secretary of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Abell Foundation who established a statewide office for character education thereby demonstrating their support and commitment to the success of the implementation of character education in Maryland's schools. The mission of the office is to support Maryland's schools in their efforts to expand and infuse character education into their existing curriculum. The goal of the partnership is to foster a safe and orderly environment for students by providing them with skills for personal interaction based on the desired character elements; honesty, respect, responsibility, caring, fairness, trust and service learning. Each local district participating in the grant will ensure that these elements are taught, regularly modeled, expected and celebrated as an integral part of the curriculum and daily operation of the school. Participants have expanded outside the Consortium to include twelve additional local school districts with other districts requesting information and training. (17/24 districts participating) The number of teachers trained exceeds 8,000 and the number of students impacted exceeds 35,000.
FY96: $246,290; FY97: $240,431; FY98: $247,320.
Contact Mary Aranha, Coordinator (410) 767-0047 or Stephanie Tayman, Specialist (410)767-0860.
The North Carolina Partnership in Character Education
includes three school districts (Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Cumberland and Wake) and the North Carolina Center for the Prevention of School Violence. The partnership is developing a model program that builds on the strengths and expertise of the partners, promotes the development of citizenship and character, and can be used throughout the state. The objectives are to build community-wide consensus for character education; solicit, increase, and sustain community and family involvement in developing and implementing a character education program; improve the school learning climate; integrate elements of character education throughout the curriculum; and make character education materials available to schools.
FY96:$249,900; FY97:$249,900; FY98: $249,900
Contact: Jeanne Haney, (919) 715-1694.
The Washington Consortium includes the Office of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Democracy Ethics and Education Principles, ESD 112 in Vancouver, Puget Sound ESD, the Seattle Indian Center, the Washington State Migrant Council, the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic, and four school districts, West Valley, Seattle, Toppenish and Vancouver. The goals of the project are: 1) to develop a replicable procedure for facilitating community forums that identify values and the roles of parents and schools in teaching values; 2) to develop character education learning resources; 3) to construct staff development units that stand alone or parallel the character education resources developed in the second goal; 4) to expand the number of participating character education partners into a network; and 5) to provide a central resource for dissemination and exchange of materials developed in the project.
FY96: $250,000; FY97: $250,000; FY98: $250,000.
Contact: Kathleen Plato, (360) 586-0324.
