Character Education
Organizations That Promote Character Education Materials
American Association of School Administrators, 1801 North Moore Street, Alexandria, VA 22209-9988; Tel: (703) 528-0700, Fax: (703) 841-1543.
In 1991, AASA published on Teaching Values and Ethics, Problems and Solutions: A Critical Issues Report by Kristen J. Amundson. The report is a major compilation of useful information on the need for teaching values and ethics; a definition of values education; what school districts are doing; and how to institute a values education program. AASA continues to support the development of character education programs through sessions at its annual conferences and articles in its newsletter, The Leadership News. The fall 1995 issue of AASA's journal, The School Administrator, was dedicated to character education.
American Federation of Teachers, 1555 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20001; Tel: (202) 393-6374, Fax: (202) 879-4537.
AFT's president Albert Shanker has provided strong leadership in support of character education. He has written newspaper articles and spoken in many forums about the need for and the benefits of character development. Publications of AFT's national and state level organizations have included articles about how character education can be most effectively implemented and suggestions that their members seek additional information from CEP and other resource groups.
American Youth Foundation, 1315 Ann Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63104; Tel: (314) 772-8626, Fax: (314) 772-7542.
AYF exists to develop the leadership capacities of young people by helping them achieve their personal best, lead balanced lives and serve others. AYF conducts programs from its national office in St. Louis, MO, and regional centers in California, Georgia, Michigan, and New Hampshire. Programs include: AYF Residential Camps for youth ages 8-16; International Leadership Conferences, 7-11 day experiences serving as a framework for learning the essential building blocks of leadership; I Dare You Leadership Awards, recognizing thousands of high school juniors annually who demonstrate personal integrity, balanced living, and leadership potential; and the Youth Leadership Compact, which trains teams of high school students to promote positive change in their schools and communities.
Association for Moral Education, c/o Steve Thoma, Secretary, 205 Development Center, PO Box 870158, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL 35487; Tel: (205) 348-8146.
A major focus of AME's membership is scholarly research into moral development and implementation of school programs. Its members, who mainly are faculty members at institutions of higher education in the United States and abroad, support dissertations and publications that provide the foundation upon which much of the character education movement has been built. AME members also contribute articles to the journal Moral Education Forum, and hold an annual conference which rotates between sites in the United States and Canada.
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1250 North Pitt Street, Alexandria, VA 22314; Tel: (703) 549-9110, Fax: (703) 549-3891.
In 1988, ASCD published Moral Education in the Life of the School: A Report from the ASCD Panel on Moral Education. The report provides a useful framework for examining critical issues such as morality, religion, and achieving consensus on moral questions within a community. In 1990, ASCD published How to Plan a Program for Moral Education by Merrill Harmon and in 1993, character education was the theme of the November issue of ASCD's monthly journal Education Leadership. In 1994, ASCD and CEP jointly published Developing a Character Education Program: One School District's Experience by Henry A. Huffman. For the past several years, ASCD's annual conferences have dedicated a strand to character education and many of its affiliates have sponsored workshops and conferences with character education as a major topic. In 1992, ASCD established a Character Education Network, operated under the direction of Professor Kevin Ryan at Boston University. In 1995, the governing body of ASCD selected character education as one of two areas to receive priority attention within its programming during the next five years.
Center for Civic Education, 5146 Douglas Fir Road, Calabasas, CA 91302-1467; Tel: (800) 350-4223 (toll-free), Fax: (818) 591-9330.
The Center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan corporation affiliated with the State Bar of California whose mission is to foster the development of informed, responsible participation in civic life by citizens committed to values and principles fundamental to American constitutional democracy. The Center develops and implements programs in civic education for public and private schools at elementary and secondary levels, cooperating with educators and scholars in the social sciences, humanities and the law. The Center offers curricular materials, leadership training, teacher education, and research and evaluation in civic education. Curricular titles include We The People...The Citizen and the Constitution (Grades 4-12), Law in a Free Society (Grades K-12), and Exercises in Participation (Grades 6-9). Publications include CIVITAS: A Framework for Civic Education, a comprehensive K-12 model for civic education which sets forth in detail the civic knowledge, skills, dispositions, and commitments necessary for effective citizenship in the 21st century.
Center for Learning, 21590 Center Ridge
Road, Rocky Road, OH 44116; Tel: (216) 331-1404, Fax: (216) 331-5414.
For more than 20 years, the Center has worked to meet the vital educational
need for dynamic curriculum development and teacher enrichment. The Center
seeks to affect education through the publication of value-based curriculum
units and resources authored by experienced teachers. Its goal is to serve
teachers by providing tools to help them and their students to succeed.
The Center is committed to the advancement of academic learning and the
integration of ethical values in education. Its objectives, publications,
resources, and services are directed to the total educational experience,
including the social, intellectual, and moral development of youth. The
Center produces curriculum materials for numerous subjects in the arts and
humanities aimed at elementary and middle schools. Selecting teachers nationally
to develop interactive curriculum units, the Center distributes student-centered
educational materials to an international market, and sponsors in-service
renewal programs.
Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character,
School of Education, Boston University, 605 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston,
MA 02215; Tel: (617-) 353-3262, Fax: (617) 353-3924.
The Center was founded in 1989 on the premise that teachers have both a
right and a duty to support the efforts of parents in guiding the young
in achieving good character. As the first such center in the country to
focus on the education of teachers, it provides hundreds of present and
future elementary, secondary, and post-secondary educators with opportunities
and resources for teaching students humanity's highest moral ideals such
as justice, courage, honesty, temperance, and tolerance. The Center's director,
Kevin Ryan, is a Professor at Boston University's School of Education where
he teaches a course on "Values in Education." The Center publishes
articles, papers, and a quarterly newsletter CHARACTER. It also administers
ASCD's Character Education Network, which began in 1991 as a means
of access to current and hallmark research in the field of character and
moral development. At the end of 1995, the Network had 275 members, the
majority of them teachers, administrators, and other education professionals.
Center for the 4th and 5th Rs, P.O. Box
2000, SUNY, Cortland, Education Department, Cortland, NY 13045; Tel: (607)
753-2456, Fax: (607) 753-5980.
The Center serves as a regional, state, and national resource in character
education. It disseminates complimentary articles on character education,
sponsors an annual summer institute in character education, publishes a
newsletter, Fourth and Fifth Rs, offers a browsing library of character
education materials, and is building a network of "Fourth and Fifth
Rs Schools" committed to teaching respect, responsibility and other
core ethical values as the basis of good character. The Center promotes
a 12-point comprehensive approach to character education, one that uses
all aspects of school life as deliberate opportunities for character development.
Character Development Foundation,
P.O. Box 4782, Manchester, NH 03108-4782; Tel/Fax: (603) 472-3063.
The Foundation is a nonprofit organization that promotes the character development
of children, provides support for character development in schools, at home,
and in communities, and educates teachers, administrators, and parents in
the area of character development and education. It was established in 1994
as a result of the New Hampshire Standards requirement on "character
and citizen education." The Foundation's principal activities are conducting
character education workshops for teachers, parents, and others on such
topics as "An Overview of Character Education," "Character
Education Through Literature," "Character Education Through Problem
Solving," "Character Education for School and Community,"
and various in-service workshops. The Foundation also has a speakers' bureau.
