2024-02-20 EDUC7620

Jethro Jones

Assignment Directions

Students will understand the critical importance and roles of school leadership in making character education an authentic priority in a school (or district)

     Readings:  

          Berkowitz (2021) CH 10

         Tschannen-Moran “Trust Matters”  CH 1-2

Reflections:

          Submit reflections on the  readings to Canvas at least 30 minutes before the class meeting begins.

PRIMED Worksheet:

 For each of the 6 Design Elements of PRIMED, there is a corresponding “Action Planning Worksheet.”  They will be assigned at the end of each of those 6 units.  They will be assigned as homework.  This class marks the end of the first unit/Design Principle “Prioritization.”  So your homework is to complete the Prioritization Action Planning Worksheet upload your worksheet to Canvas as an assignment.

Assignment

PRIMED Action Planning Worksheet:

Prioritization Strategies

Prioritization:  Ensuring that character education as a strategy and character development as an outcome is an authentic (explicit, supported) priority for the school/district.

Evidence-based implementation strategies:

Rhetoric:                      Core values/Shared goals/Common language

Resources:                    Leadership allocation of resources to character educ

                                    Intentionally creating a learning community

                                    Investing in professional development for char educ

Climate:                        Safe environment

                                    Assess school culture/climate

                                    Trust in teachers

                                    School-wide character education culture/focus

                                    Caring classroom/school climate

Structures:                    Comprehensive approach to character education

                                    School displays/awards

                                    Clear rules

                                    Assessment and feedback for character/SEL

                                    Inter-school collaboration

Leadership:                   Principal competently leads the initiative

STEP ONE:

For these assignments, I’m focusing on Bradshaw Mountain Middle School, in Humboldt Unified School District in Arizona. It is a school where one of my clients is the principal.

1.     There is a student-of-the-month system in place complete with awards and a picture of the student and the principal on the web site, updated regularly and on time.

2.     There is a school vision: To Foster 21st century individuals who are kind, solution-oriented, resilient, self-directed, and global citizens.

STEP TWO:

Please identify at least two more things you can do that would increase the prioritization of character education and character development in your school/district. 

1.     Principal competently leads the character initiative. This actually ties in with the superintendent. Neither one of them are competently leading a character initiative. There are lots of issues right now with discipline at the school, teachers leaving in the middle of the year, and principals and teachers not feeling supported.

2.     The following image is on the web site, but the principal has said that this is not implemented in the school at all. !clip_image001.png

This would fall under the category rhetoric. They need to have core values that are clear, effective, and focused on actual character. The current EXCEL acronym only focuses on character in the first E and L, and the Marzano Research graphic is just pasted on the page, with no explanation about what it is. They don’t “own” these things in the district or school.