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Caring School Community™ (CSC) is a modified version of a program formerly known as the Child Development Project. The Caring School Community ™ program has been recently revised to eliminate some elements of the Child Development Project that were shown in evaluation studies to be inconsistently or poorly implemented. CSC is a multiyear school improvement program that involves all students in grades K–6. The program aims to promote core values, prosocial behavior, and a schoolwide feeling of community. The program consists of four elements originally developed for the Child Development Project: class meeting lessons, cross-age "buddies" programs, "homeside" activities, and schoolwide community. Class lessons provide teachers and students with a forum to get to know one another, discuss issues, identify and solve problems collaboratively, and make a range of decisions that affect classroom life. Cross-age buddies activities pair whole classes of older and younger students for academic and recreational activities that build caring cross-age relationships and create a schoolwide climate of trust. Homeside activities, short conversational activities that are sent home with students for them to do with their parent or caregiver and then to discuss back in their classroom, incorporate the families' perspectives, cultures, and traditions, thereby promoting interpersonal understanding. Schoolwide community-building activities bring students, parents, and school staff together to create new school traditions.
Two studies of the Child Development Project program met the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) evidence standards with reservations. The two studies together included more than 5,600 students from grades K–6 in seven school districts across the country.1
The WWC considers the extent of evidence for Caring School Community™ to be medium to large for behavior, for knowledge, attitudes, and values, and for academic achievement.
The Child Development Project was found to have potentially positive effects on behavior; no discernible effects on knowledge, attitudes, and values; and no discernible effects on academic achievement.
| Behavior | Knowledge, attitudes, and values | Academic achievement | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rating of effectiveness | Potentially positive effects | No discernible effects | No discernible effects |
| Improvement index2 | Average: +8 percentile points Range: -2 to +27 percentile points |
Average: +8 percentile points Range: -2 to +18 percentile points |
Average: +4 percentile points Range: -8 to +16 percentile points |
|Institute of Education Sciences
Character Education