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Character Education
Additional Program Information
Developer and contact
Distributed by Developmental Studies Center, 2000 Embarcadero, Suite 305, Oakland, CA 94606. Program contact: Denise Wood. E-mail: info@devstu.org. Web: http://www.devstu.org/cdp/index.html. Phone: (800) 666-7270 ext. 239. Fax: (510) 464-3670.
Scope of use
In the fall of 2004, the updated intervention, Caring School Community™, replaced the earlier intervention, the Child Development Project (CDP). The two interventions are reviewed together in this report, under the name CSC, because all CSC elements were part of CDP. 3 The CDP was implemented in 321 schools across the nation. Since its release in the fall of 2004, CSC has been implemented in 2,756 classrooms. Information is not available on the number or demographics of students, schools, or districts using the intervention. The studies reviewed implemented the CDP rather than the CSC program. The WWC recommends asking the developer for information about the most current version of the CSC program and taking into account that student demographics and school context may affect outcomes.
Teaching
The program was developed based on research-supported claims that students' academic, social, and ethical development benefit from: caring school communities; having their psychological needs for autonomy, belonging, and competence met; having a better sense of "connectedness" to schools (that is, students like school, have trust and respect for teachers, and have high educational aspirations); cooperative rather than competitive learning environments; and social support and guidance from teachers in formal and informal learning situations.
All four components of CSC —class meeting lessons, crossage buddies programs, homeside activities, and schoolwide community—are designed to be introduced over the course of one year. However, according to the developer, some schools may decide to introduce the components more gradually.
Class lessons are designed to teach core values, including fairness, helpfulness, caring, respect, and personal responsibility. A typical session uses a scripted lesson and begins with a brief review of the class meeting rules (established norms to maintain a sense of community in the classroom) collaboratively established by the teacher and students. Then, the teacher introduces the topic of discussion for the lesson. During the discussion, the teacher encourages students to maintain positive interpersonal communication in which they build on each other's thinking. Sometimes the discussion is followed by activities done individually or in groups. The teacher concludes the lesson by summarizing what was done during the lesson and setting expectations regarding students' future behavior.
A schoolwide component of CSC, cross-age buddies activities, involves older students mentoring younger students for academic activities, cooperative learning skills, and relationship building. The buddies activities require one hour of class time a week or month, and an additional 15 minutes of teacher preparation time. Students participate in additional schoolwide activities such as interviewing nonteaching staff members, holding a family projects fair, and planting a school community garden. Homeside activities are included in the curriculum to build positive relationships between home and school and honor what families and communities have to offer. These activities may include show and tell from home, sharing a holiday tradition, or telling a family folklore story. Homeside activities are available in English and Spanish. CSC read-aloud libraries are an optional program enhancement. According to the developer, reading and discussing these books provide opportunities for students to make connections between the values they are learning in the CSC program and the social and ethical values in the literature.
Teachers participate in a one-day workshop in which they explore the program components, discuss ways to build caring and supportive environments, learn how to facilitate student conversations, learn strategies to enhance cooperation among students, explore strategies to build community within and across classrooms, and view and discuss video vignettes of classroom practices. Additional coaching for teachers is available. A training of trainers approach is also available. According to this approach, a team of four to six participants from a school receives three-day institute training and then provides staff development to the remaining school staff. District-level coaches and staff developers can participate in an array of professional development offerings.
Cost
A classroom package that contains class meeting lessons, teacher's calendar, cross-age buddies activity book, homeside activities, and schoolwide community-building activities costs $185. The principal's package (which includes all classroom materials for teachers plus a principal's leadership guide) costs $275. The cost of workshops and follow-up visits is $2,000 a day, plus travel expenses. Total cost for training varies depending on the number of professional development days needed and whether adoption involves a single school, multiple schools, or training-of-trainers at the district level. An optional enhancement to the program is the Caring School Community™ readaloud libraries; the cost of the individual grade-level libraries ranges from $52–$67 a grade, and the cost for a complete K–6 library is $408.