Effectiveness

Findings

The WWC review of character education addresses student outcomes in three domains: behavior; knowledge, attitudes, and values; and academic achievement.

Behavior. Facing History and Ourselves students reported less fighting than students in the comparison group, but this difference was neither statistically significant (as calculated by the WWC) nor large enough to be considered substantively important using WWC criteria. ²

Knowledge, attitudes, and values. The study reported differences favoring the program for three of seven outcomes (both measures of relationship maturity and the single measure of racism), one of which (a measure of relationship maturity) was reported to be statistically significant. The study also reported differences favoring the comparison group on the remaining four outcomes (civic attitudes and participation, ethnic identity, and two measures of moral reasoning). The differences between the intervention and comparison conditions on all seven outcomes (as calculated by the WWC) were neither statistically significant nor large enough to be considered substantively important. ³

Rating of effectiveness

The WWC rates interventions as positive, potentially positive, mixed, no discernible effects, potentially negative, or negative. The rating of effectiveness takes into account four factors: the quality of the research design, the statistical significance of the findings (as calculated by the WWC), the size of the differences between participants in the intervention condition and the comparison conditions, and the consistency of the findings across studies (see the WWC Intervention Rating Scheme).