Effectiveness

Findings

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

Behavior. Eisen, Zellman, and Murray (2003) reported statistically significant differences favoring the intervention group on three drug-related outcomes (marijuana—lifetime use, marijuana—use in the last 30 days, and binge drinking during the last 30 days by baseline binge drinkers) about one year after the end of the program. The program's effect on one of these outcomes (binge drinking) was confirmed to be statistically significant as calculated by the WWC.³ No statistically significant effects were found for the lifetime or recent use of cigarettes and other illicit substances or binge drinking during the last 30 days by baseline nonbinge drinkers. The average effect size for the domain was neither statistically significant nor substantively important (less than 0.25).⁴

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 WWC³), the size of the difference between participants in the intervention condition and the comparison condition, and the consistency in findings across studies (see the WWC Intervention Rating Scheme).