Effects of the Lessons in Character English Language Arts Character Education Program on Behavior and Academic Outcomes

Key outcomes and measures

Table 1 lists the study's key outcome variables—student academic achievement, social skills, behavior, and school climate—and their measures. These outcomes are assessed with standardized achievement tests, teacher reports on the Social Skills Rating System, student surveys of fourth and fifth graders, and teacher surveys

• State assessments. Student achievement data from state-mandated standardized assessments of English language arts and mathematics (the California Standards Tests) are collected for the years before and during program implementation. Criterion-referenced to state standards, the California Standards Tests in English language arts and mathematics are administered to students in grades 2–11.
• Social Skills Rating System teacher report. Gresham and Elliott's (1990) Social Skills Rating System is used to assess student social skills, problem behaviors, and academic competence. Teacher reports assess the subdomains of cooperation, self-control, and externalization/internalization of problems.
• Student survey. A 35-minute survey assessing behaviors, attitudes, and values consistent with the goals of character education is administered to all fourth and fifth graders in the fall and spring of both implementation years. Using items and subscales from validated instruments, the survey assesses student altruism (Characterplus 2002), aggression (Opinas and Frankowski 2001), delinquent behavior (Kisker et al. 2004), and empathy (Funk et al. 2003) as well as school belonging and expectations (Characterplus 2002).
• Teacher surveys. All teachers are surveyed before random assignment to treatment and control groups in the spring of year 0 (pretest) and are surveyed again in the spring of year 1 and year 2. The pretest survey assesses teacher background and school climate—teacher education, professional development experiences in language arts and character education, activities related to social and character development that they have implemented in their classroom, and school and classroom climate (students' feelings of belonging and school expectations). The posttest survey also contains questions that ask about other professional development teachers participated in during program implementation and questions that assess teachers' communication and collaboration.

Table 1. Impact analysis outcomes

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