Active Citizenship; Empowering America's Youth: A curriculum unit for grades 7-12 developed by California teacher John Minkler which teaches the rights, responsibilities and civic values of U.S. citizenship, and includes a group project in which students research and develop a solution for a real problem in their community. This site has information on civic values, an excellent presentation on service learning activities for middle and high school students, a free service learning guide and many links to other sites related to service learning.
American Promise: This web site is based around common themes that make us Americans and as presented in a series of related episodes on Public Television dealing with freedom, responsibility and participation. The series, along with activities and lessons, has been used in more than 20,000 classrooms nationwide to provide lessons in government, civics and history. Sponsored by Farmers Insurance, it includes sample lesson plans for government, U.S. History, Social Studies, Civics, Economics, Law, World History and Service Learning.
Boston University Character Education Research Guide: An excellent research tool.
California: The Character Education Clearinghouse: The Clearinghouse provides Character Education curriculum, library resources, classroom lessons, and literature sources that can be used with history and social science curricula in grades kindergarten through twelve.
Center for the Advancement of Character and Ethics: At Boston University School of Education.
Center for Civic Education: The Center for Civic Education is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational corporation dedicated to fostering the development of informed, responsible participation in civic life by citizens committed to values and principles fundamental to American constitutional democracy. The Center specializes in civic/citizenship education, law-related education, and international educational exchange programs for developing democracies. Programs represented on the CCE web site include a program on the history and principles of American constitutional democracy for elementary, middle and high school; a middle school civic education program; and other programs addressing school violence and democracy. The National Standards for Civics and Government can be found here as well. The site has curriculum materials, sample lesson plans and related children's literature bibliographies as well as a comprehensive on-line catalog, a good listing of available papers and articles on civic education and a wonderful annotated list of internet resources.
Center for the Fourth and Fifth RS: This site, directed by Thomas Lickona, provides information on his Center at the State University of New York at Cortland. The Center serves as a resource for character education, disseminating articles on character education, publishing newsletters, and holding annual conferences. The site contains the Center's newsletters, Dr. Lickona's 12-point Comprehensive Approach to Character Education, the School as a Caring Community Profile, other articles and opinion papers and a listing of links, books and other resources.
Character Counts Coalition: The Character Counts Coalition is a national partnership of schools, communities, education and human-service organizations committed to fortifying the lives of America's youth. Their “Six Pillars of Character” transcend divisions of race, creed, politics, gender and wealth: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. The Coalition supports these virtues through the work of significant adults as role models of good character. This web site includes description of the CHARACTER COUNTS! Coalition, its educational seminars, its youth character awards program, discussion forum, six pillar programs, materials, resources and guides.
The Character Education Partnership: The Character Education Partnership (CEP) is a nonpartisan coalition of organizations and individuals dedicated to developing moral character and civic virtue in our nation's youth as one means of creating a more compassionate and responsible society." The CEP has grown to be an umbrella organization for national character education efforts. It provides a National Resource Center which distributes information, support for school boards, teachers and administrators, and publications and annual meetings. The CEP offers a variety of special projects including a national Schools of Character Awards program, newsletters, other publications, and a research division.
CHARACTER ED PREP: Directed by the Regent University School of Education, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education, the National Clearinghouse for the Teaching of Character in Educator Preparation Programs will serve to: provide guidance on the merits of best practices in character education in educator preparation programs; identify scientifically-based research in character education and character development in educator preparation programs; promote model character education in educator preparation programs; compile a directory of educator preparation institutions that focus on character education; highlight events related to character education in educator preparation; and, conduct in-service training for educators, seminars, conferences and other activities related to character education for educators.
Character First: Character First! Education is one of three branches of the Character Training Institute (CTI), a non-profit organization based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The other two components are Character First! Business and the International Association of Character Cities. The mission of the Character Training Institute is to encourage true success in businesses, schools, families, communities, and other organizations. With 45 character qualities at its center, Character First! Education provides training and resources to promote character development in individuals from all walks of life. Character First! Education furnishes tools necessary to weave positive character into every aspect of your student's academic program. Training Seminars: We provide a variety of training to equip teachers, parents, and volunteers to successfully build character in the lives of their students. Resource Development and Distribution: We develop and distribute resources that support the character education initiative in your school or organization.
Character Works: Written and developed for teachers by teachers, characterworks! provides quick and easy lesson plans and ideas to make character education work for elementary and secondary schools. This curriculum is flexible and formatted in a menu style for easy and quick selection based upon grade level abilities. Integrates all school subjects. The website is updated weekly with daily character education ideas. There is also a free daily character email. Visit the site and sign up!
CIVNET: Civnet, published by CIVITAS, is “a web site for civic education practitioners (teachers, teacher trainers, curriculum designers), as well as scholars, policymakers, ...promoting civil society all over the world.” The site provides a vast library of civics teaching resources, lesson plans, discourses on civil society, information on organizations and programs, historical documents, and an excellent list of annotated links to national and international sites that promote civic awareness and democracy. Includes book-length documents, articles, lesson plans contributed by educators, authors, and organizations and a discussion group and selections from the world's greatest historic documents and speeches.
Constitutional Rights Foundation: The Constitutional Rights Foundation is a non-profit, community organization dedicated "to educating America's young people about the importance of participation in a democratic society." Amongst other publications, the Constitutional Rights Foundation publishes a wide variety of information for teachers including civic participation materials such as active citizenship programs; elementary education programs on the Bill of Rights, Law and Citizenship in US History and California History; and many school lessons and curricula related to government, mock trials, US History and World history. Much of the material is appropriate to K-12, with some specially designed for children with special needs.
Good Character.com: GoodCharacter.com offers free character education resources for K-12 teachers, coaches, and youth group leaders, all organized by topic and grade level. You'll find curriculum materials, discussion questions, writing assignments, group learning activities, opportunities for student action and lots of teacher support material. This is the place to start for immediate implementation of a character development unit for any grade level. Check back frequently as this site is constantly updated.
Illinois - Character Education - Chicago Style: This is a program that is designed to reduce truancy, suspensions, student misbehavior, and other classroom problems, and at the same, increase academic performance, improve staff/student relationships, and bolster parent involvement. Children learn how to act by how they are treated, they learn right from wrong by what is rewarded or punished, and which values are held in high regard from history and experience. Once these lessons are learned, they last a lifetime.
Institute for Global Ethics: Based in Camden, Maine this organization has available curriculum materials for middle schools and high schools, and much more. The Institute is a nonsectarian, global research and educational organization which “supports public discourse and practical action around significant ethical issues”. The institute divides its efforts into three primary areas: corporate services, educational programs and public policy programs. Under its EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS the Institute promotes a variety of “Ethical Fitness” seminars for students and teachers and offers several curricula including Building Decision Skills (middle and high school), Elementary Decision Skills (K-2 and 3-5) and Ethics and Service.
International: The International Center for Character Education (ICCE), housed at the University of San Diego, has as its purpose to “enable school personnel, parents, teacher educators, faith community members...to come together to study, discuss...the character education of children and youth.” The ICCE offers the only Certificate and MA programs in Character Education and a variety of other services and awards.
Internet Resources for Civic Educators: ERIC Digest: The Internet, with its unique capabilities for instantaneous global communication, is rapidly becoming a valuable resource for civic educators, both those involved in K-12 citizenship education and those involved in international civic education for democracy. For K-12 teachers, the Internet is a source of classroom tools and resources such as curriculum guides and lesson plans; the full text of the United States Constitution and other pertinent documents as well as those of other nations; and numerous examples of grassroots civic participation in progress in the United States and other established, authentic constitutional democracies, and in fledgling democracies such as those of Eastern Europe. The site is an annotated guide to some of the many websites useful to civic educators.
The Maine Character Education Partnership Website: This report, recently released by the Maine Department of Education, represents the work of Maine's Commission on Ethical and Responsible Student Behavior, co-chaired by Institute founder and president Rushworth Kidder. Taking Responsibility helps communities develop standards by suggesting processes and programs for long-term changes in attitudes, structures, and climate in our schools.
Missouri - CHARACTERplus: Within the cultural diversity of schools there is a core set of values that all share. CHARACTERplus models, teaches and communicates these shared beliefs and values, e.g., responsibility, respect, humanity, honesty, self-esteem and cooperation. As a result, students will adopt these beliefs and values as a part of their personal ethics and become positive contributors to society. CHARACTERplus, of Cooperative School Districts, annually hosts a national character education conference in July in St. Louis, MO.
New Jersey - New Jersey Character Education Network: The New Jersey Department of Education has a seven-year history of program activity promoting the development of character and values education in the state's schools. More than half of the state's 596 school districts have implemented program and policy activities. These activities are supported by professional development and networking opportunities and four department publications.
New York: Project
SAVE, Safe Schools Against Violence in Education Act: Instruction
in Civility, Citizenship and
North Carolina Character Education Website: The North Carolina Partnership in Character Education is comprised of three county school systems (Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Cumberland, and Wake) working collaboratively with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and the North Carolina Center for the Prevention of School Violence. The Partnership will develop, pilot, and disseminate a model character education program that can be replicated and adapted throughout the state and across the country.
South Carolina Department of Education: South Carolina is one of the states to receive grants from the US Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Education. The site contains reports outlining the Character Education programs and resources for teachers and administrators.
Studies in Moral Development and Education: This site at the University of Illinois, Chicago is edited by Dr. Larry Nucci. It aims to connect educators and other human service professionals who are interested in the "developmental/constructivist" conception of moral development and education. The site contains a list of “Featured Articles” selected by the web master and mostly focused on the theme of cognitive developmental approaches to moral education; an annotated set of classroom practices including constructivist alternatives to discipline and developmental discipline ideas; several articles describing how to hold dilemma discussions; an annotated short list of moral education and character education books; and information on how to join an interesting listserv of educators and psychologists discussing related topics.
Utah Department of Education: Character Education Partnership: Utah was one of the first states funded under the U.S. Department of Education's Character Education Partnership Grants. This web site describes the history of the project, its progress over two years, curriculum plans, evaluation of progress thus far, lesson plans, the theory and history of character education, and links to other related sites.
Wise Skills: Wise Skills is an innovative, interdisciplinary K-12 character education program that builds character by highlighting the words and lives of positive role models. Materials integrate easily into academic subject areas. Our web site includes a variety of sample pages and free lesson ideas and reproducibles.