Education Matters (July 2003)

July 2003 Vol. IX • No. 6 Vol. Character Education: Another Niche for Charter Schools By Robert Holland common parents, and students are not assigned to schools to concentrate single-mindedly on definition of them. People study or work in charter increasing students’ grasp of factual knowl- A character is schools by choice. They are not assigned to edge. However, Dr. Scoresby contends that a “what we do when no charter schools as is often the case with comprehensive view of competence that one is looking.” conventional public schools. Character includes good character actually figures to Repeated scandals at education can be controversial when yield greater success in students acquiring high levels of govern- questions arise as to “whose values will be knowledge “because we will be teaching ment in recent decades taught,” or when inclusion of the spiritual students achievement skills while we reduce have given new strength dimension of character spurs allegations distractions and conduct problems which Robert Holland to the old concept that that a publicly funded school is advancing can be solved by improved character.” character formation is religion. However, the edge comes off such Mary Eubank of the Utah-based Legacy an important part of education. Civil rights contentiousness when participants have Foundation, which contracts for schools’ leader Martin Luther King, Jr., stated the bought into the approach used to instill use of the program, notes that Character case as succinctly as anyone ever has. sound character and moral values. and Competence has been field-tested on “Intelligence plus character—that is the A New View of Competence more than 65,000 students of differing goal of a true education,” said Dr. King. Many character education programs ages and ethnic backgrounds, including “Character is not engraved by age six— emphasize a process that will develop more than 600 high-risk students in or even sixteen,” wrote John M. Templeton, character while simultaneously increasing grades K-9. “The results indicate a marked Jr., “We can change and improve our char- student achievement. The two goals are reduction in conduct problems, greater acter. However, like a comfortable pair of joined, instead of standing focus on learning tasks, increased social shoes, selfishness, separate and apart. That is and emotional skills, and improved laziness, dishonesty, and # certainly true of Character achievement-test results,” she says. irresponsibility are easy to and Competence, a teacher A Moral Underpinning slip into. But the uplifting training program that is message of character Character education is a National Heritage Academies (NHA), based on a fresh view of founded in 1995 by Christian business- development is that we human competence. Dr. A. can acquire a good and man J.C. Huizenga, is among those char- particularly good fit with Lynn Scoresby, an educa- ter-school companies that consider moral sound character—one tional consultant and child that is durable yet evolv- education to be central to the classroom charter schools because psychologist who devel- experience. NHA, one of the nation’s most ing. All it takes is hard oped this program, points work and commitment. successful education management organi- out that most teaching has zations, operates thirty-two charter Just as a mountain is potentially divisive instruction been structured to make constantly being reshaped schools in Michigan, New York, North students competent Carolina, and Ohio. by weather patterns, our on moral and spiritual according to their factual character is reshaped by knowledge. He argues that Part of what distinguishes an NHA school the different choices we issues is done within any definition of compe- is the strong moral focus of instruction. make and the virtues we tence that does not include Each month, an Academy emphasizes a choose to practice. In character is incomplete different quality of character, one that is much the same way, our classrooms of the willing. and too narrow. Dr. based on the Greek Cardinal Virtues of choices develop our char- Scoresby adds that factual justice, temperance, prudence, and fortitude. acter—and our character knowledge—all the infor- Taught throughout the year and integrated determines our choices.”1 mation in the curriculum—is indeed one of into the curriculum rather than taught as A great deal of emphasis is going to the important components of competence. separate units, these four Virtues are taught formation of character and a moral focus in But it is just one of three. The other two are as character qualities—such as responsibility, elementary and secondary schools. This character, which includes a sense of right respect, cooperation, courage, and perse- work goes on in public, private, parochial, and wrong, and achievement, which entails verance—that the children can more readily and home schools. However, this article an ethic of work in an organized way understand. Teachers discuss these qualities focuses primarily on public charter schools, toward meeting high standards. Following with students, model the trait, and encourage which have an advantage in this realm of the 1983 “A Nation at Risk” report, and students to demonstrate it in their lives. education that they share with the universi- subsequent reports of test scores, criticisms Continued on page 6 ties and private institutions—i.e., teachers, of lagging achievement have led many See “Character Education” Guest Editorial – Consolidation is a Bad Idea By John T. Wenders rkansas, movements down cost curves have been show gradually improving pupil perform- Arizona, South more than offset by upward shifts in these ance until the early 1960s. From then A Dakota, Kansas, same curves. until the early 1980s, however, scores Vermont, Iowa, and The number of public school districts in plummeted, such that, by the end of this Idaho are presently, or the U.S. shrank from 117,000 in 1940 to period, high school graduates were about have been recently, 15,000 in 2000. The number of public one and one-half years behind their weighing proposals to schools fell from 233,000 in the late 1930s predecessors of the early 1960s. There has reduce the number of to 91,000 in 2000. These two develop- since been some recovery in scores, but school districts within ments caused the average number of pupils well below what it would have been had John Wenders their borders by consol- per district to rise from 217 in 1940 to the pre-1960s trend continued. idating some of them 3,159 in 2000, and the average school to Over the same period, community into larger units. swell from 127 to 521 pupils. colleges grew in no small part because they Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, As everyone knows, these consolidations provided remedial help. Moreover, half the responding to a court decision that made were accompanied not by amazing new private schools in existence in 1994 were the state responsible for providing children efficiencies but by rising-per pupil founded in the three decades immediately with an “adequate education,” proposed that costs—and costs borne more and more by preceding. It is at least plausible that both the number of school districts in Arkansas non-local sources. From the end of World developments responded to public school be cut from 310 to no more than 116. In War II to today, real per- pupil spending and district consolidation and the accompa- Arizona, new state school superintendent sextupled, even as the local share of public- nying declines in pupil performance. Tom Horne said that consolidation of his school funding dwindled from 80 percent Why should this be? Effective-schools state’s 220+ districts would ease administra- (early 1900s) to 45.4 percent in 2000. research indicates that achievement is tive costs. In South Dakota, the House stronger where schools establish a clear education committee recently considered a Power follows money to its source. identity for students—a community of bill to reduce districts from 176 to 30. In education, that has meant following it In Kansas, a proposal to slash the number upward to places where special interest interest, yet consolidation pushes the other from 303 to 30 was being studied. groups are better able both to secure way. High schools, in particular, became Vermont’s legislature is weighing a proposal further hikes in school funding and to shopping malls. Larger schools necessarily to shrink the number from 60 to 15. Iowa is divert much of the increment toward had less sense of community. While diversity pondering financial incentives to encourage themselves and their members. may be a plus in other ways, it probably does not square with improved student consolidations. (In Michigan, they already Besides price escalation, consolidation performance. What’s more, all of this get a $50-per-pupil bonus.) In Idaho, a discourages competition and educational occurred as the larger society was fracturing. similar proposal went before the House edu- diversity. Harvard University’s Caroline Ironically, these developments led both to cation committee. And, of course, New York Hoxby and the University of Chicago’s Sam greater homogeneity among schools and City mayor Michael Bloomberg has effectively Peltzman have found that it adversely more diversity within schools. Both devel- merged that city’s many “community” affects both the cost of education and the opments eroded student performance, the districts into a single, centralized system. performance of students. Peltzman discov- former by reducing competition among ered that deterioration in pupil performance However, this pendulum swings both schools, and the latter by destroying strong was greatest where the shift in funding ways. Oregon is considering proposals to school identities. break up large school districts. Los Angeles from local to state sources was greatest. has often been urged to shear the mammoth He also found that the upward movement Big schools are a problem for other LAUSD into thirty or so parts.

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