PROMISING PRACTICES FOR CHARACTER EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP A Report of the Kern Partners for Character and Educational Leadership Ariel Tichnor-Wagner Boston University Hardin Coleman Boston University Karen Bohlin Montrose School Deborah Farmer Kris Montrose School About the Authors Ariel Tichnor-Wagner, Ph.D., is a lecturer in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Boston University Wheelock College of Education and Human Development. With a deep commit- ment to identifying and leveraging policies, programs, and practices that promote the academic and social-emotional development of youth from historically marginalized communities, her research focuses on education policy and program implementation centered on social emotional learning, global competence, and civic education. She is the author of the books Becoming a Globally Competent Teacher and Becoming a Globally Competent School Leader, and her research has been published in various scholarly and practitioner outlets. Hardin L. K. Coleman, Ph.D., is a professor of Counseling Psychology and Applied Human De- velopment at Boston University Wheelock College of Education and Human Development, faculty director of the Center for Character and Social Responsibility, and Dean Emeritus of the College. He is a scholar, educator, counselor, and leader who works in university, local, national, and international contexts to support positive educational outcomes for all children. He is an internationally recognized researcher, educational leader, and speaker. Karen Bohlin is director of the LifeCompass Institute, head of the Montrose School, senior scholar at Boston University’s Center for Character and Social Responsibility, and a veteran ed- ucator who has taught at the middle, high school and university level. She was formerly an assis- tant professor of Education and director of Boston University’s Center for Ethics and Character, and has advised state departments of education and ministries of education around the world. She is the author and contributing author of several books, including Teaching Character Educa- tion Through Literature: Awakening the Moral Imagination (Routledge 2005), Building Character in Schools (Jossey-Bass 1999), and Happiness and Virtue: Beyond East and West: Toward a New Global Responsibility (Tuttle 2012). Her professional development work focuses on leading with practical wisdom and educating the heart. Deborah Farmer Kris is the associate director of the LifeCompass Institute. In addition, she serves as a parenting columnist and consultant for PBS Kids for Parents, writes about education for MindShift (an NPR education blog), and is an associate scholar at Boston University’s Center for Character and Social Responsibility. Over the course of her career, Deborah has taught nearly every K-12 grade and worked as a school administrator. Her writing has been featured in The Washington Post, and she is the co-author of the book Building Character in Schools: A Resource Guide. iii Acknowledgments Our team would like to first and foremost thank the Kern Family Foundation for its generous support of the Kern Partners for Character and Educational Leadership (KPCEL), the creation of this report, and all of the activities highlighted in it. We would also like to thank all of the teams from the following institutions who participated in the KPCEL programming in 2019 and 2020 and contributed their valuable time, experience, and expertise: Arizona State University, Boston College, California State University Fresno, Common Sense Education, Doral Lead- ership Institute, Intellectual Virtues Academy, Lipscomb University, Medical College of Wis- consin, Montrose School, North Central College, Open Sky Education, Samford University, Santa Clara University, Seton Education Partners/Brilla School Network, St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, University of Minnesota, University of Missouri St. Louis, University of North- ern Iowa, University of Oklahoma, University of Tennessee, and Wake Forest University. We are grateful for the character education experts who presented at our three convenings, includ- ing Angela Duckworth, Tyler Vanderweele, Robert McGrath, Tenelle Porter, Marvin Berkowitz, David Walker, Jacquie Bryant, Louise Dubé, Marc Brackett, and Thomas Lickona. We also thank Maryellen Madaio for making the three convenings happen and our project managers, Emma Gleckel and Edith Ortiz, for all of their assistance in this work. iv 1 Introduction How can approaches to character education be systematically developed and integrated into educational leadership programs and PK-12 schools? How do we know that these approaches are leading to desired improvements? These questions were at the heart of the yearlong work of the Kern Partners for Character and Educational Leadership (KPCEL). With generous support from the Kern Family Foundation and facilitated by a team from Boston University and the Montrose School LifeCompass Institute, 20 teams—representing higher education institutions, K-12 schools, and nonprofits across the United States committed to integrating character edu- cation approaches—convened for six in-person and virtual meetings between June 2019 and June 2020. The goals of these convenings were for all partners to: a) gain a deep understanding of how to integrate character education into and assess character education in educational leadership programs; b) receive resources, research, and models of excellence in character education and school leadership; c) develop programs and practices to implement in their educational leader- ship programs; and d) share promising practices emerging across unique contexts. Our year together resulted in insights on approaches that are showing promise of working for developing and integrating character education into educational leadership programs in higher education and K-12 institutions. In addition, we learned how intentionally planned networked experiences can promote the exchange of valuable ideas and inspiration for implementing and sustaining similar character education visions and approaches. The purpose of this report is twofold: to share promising practices that higher education and education leadership participants have successfully adapted to local contexts; and to share the improvement science processes that guided development and implementation. What is Character Education? Why Does it Matter for Educational Leadership? Education in its fullest sense is “inescapably a moral enterprise – a continuous and conscious effort to guide students to know and pursue what is good and what is worthwhile” (Ryan et al., 1996. At its core, character education is the intentional, structured ways in which schools foster the moral, prosocial development of students (Berkowitz et al., 2012; McGrath, 2018). Or as Kevin Ryan (2002) writes, “You can think of character education as teaching children to know 1 the good, to love the good, and to do the good.” It’s about helping students develop the hab- its—or virtues—that enable them to thrive academically and in relationships with others. There is not one prescribed method for infusing character education into school-based settings or one clear set of outcomes that all character education initiatives espouse. However, effective ap- proaches do tend to address a holistic vision of human flourishing—including intellectual, civic, moral, and performance virtues—and the skills, habits, and mindsets necessary to move toward this aim (Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, 2017). These character education approaches also foster a caring school community that engages all faculty and staff in modeling and teaching the core ethical values that character education espouses (Lickona et al., 2007; McGrath, 2018). In essence, outcomes of character education are holistic in nature, tending the head, heart, and hand in ways that deepen agency and ultimately allow for human flourishing. Moreover, these outcomes permeate across the ethos of a school. Educational leadership is crucial for intentionally integrating character education into the ethos of schools. When it comes to building school culture and climate around any new reform, school leaders play the important roles of setting the vision, gathering resources, and building capacity of staff -- all of which help to create change to instructional practices (Leithwood et al., 2004; Tichnor-Wagner, 2019). The same holds true for character education initiatives. As Berkowitz & Bier (2004) found “leadership is key” to running effective character education ini- tiatives. The authors explain: Leading a school of character requires that the principal first fully understands what quality character education entails…Then the principal must really commit to this vi- sion and truly want to make it happen under his or her watch. Finally, the principal must have the requisite skills to enact quality character education and then to live it out both personally and programmatically. (p. 77) The requisite set of knowledge, dispositions, and skills that school leaders need to integrate char- acter education into all aspects of school life points to the need for leaders to have intentional training, as commitment and capacity do not develop overnight. Central to this training is edu- cation in practical wisdom, or what Aristotle called phronesis. Leadership in character edu cation does not require simply theoretical knowledge, but a capacity to apply that wisdom to particular individuals and groups of individuals in particular contexts