This article is on to something very significant and asks a profound question: “Which qualities matter most for a child trying to negotiate his way to a successful and autonomous adulthood?”

This question stimulates thinking in new ways (and some horror at the idea that it might not have been considered before). It also raises for us another question: How can we combine academic rigor with character building efforts?

We have discovered, somewhat unexpectedly, that using a rigorous process for teaching students how to ask their own questions not only leads to deeper learning, but also to some of the desired traits mentioned in the article: zest, self-control, perseverance and, of course, greater curiosity. It’s a simple strategy, but it can be a transformational one as well according to many teachers with whom we have worked. One teacher in the Boston Public Schools reports that teaching students how to ask their own questions is the most effective strategy she has seen for engaging traditionally disengaged Latino and African-American male students.

Could teaching students how to ask their own questions become part of character building efforts?

Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana, Co-Authors, Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions (Harvard Education Press).

In the interest of helping others who work with children, could you share the evalaution tool you used to assess character? I have been thinking for some time about how to measure (and then improve) many of these character traits in my work. It is great to learn that a tool has been developed and is in use!

How do you differentiate between character and social skills? Many times student behavior is simply a lack of understanding of basic social cues; it seems to me the character report card simply makes the unspoken social curriculum of school explicit.
-Lisa Tazartes, Executive Director, Ramapo Training
www.ramapotraining.org

A fascinating approach. How good is the science behind the report card? For example, have you yet been able to compare college drop-out rates with final year high-school Kipp scores (as opposed to Duckworth's testing of her "Grit" index). And I suppose I have the same question regarding the feedback to the students - have you any measure of whether or not that is successful?

The article explores issues that we have known about for many years. After ten years working as an educator in public schools, my husband (Michael Clark - ReCenter)departed and we created a company (ReCenter.org) to teach students, teachers, parents, counselors, administrators and business professionals the exact skills discussed in the article. I have created a proven comprehensive and practical system for teaching people the most essential 21st century skill – performance transformation in self and others. During the past eleven years, we have delivered thousands of highly successful presentations to thousands of people in educational communities and business organizations. ReCenter specializes in teaching people how-to transform performance in the midst of intense situations, persistent challenges and difficult people. We deliver keynote speaking, education and development courses and ReCenter Coaching. www.ReCenter.org or on Facebook - Michael Clark - ReCenter

This is an example of what we have been doing in San Diego (sponsored by public schools districts as well)...

ReCentering Parents & Students
Transforming Students’ Performance

San Diego, CA. Saturday, October 15, 2011

Michael Clark, Parent Involvement Expert

Transform Students’ Academic Achievement at School and Home

“ReCentering Parents & Students” is a full-day course that teaches parents, elementary, middle, high school students, teachers and grandparents power tools and real time strategies for transforming students’ academic, citizenship and social emotional performance. You will learn exactly what it takes to create success in students’ primary, secondary, post secondary education, and beyond. Thousands of parents, students, teachers and counselors are using the “ReCenter System” to create improvements in every aspect of life performance.

Session One: ReCentering the Family

Session Two: Making Peace with Difficult People

Session Three: The Power of Choice Making

Learn how-to use adversity to accelerate performance transformation in yourself and your children.

Use real time strategies to determine when, where and how you will integrate the content into school, home and life.

Consistently bring your best performance to moment-to-moment, day-to-day, week-to-week opportunities and challenges throughout the 2011-12 school year.

Date: Saturday, October 15, 2011

Event: 9:00 am - 3:30 pm

Cost: Families: $129; Individual: $59 before September 30.
After October 1st – Families: $149; Individual: $79

Location: Marina Village, Starboard Room
1936 Quivira Way San Diego, CA. 92109

Registration: Email: Kimberly@ReCenter.org or call: (858) 736-7435.

Knowing how-to transform performance in yourself and others is the most essential 21st century skill.

Performance transformation is the skill behind, above and beyond all other skill development.

ReCenter.org

I agree on the importance of teaching character. Defining character through a clear list of behaviors that will be numerically evaluated by the classroom teacher is certainly an interesting way to go. As a former secondary school teacher I am, however, exhausted just by the thought of doing such an evaluation. In my career, in traditional secondary schools, most years I taught about 180 children. Individualizing content lessons, skill development activities and working informally with them on character development was overwhelming. Deciding on a letter or numerical grade and on comments to explain it, was a difficult task and an awesome responsibility. I have trouble imagining how much additional pressure on a teacher comes with adding the task of carefully observing and then placing a numerical value on so many aspects of child's daily interactions .

I hope that KIPP Infinity teachers are nurtured and supported and that they are not each responsible for more than 100 children

Applause!!! I'm a fourth grade teacher, artist and inventor. I have been watching the decline of the involvement levels (and success levels) of my low income students for a few years, and I love that the studies and authors recognize students' approach to life as equally important as IQ. I work throughout my year to highlight and help develop qualities like zest, grit, optimism and self control in my students and in staff members. I completely agree with the importance of character as a predictor of success and happiness in life. If we look to our heroes and the key positive figures of human history, those who rise to the top, do so on the platform of character, and it is because of there character that their intellect had an effect on the rest of us. Once we discover again what it is to be human, then we will, as humans once again thrive. Less testing, more living . . . and we will flourish. (individually, and collectively).

Might I ask two things:

1. Why is "spirituality" included here? "Faith" is not a character trait but a character flaw. It indicates one believes in things which are not demonstrably real, indicating a lack of critical thinking and discernment.

2. If it must be included, would "I have considered the issue and do not believe there is evidence to indicate that there is any 'higher purpose' or 'meaning' to the universe aside from what we make of it" be considered an acceptable answer? If not, why not?

What was the most surprising thing you each learned about the other's school by reading the article? (Or through the process of working together.)

fascinating article! In Toronto principals are raving about the impact of Project Give Back in helping students develop character ( self reliance, confidence, empathy) by showing them their capacity to help others and creating an environment for that to happen. If there is an interest in learning more about this program please feel free to contact them

Nicki, if you look at the link below, you can see both the KIPP report card, and also the list of 24 strengths....Sorry for the confusing setup between this query and the broader post!
http://www.nytimes.com/school...

This is not so much a question as an observation based on Mr. Tough's article. It seems to me that 'moral character' and 'performance character' should ideally evolve together. One is the thinking, while the other is the doing. One of the terms I looked for and did not find is one that I think is essential to the development of both kinds of character and that is the fostering of 'discriminative intelligence'...not my own terminology but adapted from my reading. If discriminative intelligence is at the helm of decision-making of any sort (C.B.T. is a real-world tool also, but a certain amount of moral value judgment is implied by the word 'discriminating') then the grit and follow-through aspects become the performance tools of evolved thinking. Then one has the ideal...someone who sees the right thing to do and has the gumption and grit to do it. Family and family values have a great deal to do with this as well...schools can only go so far in fostering deeper values...some of it will take hold and some will give way to other influences and value judgments. That is not to say that these are not wonderful conversations to have in school and positive influences above that of mere academic achievement!!

What are examples of what can parents specifically do to help their kids develop grit?

1. Does this work like Clifton's Strength Finders 2.0 where you take the Top 5 Character Strengths and leverage for the student or do you look at the bottom 5 and try to "strengthen" it?
2. What kind of interventions do you do if you find out that some of the character strengths are lower compared to other ones? Can you give examples?
3. Has there been studies where a cohort of students where their character strengths has been identified and interventions have been implemented and improvements have taken place? What kind of impact does those interventions have on their academic standing? Are the impacts statistically significant? How big are the improvements pre-intervention vs. post-intervention?
4. If you were to reduce the 24 Character strengths to smaller list - what would you pick to be in the smaller list? Why? What would be the minimum number of character strengths that should be focused on to have any visible impact? 5? 7? 9?

First off, Thank you for sharing your experiences with the world. There is a lot to be learned from your work. Below are my questions:

-How has Riverdale's use of "Design Thinking" played into the types of strategies and tools being used to develop students' character?

-While character traits that support academic and career success are clearly being emphasized, to what degree are traits that support fulfillment/happiness being emphasized by Riverdale and KIPP? And how is fulfillment/happiness being measured?

I was disappointed to see the article never addresses Habits of Mind, a similar character traits index and program to academic success we embrace at the public school where I teach seventh grade. The question I have as an educator isn't, "Are character traits valuable to teach?" but rather, "How can I best integrate yet another very important bit of content into the same short school day?"

Having been in PYP schools for going on 4 years and using the Learner Profile, I find the ideas are good and well intentioned, but when it comes to the action component, something is lacking. I truly believe you cannot teach children to take action, but it must be modeled, and the need for action should come from genuine desire to apply what has been learned. Children do absolutely need to have a variety of experiences outside their own to experience a sense of empathy that propels them into wanting to do more, or to take action. I do believe that failure builds character and teaches lessons specific to each individual. That said, I still struggle with what can work best in class, and how I can be a model and guide to my students. I'd like to follow the research and work of KIPP...

Maria McCabe
Yr. 5 teacher,
The Bilingual European School,
Milan, Italy

Secondary school teacher envy the arts teachers who can design their own rubric, into which character traits are factored more prominently than milepost achievements. Making the KIPP experiences publicly available to educators nationwide should help the advancement of experiential learning and result in fewer kids left behind. Is there a site where we can learn from your group?

I SO applaud what you are doing! I have dedicated my career to determining ways to effectively build character, based on a cognitve-behavcioral model to build social-emotional intelligence. I find there is often a gap between the values students can define and would love to embody, and the ways in which they behave in order to get their needs met. For example, a student who was yelling at a peer reported wanting very much to embody kindness, but knew of no other way to express his emotions. I would love to learn more about the methods you use to build character in your students.

How do you answer studies that have so-far proven that no character education program is effective? Indeed, the implication from the studies is that no program can be effective. That is, October 2010, a federal study*, the largest and most thorough ever conducted, found that school-wide Character Education programs produce exactly ZERO improvements in student behavior or academic performance.

Excerpts from the study:
The year-by-year analysis and the growth curve analysis did not find that the seven SACD programs improved student outcomes when considered together, individually by program, or for specific subgroups. (li)

In sum, the SACD combined-program evaluation provides no evidence that the seven universal, schoolwide programs improved students’ social and character development. (li)

On average, the seven programs did not improve students’ social and emotional competence, behavior, academic achievement, and student and teacher perceptions of school climate. (liii)
Is there anything here that PUSD can use to evaluate Character Counts!? Yes, there is:

In addition, although the numbers of schools and students in each program were not always sufficient to support firm conclusions at the program level, the patterns of estimated impacts for each program were largely similar: students’ outcomes were not affected. (liii) [Italics mine]

*"Efficacy of Schoolwide Programs to Promote Social and Character Development and Reduce Problem Behavior in Elementary School Children" The Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. October 2010.

Fascinating! Was sent this e-mail via: Bill Lewellyn & his 'SPIN' newsletter from: The Diocese of Bethlehem. Don't usually take the time to read ALL the way thru one of his 'slices' of a good Article- but did this time, & it is *great, just great! As a single Mother, still with a Senior in High School @home, I enthusiastically support this approach of assessment. Even my Son relates & reflects this. (He is an A-student, playing #5- Instruments, & physically conditioned by a 'Lifting' class @his School. Oh- He walks to his *Class, 3x/wk, (1-mile, 1-way), as he does to many activities. (I "share" a Car w/my Daughter, who works now F/T & lives out of Town.) *He is my example of: a non-privileged Male, raised in a loving & highly supportive, (his Father is involved too), but disciplined household- of limited means. Combine this w/great Community respect, involvement, support & protection, we have survived well, by letting our needs be known, (after we both identify them). >"You can not get the help you need, IF you don't let others know that you need it":*Me.<
Thank you ALL for the great Article, wise Reflection, in-depth Perception & current Activism, as you reach out & inspire the ones that need it most- OUR YOUTH! YES- save just #1 Child, and you have made a positive difference.... XXX

The trickle of work debunking the self-esteem movement is building! We've damaged a generation or two of students, but maybe the tide is finally turning and we will realize the errors of that failed experiment and begin to develop resilient citizens again.

A recent book that discusses at length self-control and grit, addressing similar themes, is "Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength" by Dr. Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney.

Another that gets at how we build skills and develop mastery is "The Talent Code" by Daniel Coyle. Yes, practice does make perfect, true excellence is only achieved through hard work.

We Still Have Much To Do

I have long believed that we should teach personal skills to our students, tools that would help them succeed in life and in academia. Here, we presently have a list of student characteristics for academic success. It is a good start. Now, the truly hard work is yet to be done. How will teachers successfully teach these skills?
We need to define a “Best Practices” for effectively teaching these 24 characteristics to our students. Indeed, we need to also scientifically define and promulgate “Best Practices” for teaching our Reading, Writing, and Math curriculum throughout the schools of our nation. We need to deliver these practices to our teachers and unilaterally mandate that they use them.
We have a long way to go before proper studies are made to define the Best Practices of how to effectively teach our basic curriculum and the curriculum of these new skills. After this, we have the further effort of bringing those best practices to our nation’s teachers. They, then, must have proper training and support, so that all American educators are utilizing the best methods to educate our students.
Yes, much work needs to be done to rescue our system of education. Nevertheless, we must start. Let us bring a body of proven tools to a whole nation of teachers. Let us require them all to use these acknowledged best practices. This would help to empower our teachers and deliver the best education we know how to provide, through our teachers, to our students.

I strongly believe that American needs to change its values, and each of us is responsible for demonstrating to others that we practice what we preach and hold others accountable for practicing what we preach as well.

The Times article struck a strong note with me. I would love to follow-up with information on how to teach and assess character, not just in children, but in our selves, our coworkers, and our spouses. To build a better society, step by step. When will you publish the results of your efforts and the methods you are using to accomplish results, including your tracking methods?

Curious as to how Introverts test out in Character studies.

I'm curious as to how we might apply performance character to brands and organizations. Could there be performance character attributes that brands/leadership can evaluate themselves on?

I'm a student in my final year. I attend a public school in Geelong(Australia) and am unfortunately a terrible procrastinator: indeed, it could be said I make it an artform. Even as I write, I have a history test tomorow which I should be studying for. Anyway, despite my general lack of what you call performance characters, I would hazard to say that I have excellent moral character.

Over the years there have been a number of near-identical parent-teacher interviews, which always end with me being asked why I can never get my work done. To clarify; I have the tendency to sit in front of my homework for literal hours, without making any progress, irrespective of whether or not distractions are present. Anyway, when asked why, I simply shrug, and utter the usual 'I don't know.' To be honest, that's a lie: I know precisely what keeps me from concentrating, it's just something extremely personal, that I don't wish to share.

I have been subject to an emotional issue for a great majority of my life, and though it's not in any way related to getting homework completed, I believe it greatly affects my performance. As such, I think your list should include some characteristic which involves the judgement of aspects in ones life, the categorisation of these, and the subsequent segregation of unrelated issues. In my life, I seem to lack the ability to do this, and although I'm a poor example of a 'hard-working' student, I earnestly believe this would be different were I able to compartmentalise my life and avoid letting issues I have no control over influence my ability to concentrate on a particular task.

I do suppose this relates to optimism in some way, but simply being optimistic doesn't prevent times of trouble or sadness, it simply means you acknowledge that these periods will end. In the meantime, it is important to realise some form of coping, which involves being able to quell ones emotions and avoid letting them influence performance. This also seems compliant with the grieving process.

I understand that in saying all this, and using myself as an example, it may seems terribly hipocritical. That stated, it is often hypocrites who understand the crux of the relevant issue, though I am not trying to say I know ny more about life than anyone else: this is just one thing I've experienced and I thought it poignant to the discussion of characteristics.

This is a fascinating article. How come resilience is not a key character trait? I was reading the Social Animal by David Brooks recently and the ability to make and maintain connections with other humans is an important trait as well. The ability to pause and reflect maybe it is under self-control, is another key trait, that the practice of ancient traditions of meditation, yoga can bring. I am really curious how to develop the 8 traits that is mentioned here effectively in ourselves, in our children, and in our community. They seem to be all round good stuff and the more people in the community can develop the better we will be.

For some of us educated in a different culture, the opportunities for social interaction, resilience was a natural part of our life style. Be it on the playground, or in the classroom, picking ourselves and moving on was an integral part of our education. I never gave it much of a thought until I started to get more involved with my daughters school.

I am a volunteer and a board member at Street Yoga where we teach yoga as a tool for kids that are undergoing trauma such as homelessness. I also volunteer and teach kids at a top private school. And I look forward to hearing more about how the Character Traits can be developed in teens

This is laughable to anyone who really knows children -- just as a full-time working parent (AKA "stay-at-home mom) about character. She'd readily tell you that these men who probably never raised a child on a full-time basis (coordinating with your wife or writing the check to the nanny doesn't count) are making themselves a laughingstock by leaving "love" off of the list and by having the temerity to rate children's character but keeping this information from parents. These are our children and we have a legal right and responsibility to our children's entire school record including silly attempts to convert character to math. And they're not original; they are cribbing from Jeremy Bentham of the late 18th/early 19th century.

I wonder if in your studies of various character driven cultures and enterprises you studied the works of Kurt Hahn? He founded some progressive charter schools in early 20th century Germany and Great Britain, eventually leading to the foundation of the current Outward Bound Schools. At the Gordonstoun School he implemented a report card similar to the 24 question character evaluation. I think this type of reform is absolutely imperative to the success of our nation's students. I am deeply interested in this type of education and wonder if anyone might suggest some resources where I can explore more information?

Is what we're teaching 'character' or are we creating an awareness of what character represents? ... We create an understanding of human qualities and personal choice, and the opportunity to take responsibility for how one chooses to respond and engage with others, with life around them.

Is this the Riverdale Country School featured in a recent NY Times article about parents purchasing expensive tutoring for their children to ensure their competitiveness? Hmmmmmm. It seems that powerful opportunities for character development embedded within the daily life and culture of the school are not being utilized. Could it be that the implicit curriculum is in competition/conflict with the explicit curriculum?

Very interesting article. I totally get Mr. Randolph's point about how it may be relatively tougher to motivate kids at Riverdale High than at KIPP. But I think, there's a lot to learn from KIPP and KIPP's style of schools. An important part of character education for me, would be a inculcating in children a love for learning. So, they're not learning to get a successful job, etc. (which as you say they know they shall get.. ) but they're learning because at school they have cultivated a love for learning. The belief that each derives meaning out of his / her own life can be powerful, right? Is powerful, I'd say! Living in the moment would be an important character trait. How one could quantify that I wouldn't know.

I'm a Teach For India Fellow in Mumbai, India.
I agree that we learn from failure and breakdowns, speaking from personal experience. But that's not something you give to the children - so at school are we saying that we're building an artificial , proto-typed example of life itself? so that they have all the skills ready for life?

Some would argue that why can't all this be really simple? What is it that kids at that age need? Let every moment be a happy moment. let that moment be an indicator of all the character traits (grit, zest, etc.) you would want to see in the person.

This is an excellent article and one I have been working towards in working with young people who are disengaged from school. NOW, where is the HOW please?

Just a quick observation for what its worth. After reading these posts, I must say....what an amazing display of intelligence and creativity of thinking in all "post-ers". Good, bad, and ugly, its been a pleasure to read. Hats off to all of you for "thinking".

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http://www.comprehensivebackg...

Great article...but the character report card seems to be missing. I'd love to see it. Can anybody help me with that?

I'm wondering more about the character test that you have made. I would love to take the test and present it to my college proffesor. She gave us the article on the New York Times and I found it very intersting. If you could please give me the information how to get the test I would really appericate it. thank