Using Your Plan to Track Progress and Make Changes for Continuous Improvement
Assessment is the key word at Guidepost #7. Remember your first steps in the journey when you assessed what the school was doing right and what you wanted to change. Now is the reality check to see what has changed.
How can you do it? If it was discipline or attendance or bullying or suspensions that were your goals, assessing progress is easy-just look at the records, using the "pre-character education year" as the baseline. Most of us want to change school culture, a more ambitious dream. Again, disciplinary statistics are important, but brief school climate surveys of students, faculty, and parents will provide invaluable insight. Focus groups also are amazing sources in finding out what is working and not working. Collect performance data (standardized test scores, report card grades, number of students volunteering, percentage attaining the high honor roll). This data shows how character education, by improving the conditions for student learning, has actually enhanced it.
Perhaps you want to be more ambitious and work with a program evaluation consultant so that you will be ready to apply for local, state or federal grants that require some evidence of success. See the evaluation section of this website for resources here. Whatever your specific choice of evaluation strategy, make assessment an annual responsibility of your core committee; once you have the results, go back to Guidepost #6 and let the world know how well you are doing.
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