“Factoring Fast Food” and other lesson plans for March
March is National Nutrition Month, so we've put together a lesson plan that will teach teens to take responsibility for their eating habits. In this lesson, tee...
10-Year Study Shows Staggering Improvements in Student Attendance & Expulsions District-wide.
Downey, California — Downey Unified School District recently released their 10-year findings showing a dramatic 25-year low in suspensions and high marks from both students and parents on the use of CHARACTER COUNTS! within their schools. Year after year, it is believed that our CHARACTER COUNTS! has played an integral role in these results in addition to improving school safety, student morale, engagement and high school graduation rates.
CHARACTER COUNTS! promotes:
- The Six Pillars of Character®
- Social-emotional growth
- Positive school climate
- School safety
- Anti-bullying strategies
- Academic competency
To download the Downey USD summary report, please register below.
For additional info and pricing about CHARACTER COUNTS! call 1-800-711-2670 or send us an email at hello@charactercounts.org.
CHARACTER COUNTS! 5.0 introduced in July 2015, integrates the FOUR WHEELS OF SUCCESS – Academic Competency (keyed to Common Core), Social-Emotional Growth (including 21st Century college and career readiness), Character Development (built upon The Six Pillars of Character®) and Positive School Climate (including school safety and anti-bullying strategies). An initiative of the nonprofit Josephson Institute, CHARACTER COUNTS! and our Pursuing Victory With Honor® sports program, have been successfully instituted in schools, youth serving organizations, communities through a wide range of trainings, consultation and support resources.
CULTIVATING SUCCESS
When properly implemented, CHARACTER COUNTS! is an immersive program connecting staff and students through a shared language and framework of values called The Six Pillars of Character. It fosters a positive environment that has been shown to improve overall attendance and test scores while reducing negative incidents such as bullying and discipline referrals.
Strong values and life skills learning are critical to the development of teens into productive citizens and adults. The CHARACTER COUNTS! program implemented at St. Genevieve High School proves it’s never too late to adopt character education to create a school climate that fosters learning and decision-making skills.
CHARACTER COUNTS! trainer Dr. Gary Smit talks about the importance of character education as it relates to the development of invaluable life skills related to the pillar of responsibility: honesty; integrity; and reliability.
Certified trainer John Forenti talks about a memorable story from his past regarding the influence CHARACTER COUNTS! can especially on those students that have had disciplinary issues in the past.
If you have an inspiration story you would like to share, please click here.
GETTING STARTED
CHARACTER COUNTS! is a framework, not a scope and sequence program nor a curriculum. It provides practical strategies and tools to braid CC! strategies with other programs such as PBIS to foster positive climate change to produce exceptional results in the academic, social, emotional and character development domains by infusing six core ethical and performance values and traits into the DNA of your organization.
Pre-analysis & Insight
Measurement and analysis are critical to measuring growth mindset.
It’s important to begin by establishing a baseline measurement. We’ll work with you and your school(s) to perform a climate analysis report by surveying students, staff and optionally parents. Afterwards, we’ll provide recommendations for improvements including actionable steps.
Prices start at $99.
Call 800-711-2670 to get started or click here.
Preparation & buy-in
It takes teamwork in order to succeed.
Much like in sports, there is no “I” in team and one person can’t go it alone. In fact, our program implementation uses the T.E.A.M. approach for success. We recommend sending one or more members from the groups listed below to attend training:
- Administrator
- Counselor
- Teachers
- PTA or extra curricular activity member
Once you’ve identified your team, it’s important to establish milestones and expectations for what success will look like and be measured. This becomes much easier once you’ve identified through pre-analysis areas of improvement needed.
Staff training
Solutions to fit your needs even on a limited budget.
We understand that budget restraints can restrict purchasing the services you need or want. We’ll work with you to provide a solution to fit within your budget. If you can’t afford to send multiple staff – we encourage sending at least one member to an upcoming Student Development Workshop (SDW) nearest you.Prices start at $795.
For those schools or districts able to do so, we highly recommend our on-site training solutions. Train up to 40 participants all at once and tailor it to fit your current needs. You may be able to even defray your costs by inviting area-wide schools to attend.
Call 800-711-2670 to schedule.
Awareness & teaching materials
Consistency in what students see, feel and hear fosters the learning experience and climate.
Schools and teachers that approach the CHARACTER COUNTS! program by merely purchasing Six Pillar materials or downloading our free lesson plans rarely realize the true potential of what makes our program successful. CHARACTER COUNTS! is most effective when it becomes part of the DNA and culture of your school. This level of commitment requires a behavioral mindset shift by staff and students to infuse The Six Pillars of Character into their own values and the classroom. This is why we strongly encourage training of a minimum of 4 individuals to jump-start your program.
Training OptionsSupport resources
We’re here to help support your program efforts before, during and after implementation begins.
CHARACTER COUNTS! provides the flexibility to implement at your own pace.Your trainer is also available to you to offer encouragement, suggestions and feedback on your progress and answer questions. In addition, our “best practice” recommendations included in your Graduate Resources help you through the implementation process.Post-Analysis & Refinement
Reaping the rewards of your efforts through post-analysis.
Many changes will be visually apparent upon implementing CHARACTER COUNTS! but some items truly require comparative data. Periodically (at least annually) you should review your programs’ performance and goals. Reports on items such as test scores, attendance and discipline reports are a great place to start as well as potentially a follow-up survey.
DISCUSSIONS & INFORMATION
“I respect now.”
This touching story from El Nuevo Dia in Puerto Rico shows just how quickly CC! (in this case, TVC) begins to work.
“The Character Show” — a fun way to get your students excited about the Six Pillars
We're excited to announce that Obediah Thomas, of the children's performance troupe Razzle Bam Boom, now offers The Character Show to elementary schools.
Pursuing Victory With Honor sportsmanship programs
Sports programs can generate administrative nightmares if they don’t reflect the highest standards of ethics on and off the field. Through professional training seminars, teaching tools, and a wide variety of materials, our program helps coaches, athletic administrators, counselors, officials, youth-group leaders, and parents infuse sportsmanship and strong character in young athletes and athletic programs.
Take your community efforts to a new level with CHARACTER COUNTS! Whether your efforts are associated with school age children or extended to within your community – our Six Pillars of Character program framework are universally applicable.
Register to receive discount offers and updates via email.
Interested in a custom CHARACTER COUNTS! implementation solution?
