The Evaluation of a Character Education Program on the Behavior

Of Third Grade Students in an Urban Elementary School

by

CONCEPT PAPER

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Background of study

American Schools have been dealing with a number of complicating issues, amongst them the use and value of character education programs has repeatedly surfaced over the years. For years, numerous researchers and professionals have focused on understanding the use of character educational programs and their true value within the educational system of the country.

School administrators and teachers have struggled with the challenges of student's lack of respect for years (Sprick 2009). This study will be conducted in an urban Title I elementary school, in south-eastern United States. The participating school consists of kindergarten through sixth grade students, with limited parental environment. The student population is approximately 749 students. Of the 749 students, 98% of the students are African American students. Approximately 86% of the student population received free or reduced- lunches and 37% of the students receive special educational and professional counseling services. This study will examine the impact of implementing a Character Education Program in third grade classrooms. Raymond (2009) believed incorporating a character education program would help administrators overcome the behavior barriers schools face. According to Larry et al. (2008) character education implies towards the process of teaching students on how to make positive choices, it can be further stated that character education is the formal educational system that focuses upon honest, respect, determination and loyalty.

Statement of Problem

According to the Public Agenda, released in 2012, which is basically a non profit organization that focusing on helping leaders and citizens to cope with divisive issues and guides them in finding an appropriate solution. One in three teachers considered leaving education due to student misbehavior and lack of administrative support in discipline issues. The problem of this study at the designated elementary school indicated an increase in 2011 -2012 school year in the amount of third grade discipline infractions for insubordination.

Character Education has been a part of the public schooling system in the past up until the 1960's, however as the society began progressing so were the traditional educational system replaced by decision making programs, value clarification programs and moral dilemma discussions. There is no denying the fact that American schools were shifting the paradigms from focusing on a student's personality development to the development of character. However, there is clearly a void in this system since teachers were unable to teach the students on building their character. It was during this time period that the importance and actual value of character education programs were reconsidered. The research also considers it essential to understand the perception of teachers, educators, administrators and stakeholders have regarding the implementation of character education and whether the issues faced in the urban school can be reduced through the implementation of character education programs. The purpose is to ascertain whether character education system can help in improving character related issues amongst students, otherwise the efforts need to be shifted towards other programs which can ...