PRoBE Project: Character Counts Kimberly Willis, MA Leeton Elementary UMKC CPCE 5575C

Counseling & Project Mission Professional school counselors advocate, collaborate, and facilitate individual and systemic change to ensure every student has the knowledge and skills necessary for academic success and personal growth. School counselors strive to empower students to embrace their full potential and to achieve their personal, career, and academic aspirations.

Developmental Appropriateness for Middle Childhood Cognitive: Thinking is becoming more logical, but problem solving abilities are still limited. Self: Begin to have a multi-dimensional view of themselves. Social: Children are outgrowing their egocentrism and developing more prosocial behaviors. Emotional: Begin to have more complex emotions such as guilt and pride. They also are developing empathy toward others.

Purpose of Program Due to a consistent annual rise in discipline violations a program on character education was implemented to reduce anti-social behaviors resulting in discipline violations and increase pro- social behaviors.

SIMS Students: All k-5 students at Leeton Elementary. Interventions: Small group lessons before school two mornings per week, monthly classroom guidance lessons, character trait of the month, recognition posters, monthly reward assemblies. Measurement: Pre-program and During-program discipline reports. Setting: Leeton Elementary is a small rural school of 179 students with 49% receiving free and reduced lunch, in the town of Leeton, Missouri.

Character Counts Character Counts: A k-5 th grade character education program. 1. Students participate in small group lessons before school on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. Students from the middle school student council lead the lessons.

Character Counts 2. There is a character trait theme for every month. Character traits for September, November & December were: Self Discipline, Responsibility, and Respect. 3. School Counselor includes the character trait in monthly guidance lessons.

Character Counts 4. Teachers acknowledge students displaying character trait of month by having them sign a poster. Each time they sign the poster they are entered into a monthly drawing for a reward. 5. Monthly assemblies reward and acknowledge students who have displayed the character trait of the month

Summary Over a 15 week period there is a 36% reduction in discipline violations compared to last year. Staff anecdotally report that the program is being effective in promoting pro-social behaviors in place of anti- social behaviors in the classroom.

Recommendations The current program should be continued for the remainder of the year to see if the trend of decreased discipline violations continues. Consideration should be given to expand the program to the middle school and high school.

Recommendations Data should be collected to determine if the program is impacting academic achievement.

References Lewis, B.A. (2005). What do you stand for? For kids. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Publishing. Martenz, A. (2005). 169 awesome activities. Warminster, PA: Marco. McCloud, C., & Martin, K. (2008). Fill a bucket. Northville, MI: Ferne Press.