| The 34th Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public indicates that lack of discipline, fighting/violence/gangs, and the use of drugs in our public schools were among the top five pressing educational problems in this country (Rose & Gallup, 2002). In response to these concerns, a vigorous revival in character education has emerged within the last decade, not as a quick fix, but as a means for providing long-term solutions that address moral, ethical, and academic issues.; The existing character education movement has gained so much momentum over the last decade that all levels of government (federal, state, and local) have become involved in its promotion. The federal government has provided funds for character development in K--12 students since 1995 and renewed its commitment through the Partnerships in Character Education Project Program under Title V of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Twenty-eight states now have legislation regarding character education. A number of Local Educational Agencies have secured federal dollars independent of their State Educational Agency to develop and implement character education programs in their school districts. Thus, it seems only natural to inquire about which state policies have the potential to best drive the educational reform into the classroom.; Framed within Lickona's (1991) theory of an integrative approach to character education, this study confines itself to describing the state of the states as their character education standards are aligned to the DeRoche-Williams (2001) standards in conjunction with policy attributes developed by Porter and his colleagues (1988). Case studies were employed to produce a scorecard for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia; however, only 38 states could actually be evaluated. New Jersey, Maryland, Maine, North Carolina, New York, and South Carolina emerged as the top ranking states. It was not the intent of this study to determine the effectiveness of a state's character education initiative, but rather to derive lessons from each state's strengths and weaknesses of character education reform strategies that are presented in its state policies. |
