Town of Sturbridge: Burgess Elementary School
Character Building Consortium: Union 61 Spencer and East Brookfield
Contact Information
Linda Friedman, Project Director
Town of Sturbridge: Burgess Elementary School
37 Central Street
Brookfield, MA 01506
Web site: www.tantasqua.org
Grant Period: 2006-2010
Amount Requested: $1,395,555 for a four-year project
Program Description
The Character Building Consortium will implement Lesson One: The ABCs of Life and service-learning projects in grades K-3 through 6 to promote demonstration of positive character traits. This multi-district project will serve approximately 3,177 students and 355 teachers and staff in eight elementary schools located in the Massachusetts school districts of Brimfield, Brookfield, East Brookfield, Holland, Spencer, Sturbridge and Wales. Lesson One defines character traits and skills such as self-control, responsibility, problem solving and cooperation; then, reinforces this through experiential games and activities, and discussion of personal experiences. Lesson One Family Night provides families with workshops and materials to reinforce these traits and skills.
Goals and Objectives
- To sustain student effort and enhance student achievement in the core curriculum through comprehensive character education provided in positive learning environments
- To sustain staff effort and enhance teacher effectiveness through comprehensive character education provided in positive learning environments
- To increase parent and guardian effectiveness in reinforcing character education
- To increase community involvement in the schools through community service-learning projects and assistance with schoolwide character education projects and activities
Evaluation Design
The Character Building Consortium’s evaluation will use a two-year longitudinal quasi-experimental research design to assess the implementation and impact of Lesson One, The ABCs of Life, on student behavior, classroom and school climate, teacher morale, time-on-task, parental involvement and students’ academic achievement. The project will involve five treatment and three non-intervention comparison schools with a replication and longitudinal follow-up during funding Year 3 and Year 4 in the wait-listed comparison sites. Data will be collected at baseline and each spring using observations, focus group interviews with teachers and administrators, teacher surveys regarding each individual student, parent surveys, project coordinator logs, and individual student and school records.
