Orlean Beeson School of Education weaves character education into the fabric of our mission as we prepare students to educate, lead and serve in their chosen professions. We recognize that both technical competence and strength of character are essential for graduates to fulfill their calling and pursue lives that count for good. To that end, our faculty, staff, and students strive to embody what it looks, sounds, and feels like to be members of a Christlike “community of character.”
Our goal is to support character education in educational communities through the efforts of our C2 Task Force, research, collaboration with the Hope Institute, sponsored events, and provision of character development resources.
Character Resources
What is Effective Character Education? by Dr. Thomas Lickona
Our challenge as schools is not whether to do character education but rather how to do it well. In this paper, Thomas Lickona proposes ten criteria that can be useful in defining and assessing effectiveness in character education.
Promising Practices for Character Education: A Report of the Kern Partners for Character and Educational Leadership
The purpose of this report is twofold: to share promising practices that higher education and education leadership participants have successfully adapted to local contexts; and to share the improvement science processes that guided development and implementation.
Character Assessment Instruments by The Center for the 4th and 5th Rs (Respect and Responsibility)
The Center for the 4th and 5th Rs (Respect and Responsibility), in SUNY Cortland's School of Education, was founded in 1994 by education professor and psychologist Dr. Thomas Lickona. Its mission is to promote character development in schools, families, and communities. There are eight different assessment instruments listed on this webpage.
Communities of Character Podcast
The Communities of Character podcast brings you leaders, experts, and practitioners in education, research, medicine, counseling, and other fields to share their wisdom and insightful conversations about character development and the impact on their work and lives. Their stories will leave you inspired and hopeful!
Understanding Effective Character Education by Dr. Marvin Berkowitz
In this article, Dr. Berkowitz answers a few key questions: (1) What is modern character education? (2) Does character education work? (3) What does effective character education look like
PRIMED for Character Education: Six Design Principles for School Improvement by Dr. Marvin Berkowitz
In PRIMED for Character Education, Dr. Marvin Berkowitz turns decades of research and field experience into a clear set of principles that leaders, administrators, and teacher-leaders can implement to help students thrive.
Stress Tests of Character by LifeCompass Institute for Character & Leadership at Montrose School
Using Story to Strengthen Student Motivation & Character: An Online Curriculum Resource for Teachers by Deborah Farmer Kris, Ed.M. and Karen E. Bohlin, Ed.D.
Character Education in Universities by The Oxford Character Project in partnership with the Jubilee Centre
The specific aim of this framework is to help universities articulate and structure their mission to further the flourishing of their students and the holistic character development that is central to it.
Learn MoreCharacter Inventory
This project draws upon recent innovations in the measurement of psychological characteristics to overcome self-presentation biases that are inherent in existing virtue measures.
Learn More11 Principles in Action
Videos of Schools of Character and how they responded to remote character development and relationship building during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Learn More