Tulare County, CA

New Hampton, IA

Souderton, PA

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PK-12 Education

CHARACTER COUNTS! focuses on building students’ character skills and shaping a positive school culture. Our flexible framework emphasizes:

the Six Pillars of Character (trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and good citizenship),
our TEAM approach to character education,
practical, research-based instructional and implementation strategies, and
making rational, ethical, and effective

Meaningful, Measurable, and Sustainable Outcomes

Administrators, educators, and families want safe, supportive, high-performing schools. By prioritizing character development and positive school culture, schools can see improvement in students’ character, social-emotional, and academic skills, and ensure their school is a safe and welcoming learning environment.

Character Skills

CHARACTER COUNTS! helps students develop the Six Pillars of Character:

Trustworthiness
Have integrity, be honest, keep promises, and be loyal to values

Respect
Show acceptance and respect for others

Responsibility
Be accountable for actions, show perseverance and self-discipline

Fairness
Be open-minded and demonstrate good sportsmanship

Caring
Show compassion, gratitude, and forgiveness

Good Citizenship
Dedication to making choices that protect the safety and rights of others.

The Impact

When students develop character skills, they’ll be more likely to achieve their personal, school, and career goals and become engaged, responsible, and productive citizens. You’ll notice more:

respectful and civil conversations,
kindness and consideration,
acceptance of others,
accountability,
commitment to your school community.

Learn more about the Six Pillars of Character.

Social-Emotional Skills

CHARACTER COUNTS! helps students develop key social-emotional skills:

Self-Awareness
Identify and understand emotions, values, attitudes, motivations, mindsets, and personal attributes

Self-Management
Regulate emotions, attitudes, and actions, and resist negative emotions and impulses

Relationship Skills
Create positive relationships and meaningful connections with family members, classmates, and teachers

Responsible Decision-Making
Make decisions based on rationality, ethics, and effectiveness

Social Awareness
Assess the feelings of others and be sensitive to the feelings and needs of others

The Impact

When students develop social-emotional skills, they’ll be more likely to develop positive, healthy relationships, manage their emotions, and make good choices. You’ll notice more:

healthy and respectful friendships,
fewer disruptions during class,
more positive choices,
better communication between students and educators.

Academic Skills

CHARACTER COUNTS! helps students develop skills to be more successful in academics.

Critical and Creative Thinking
Acquire, remember, understand, and apply knowledge

Curiosity and Passion
Enthusiastic to understand more about themselves, others, and the world around them

Effective Problem-Solving
Make rational, ethical, and effective decisions to find the best solutions to problems

Self-Direction and Engagement
Fully engaged in the educational process and connected to the school community

Diligent Learner
Have a growth mindset and is willing to learn from mistakes

The Impact

When students develop these skills, they can reach their intellectual and academic potential. You’ll notice:

improved student performance,
increased academic integrity from students (less cheating and plagiarizing),
students who are more prepared for college and career, and
an increase in high school graduation rates and the percentage of students who pursue advanced education.

Positive Culture

CHARACTER COUNTS! helps create a school culture where students, administration, faculty, and staff are:

Committed to Excellence
Value collaboration and feedback in order to grow and improve

Supportive and Respectful
Treat each other with respect, every student is connected to a caring, responsible adult in the school, and staff feel supported by the administration

Safe
Contribute to making the school a safe place to learn; a proactive, instructive, and restorative approach to student behavior.

Dedicated to Stakeholders
Commitment to ensuring students’ mastery of academic content and character development.

Accepting and Encouraging
Ownership of creating a positive, welcoming learning environment where everyone can feel accepted and part of the school community

Inspired
Appreciate and trust other school community members and dedicated to making the school better

The Impact

When schools focus on character development and educators teach, enforce, advocate, and model school values, you’ll notice:

students’ commitment to their character development
improvement in students’ character, SEL, and academic skills.

Measureable Results

+ 1 %

GRADUATION
RATES

+ 1 %

ELEMENTARY MATH PROFICIENCY

+ 1 %

ELEMENTARY ENGLISH PROFICIENCY

2-year implementation results, Buffalo Schools (New York)

We Can Help

We’re here to provide support and best practices for character development and culture shaping. With the CHARACTER COUNTS! framework as a guide, we provide practical, research-based strategies, curricular resources, and professional development training. We’ll also provide best practices on incorporating CHARACTER COUNTS! into your existing character development or SEL program.

Our team can help evaluate your needs and select services to meet your goals.

Our Services

Assessment

The success of any character education program is directly tied to the fidelity and consistency of its implementation. We offer two types of assessments:

Implementation Survey
Culture of Excellence and Ethics Assessment

Learn more about our assessment opportunities.

Professional Development

Our interactive, professional development workshops provide strategies to teach the Six Pillars through our TEAM approach and research-based tools.

Workshops include:

An Introduction to CHARACTER COUNTS!
Building a Six Pillar Culture
Character Development in Early Childhood
Increasing Positive Parent Engagement
Building Character Through Sports

Learn more about our workshops.

Ongoing Consultation

Our team can collaborate with you on:

best practices,
brainstorm ideas to teach, enforce, advocate, and model good character,
feedback on CC! lessons, and
any of your questions.

Consultations are a great way to keep your CC! program on track and provide your team with new ideas to help make you successful.

Curricular Resources

We offer a variety of character education curricular resources in our online store, including:

student journals,
daily activities,
lesson plans, and
awareness products like posters, banners, wristbands, and pencils.

Check out our store.

Free Resources

Our Digital Classroom provides character education activities that can be filtered by grade level and topic.

Check out our Digital Classroom.

Get Started Today

Let’s talk about how we can help you reach your goals.

☆☆☆☆☆ 5/5

Success Stories

"CHARACTER COUNTS! is alive and well in Downey and will continue to be incorporated into what we do on a daily basis across the district and community. This helps us fulfill the Downey Unified vision that reads: All students graduate with a 21st Century education that ensures they are college and career ready, globally competitive and citizens of strong character."

Robert Jagielski

Downey Unified School District (Downey, CA)

“On behalf of the Carroll High School staff, I would like to thank you for an amazing session of learning with you. My staff is still talking about your presentation and we are thankful for the resources. We were told you would be amazing and you did not let us down! I will be in touch for future opportunities, thank you!”

Tammie McKenzie

Carroll High School (Carroll, IA)

“Our school has done an incredible job weaving the Six Pillars of Character into all aspects of the school’s culture, routine, and academics. Teachers use the Six Pillar traits, lessons, and CHARACTER COUNTS! app to create a common understanding and language to positively influence the climate of the building."

LaFraya Wilson

West Hertel Academy (Buffalo, NY)

The TEAM Approach

Teach children that their character counts. Teach character skills and what they look like in action.

Enforce and encourage good character. Reward good behavior and discourage bad behavior by imposing fair and consistent consequences.

Advocate character. Continually encourage children to show good character by explaining and showing why it matters.

Model good behavior. Everything you say and do sends a message about your values. Be sure that these messages reinforce doing the right thing, even when it is difficult. When you slip, be accountable; apologize sincerely, and do better!

Resource Highlight

Good Ideas

The Good Ideas book is full of engaging lessons and activities designed to infuse character development into your classroom. The variety of lessons allows teachers to customize and select instruction based on the learning needs of their classroom.

Each lesson can be done as a stand-alone activity, in conjunction with other lessons, or as a supplement to your already established character education program.

Good Ideas is available in print or digital. Versions are also available in Spanish.