The effects of character education on the moral decision making of a selected sample of high school students

The purpose of this study was to determine if a program of character education implemented in a public high school over a 6 month period would lead to measurable changes in value judgments as measured by the Student Survey of Social and Emotional Learning. The instrument contained 21 items requiring value based judgments to be responded to using a 5-point likert scale. One sample T-test showed no difference at the .001 level of confidence across the 21 items assessed. Also measured were teachers\u27 perceptions of change in student behavior and attitudes toward school. Teachers felt there had been some improvement in the students\u27 attitudes. For character education programs to make objectively measurable changes in student behaviors will require sustained training over a long time period