Character education and student discipline in selected elementary schools, 2004

This study examines the inclusion of character education and its impact on student discipline in a metro Atlanta school district. Character education influence on student discipline is associated with accompanying variables. Therefore, it was necessary to examine the relationship among character education, building leadership, teacher's role, subject taught, amount of time, staff development, socioeconomic status of school, parental involvement, teacher's race, racial make-up of class, and student discipline while controlling for teacher demographics. Teacher perceptions concerning character education and student discipline were surveyed by a 74-item questionnaire in a systematic random sample in six metro Atlanta elementary schools. Analysis of the Pearson Correlation revealed a significant relationship between character education, teacher's role, parental involvement, socioeconomic status of school, racial make-up of class, and student discipline. In contrast, no significant relationship was found between building leadership, subject taught, amount of time, staff development, teacher's race, and student discipline. A Factor Analysis of building leadership, character education content, staff development, parental involvement, and teacher's role was placed in the same factor, but student discipline stood alone. In a Regression Analysis of the data, free and reduced lunch as well as character education were the only significant predictors of student discipline. The conclusion is that since character education improves student discipline, schools should invest in a character education curriculum, carve daily time for character education along with other school courses, monitor and evaluate the level of implementation of character education programs, and provide the necessary resources that will enable classroom educators to help young people acquire a sense of social responsibility