How do schools foster Standards of the Heart? - Core Values
Characteristic 1: Core Values
Rationale and Principles for Implementing Characteristics of
Successful chools
Rationale:
Positive values can inspire students to do what is right,
serve their community, work hard, and learn as much as they
can. A core set of values modeled by staff, students, and
community helps to create a disciplined and safe environment
for learning.
Principles:
Include community members from all ethnic, cultural,
religious, socioeconomic, and other groups in the process of
defining core values.
Develop a variety of opportunities for students to learn
and model the core values in and outside the school setting.
Recognize and expect that students, staff, and community
model core values.
All adults in the school environment and community share
responsibility for teaching about and modeling core values.
Core values are best promoted by family, school, and
community.
Emphasize the positive behaviors modeled in the community,
recognizing that actions by all community members don’t
always fit the ideal.
Expected Results of a Citizenship Initiative
Students Will
Staff Will
Families and Community Will
Feel ownership for core values
Have clear expectations for behavior and attitudes
Recognize and practice core values in
everyday life
See the values modeled within and outside
the school
Have a greater variety of ways to
demonstrate success
Share the responsibility for promoting and
modeling good citizenship
Develop citizenship themes to help integrate
classroom learning and positive student behavior
Identify ways to describe student success
Feel supported by the community in teaching
core values
Feel ownership for core values
Understand the school and community’s role
in promoting good citizens
Support teachers in their efforts to teach
core values
Become partners with the school in
developing good citizens
Identify what they want students to be now
and as future citizens
See the positive values established in the
home supported in the school