A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Contact:
David Thomas
(202) 401-1579

$2.3 MILLION IN CHARACTER EDUCATION GRANTS GO TO NINE STATES

U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley announced today that nine states have received a total of $2.3 million in grants to work with local school districts and communities to assure that students learn values and ethics as part of their lessons.

"We need to review and redouble our efforts to teach our children basic American values and positive behavior," Riley said. "We need to make sure our young people are taught basic values such as respect, responsibility and hard work to help make them good citizens. These grants can help by fostering stronger connections between youth and their parents and teachers."

Receiving grants, known as Partnership in Education Pilot Projects, are: Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. Each grantee will work with one or more local school districts to establish character education programs for youth. The focus will be on caring, civic virtue and citizenship, justice and fairness, respect, responsibility, and trustworthiness.

Parents, students, and other community members, including private and non-profit organizations, can participate in the design and administration of programs. The character education partnerships will help states work with school districts to develop materials, provide teacher training, gauge and build community consensus on common values, involve parents in character education and integrate character education into the curriculum.

The projects will be evaluated to determine their success toward reducing discipline problems and improving student grades, increasing participation in extracurricular activities, and strengthening parent and community involvement. Each state is also expected to establish a clearinghouse for the distribution of materials and information about character education.

The grantees were selected from among 21 eligible applicants.

The Partnerships in Character Education Pilot Projects is authorized under Title X, Part A, Section 10103 of the Improving America's School Act (P.L. 103-382).

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Note to Editors: Following are grant amounts and contacts.

Partnerships in Character Education Pilot Projects - 1999

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