Blast Off With Good Character

Teachers designed this t-shirt logo
at a school where I did some training.

The Character Education Partnership announced a new batch of schools that have earned the National Schools of Character (NSOC) distinction last week and I'm SO excited about their promising practices and initiatives! I know that this is an amazing time of celebration for these school families because I've been on both sides of this award. 

First, we were applicants for the honor when we were named the inaugural Texas State School of Character in 2007.  We went on to become an NSOC finalist and went through a site visit evaluation, but we didn't make the top ten that year, so we decided to use the feedback from our report and apply again. And again in 2008, we were named a finalist and given a site visit but still we didn't make the top ten. That was disappointing news, for sure, but we decided to use the process, apply the suggestions, then apply one more time. Some people say that the third time's a charm, and in our case it truly was. We had a wonderful site visit in the spring of 2009 and learned in mid-May that year that we had been named an NSOC. Our application and portfolio is posted {here} if you'd like to see it (it is a rather large document and may take a while to open up for you).

The process has changed since we achieved the honor of NSOC; now the distinction isn't limited to ten schools each year. Instead, it's given to as many schools as meet a standard of excellence based on the 11 Principles of Effective Character Education. I have the pleasure of being on the other side of the process now as a site visitor, which took me to the Dallas area and to Puerto Rico this spring. I got to visit two incredible school families and I was inspired by the HEART work that they're doing with tomorrow's leaders. The 2012 NSOCs will be honored in Washington, D.C. in early November at the National Forum for Character Education.  Congratulations to these Character Champions!