The Excellence in Character Education (ExCEL) Project
About the Project
This study focuses on how students develop prosocial behaviors in school environments. Not only are students expected to develop mastery of knowledge and skills in EL Education schools, but there is an equivalent expectation that students will develop character and engage in high quality work that helps create a better world.
EL Education leads a network of 150 public schools, including both district and charter schools, all around the U.S. What is most unique about EL Education schools is their definition of student achievement. EL Education’s character-infused model of education also reaches millions of educators and students through deep, comprehensive literacy partnerships, combined with books, open-source videos and an acclaimed Language Arts curriculum.
The Funding
This work is funded by grants from the Templeton Foundation and the Einhorn Family Charitable Trust.
The Research
Existing research on EL Education is very promising. One study conducted by Mathematica Policy Research was a quasi-experimental study of students from five EL Education middle schools (Nichols-Barrer & Haimson, 2013).
Findings revealed positive and statistically significant impacts on student achievement after two years of student exposure and three years of student exposure.
Additional research (also with Mathematica) is currently underway. Although existing research is very promising, to date there has been no research examining the ways in which EL Education cultivates ethical character in students, despite the importance of ethical character to the EL Education instructional model.
Our Study
The work focuses on four aspects of ethical character including empathy, compassion, respect and integrity. The research team (PI: Sara Rimm-Kaufman, University of Virginia; co-PI: Lia Sandilos, Lehigh University) is conducting research on the development of ethical character in EL Education and comparison schools as a group of students progress from the start of sixth to the end of seventh grade. The research team is working with a group of EL Education schools (ExCEL Team Schools) which gives these schools the unique opportunity to try new ways to assess the development of ethical character. Further, the researchers are engaging a group of comparison schools who will also get access to new ways of measuring ethical character.
The work involves a two-year mixed methods study addressing a few key research questions.
Research Questions
To what extent does EL Education contribute to gains in ethical character and student performance outcomes?
If EL Education produces gains in ethical character, what are the routines, activities and school experiences that lead to gain in ethical character and school performance outcomes?
During the middle school years, students experience important developments in their racial and ethnic identity that have important implications for how they develop ethical character inside and outside of school. How does this process of identity development interact with their school experiences and contribute to the development of ethical character in students of color?
The Research
We have a research brief that outlines some findings from this study! You can read more about our results here.
