Making Character a Way of Life - Character Education Partnership

2010 Winners
Peters Township School District
Grades K–12 ❯ Enrollment 4,490
McMurray, Pennsylvania ❯ Public/Suburban
Making Character a Way of Life
If CEP ever decides to institute a National Community of Character award,
many would say this Pennsylvania town should be a frontrunner for the honor.
The story of how a school district and its community joined hands to build
character together shows how teamwork can make character “a way of life.”
When most districts set out to
adopt character education, their
usual goal is to foster a change
in school culture. But Peters Township School
District (PTSD) in picturesque southwestern
Pennsylvania had more ambitious hopes. “We
wanted to move our entire community—its
citizens, its businesses, its teachers, its students—
so that character would become our way of life,”
says Dr. Bob Freado, the man whose impassioned
and research-based ideas on character
sparked the first steps in 1999. Freado, who
currently serves as principal of Peters Township
Middle School (PTMS) and also heads the
district’s character team, adds, “It turned out
that character proved to be contagious here.”
The homegrown program called Character
Counts, 1 which was the result of the township
and the school district joining hands in a common
long-range plan, still thrives today. Now,
11 years later, the results of that partnership
are evident. Diane Ritter, the president of the
PTSD school board, says character education “is
not just a program. It is part of the fabric of the
district.” And PTSD Superintendent Dr. Nina
Zetty points out that “a common community
philosophy united a town and a district” as they
established “the core values of respect, responsibility,
and honesty as their foundation.”
Both parents and teachers express how “the
focus on character” has changed their own attitudes
and actions. PTMS parent Sarah Lindsay
says, “This has helped not only the students [to]
become better people but their parents as well.”
1
There is no relationship between the PTSD Character
Counts program and the commercial CHARACTER
COUNTS! program.
Elementary school students work with a local artist to
create a mosaic to welcome guests that features the
core values.
PTMS guidance counselor Vicky Cunningham
gives the school perspective: “I’ve become a better
person working here.” Dr. Mary Monsour,
former PTMS principal and current director of
staff development as well as instructional technology
integrator, explains how the faculty has
been helped by reading and discussing Stephen
Covey’s works: “We’re working on ourselves
first. It starts with us. We’ll embrace it, and then
it will spill over to the students.”
Shaping Good Minds
and Good Hearts
“A good mind and a good heart make a great
combination,” reads a mosaic created by the
students of McMurray Elementary School.
PTSD has developed a seamless program
that blends a rigorous academic regimen with
a strong foundation in character. Students
first learn the terminology of character at the
district’s two primary schools, Bower Hill and
Pleasant Valley. Once they graduate to McMurray
Elementary School, they take character to
another level, through writing and adopting
their own school constitution. Literary studies
and interdisciplinary projects give the core
values further meaning at the middle school.
Character then becomes fully developed in the
high school (PTHS), where students often initiate
and implement community projects. The
district has many structures in place that promote
the intentional development of character:
direct instruction, antibullying training, class
meetings, curricular connections, service projects,
cross-grade and peer mentoring, assembly
programs, motivational events, and a host of
community-connected school organizations.
“I have good friends that help me, and
teachers that help me learn.” This observation
by Jayson, a third-grade student at Bower Hill,
may provide one secret to the district’s success:
building relationships. PTMS science teacher
Jennifer Palko says that “relationships are key”
to both academic and character development.
Teachers in the lower grades nurture close relationships
with their charges, and, according to
Palko, teacher teams at the middle school serve
as “a protective bubble” around students. Each
team of teachers is assigned the same group of
students, and that mutual caring often prevents
“anyone from slipping through the cracks.”
High school students universally praise the individual
attention given by their teachers. Twelfth
grader Ben says he “never had a teacher who
wasn’t caring and involved.” And fellow senior
Hardy reports that at his previous school “you
just took classes,” and the teachers’ attitude was
for the students to “move on and get out of our
hair.” At PTHS, by comparison, he notes, “Our
ideas are not just acknowledged with an e-mail,
but are discussed for possible implementation.”
Developing Good Citizenship
Through Studies and Service
Assistant Superintendent Dr. Anthony Merante
explains that another reason for the success of
Character Counts is that “it’s embedded in the
culture.” A rich language arts curriculum that
extends from kindergarten through twelfth
grade makes thoughtful reflection on the core
22 Character Education Partnership

“We will continue to improve in each of our endeavors dedicated to character
education and continue working together toward excellence in academics,
athletics, artistic endeavors, character, and leadership. We hope to expand
our sphere of influence to positively affect other school districts by telling
our story and sharing our successes.”
—Nina Zetty, Superintendent
values —as well as on issues such as racial and
religious discrimination, patriotism, and moral
courage— an intrinsic part of class discussion.
Kindergartners may be seen talking about
David Parker’s The Best Me I Can Be (I Show
Respect), while tenth graders may be deep in
discussion of the complex issues of friendship
that arise in Chaim Potok’s The Chosen. In
addition, students use wikis, blogs, and other
means to reflect on what they have learned.
Service is not considered an add-on, but a
vital moral action closely related to what is being
studied in class. An excellent model of this is the
Mahatma project, the outgrowth of the tenthgrade
World Studies course. Inspired to “be the
change you want to see in the world,” students
select a worthy national or international cause,
research it, and then, working with community
members, devise and carry out a service project
to address it. The Mahatma spirit, moreover, has
spread to the elementary level. “We’re starting
activists early at McMurray,” says its principal,
Blair Stoehr, who explains how students here,
after researching how HydrAid filters could help
underdeveloped nations purify drinking water,
prepared a formal document and raised $5,000
for a cause that will save lives.
At each grade level, abundant service
projects are undertaken, many of which involve
parents as partners. McMurray’s Heroes for
Haiti collected more than 800 pounds of gently
used shoes to send to the needy. Bower Hill
students donated more than 1,100 books to the
Ethiopia Reads program as part of their annual
Reading Olympics. Freado comments that
“promoting character can be a unifying and
inspirational cause through which students,
parents, and the community can work together
for the common good.”
Celebrating a Decade
of Character
Last October, the Peters Township community
came together for a formal celebration of the
tenth anniversary of its Character Counts initiative.
The town had much to celebrate, for the
decade had brought national recognition: Two
of its schools had become NSOC Winners
(McMurray Elementary in 2004 with Freado
as principal, and Bower Hill in 2008). Another
school (Pleasant Valley) had been honored as
an NSOC Finalist in 2006, as had the district’s
elementary and middle schools (collectively)
in 2007. In addition, each of its buildings had
earned one or more Promising Practices awards.
At the celebration, Freado accented the
unique history of character education in the
district, since it was the joint efforts of the
larger community and the district that had
launched and sustained it. Once a year the
school board and the township board still meet
in a joint session, and the township makes
a point of including school events and the
monthly character trait in its own calendar.
New programs have been developed through
the combined efforts of individual township
departments and the district. Carol Foley, a
representative of the Chamber of Commerce
and a member of the original 1999 core group,
affirms that the Chamber will continue its
support as well. Matthew Cheran, a veteran
social studies teacher at PTMS, is very grateful
that the township and the district made that
strategic move in 1999, because “the emphasis
on character helps students to have a feeling
of belonging and caring, which ultimately
increases their ability to learn.” Cheran is not
alone in his praise of the way that character has
become “a way of life” in Peters Township.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Dr. Robert Freado, Principal
Peters Township Middle School
625 East McMurray Road
McMurray, PA 15317
Telephone: (724) 941-2688, ext. 4240
E-mail: freador@pt-sd.org
Website: www.ptsd.k12.pa.us
The Proof Is in the Data
How we know character education is
working in the Peters Township School
District:
➤ In 2009 the Pittsburgh Business Times
ranked PTSD fifth among 105 local
public school districts and twelfth
among 501 districts across the state.
➤ Peters Township School District has
made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)
for six consecutive years, and average
scores on the Pennsylvania System of
School Assessment (PSSA) tests have
exceeded state averages in reading,
math, science, and writing at all grade
levels every year.
➤ 100 percent of PTSD staff is classified
as highly qualified by the Pennsylvania
Department of Education.
➤ Since 2005, the district has had 18
National Merit Finalists, 38 Eagle Scouts,
and 16 Girl Scout Gold Award Winners.
➤ 198 (13.7 percent) of the high school
students are enrolled in community
service and leadership courses.
➤ During the 2009–10 school year, 1,158
of the 1,444 high school students were
enrolled in at least one honors-level
course, and 829 students were enrolled in
at least one Advanced Placement course.
➤ Peters Township High School touts a
99% graduation rate, with 91% of the
students going on to a 2- or 4-year
college or trade school.
➤ Building-level Parent Teacher Associations
(PTAs) have an outstanding
level of participation, with a combined
membership of 2,464.
➤ CEP character awards:
✓ National Schools of Character: Bower
Hill (2008), McMurray Elementary
(2004).
✓ National Schools of Character
Finalists: Pleasant Valley Elementary
(2006); Peters Township Elementary
and Middle Schools (2007).
✓ Promising Practices awards: Bower
Hill Elementary (2003, 2005, 2009),
McMurray Elementary (2002, 2006),
Peters Township Middle School
(2004, 2005), Peters Township
High School (2005), Pleasant Valley
Elementary (2004).
2010 National Schools of Character 23