Survey of Outcomes Measurement in Research on Character Education Programs

Through the Partnerships in Character Education Program, the federal government distributes about $25 million annually to state and local education agencies for character education programs. This report documents the constructs measured in studies of 36 randomly selected programs. It also includes a framework for systematically describing and assessing measures of character education outcomes and provides a resource for evaluators to help identify and select measures of outcomes for character education programs. Among student level outcomes, those most often measured were: academic content (measured for 14 programs), prosocial dispositions and interpersonal strengths (each measured for 11 programs), discipline issues and interpersonal competencies (each measured for 13 programs), and substance use and intrapersonal competencies (each measured for 11 programs).