Criteria for adjunct programs:

In supporting the district goal and the direction from the Ministry of Education, the Board requires that all social responsibility programs at the district schools meet the following criteria:

1.      The program outcomes must be specific, measurable, relevant and timely.

 

-Specific Outcomes

During this program the Administration, students and teachers will: 

         Encourage others using the language of the virtues

            Spread language into the home and the community

            List more virtues

            Identify virtues in story character, family members, community members, teachers and fellow students.

            Correct and instruct other in using the language of the virtues.

            Reduce incidents of violence and bullying          

Improve student standing in the BC Performance Standards for Social Responsibility 

-Measuring Outcomes          

To measure these we would use, student, teacher, parent and community surveys

They would include knowledge, satisfaction and performance standard surveys before and during the ongoing project.

 Teachers would also use virtues in their comments on report cards

Using data collated office referrals with comparisons.

Tracking and using the data from counselor referrals.

-Relevant Outcomes

We are dealing with a systemic malaise of violence.

The Virtues Project dovetails with the BC Safe Schools program, Howe Sound School District #48 district goal of Social Responsibility, BC Performance Standards for Social Responsibility and the community’s need to reduce the violence in and among youth.

-Timely Outcomes

The Virtues Project fits in with local provincial and federal initiatives to reduce violence criminal activity among the youth.

We are awakening to a new awareness of how we have unconsciously blighted our home, the earth.  There is an urgent willingness to take personal responsibility to do our part to reverse the damage, to heal our relationship with the planet and each other, before it’s too late.

The Virtues Project is a response to parents who want to bring simple spirituality and character training into their children’s lives.  The world needs people who are willing to take personal responsibility,   Let it be this generation.

2.   The program must support the core program and should not deflect energy and resources away from the core program.

P.B.I.S. encourages positive behaviours in and around the school.

The Virtues Project like P.B.I.S. is also a broad range of systemic strategies for achieving important social growth.  However, the Virtues Project also is an individual strategy for improving personal growth.  It recognizes and celebrates character in students already partially or well-developed.  It guides all students in personal growth.  Like P.B.I.S., this will result in preventing negative behaviours in all students, and will also increase incidents of students exceeding expectations in the social responsibility scale.

We are promoting excellence in all participants.

The Virtues Project is a language-based approach, which requires few or sometime no resources.  Training can be provided through professional development funds or using the freely available instruction provided by suitably trained facilitators already in the Squamish area.  The basics are easily learned and can be implemented after a learning curve of 1 – 3 hours or less.  The program can easily be divided into smaller, easily assimilated modules or units.

Users of this program do not have to revisit school and/or district mission, vision or values as recommended by the P.B.I.S. program or require changes to existing policies and procedures.   Administrator coordination, fiscal and material resources are minimal. 

The program can be used independently of technical support, or the requirement for the establishment of collaborative teams that require substantial time and energy from teaching and administrative staff.

3.   The program outcomes must demonstrate congruence with the BC Performance Standards for Social Responsibility.

Language is the most powerful tool that affects behaviour and the most effective tool for changing behaviour.  Language of the virtues will be powerful, effective, positive tools for students to use when:

            -contributing to the classroom and school community

            -solving problems in peaceful ways

            -valuing diversity and defending human rights

            -exercising democratic rights and responsibilities

4.   The program must have been implemented on a wide scale.

5.   The program must have established validity over time

Huntington Hills  Elem.- Calgary:

55 fights-1999 ….after 3 years -2002….0 fights

waiting list of students who want to enroll in our school due to Virtues Project  undertaken by parents, teachers, students and administrators.

 Gulgong Public School              The growing malaise included:

• non-compliance
• teachers and students are becoming more demoralised, discouraged and disillusioned
• increasing violence
• there is much more verbal abuse and use of profanity. 
• students are quicker to resort to violence to make a point or settle an argument
• more and more students are unafraid and unmoved by reprimands or other traditional disciplinary techniques

 As observation is the prime source of data collection for the BC Performance Standards….then observations from other schools are excellent indicators of the success of the Project.

The "Virtues Project" at Gulgong Public School

The teachers at the school came to a consensus agreement in adopting the "Virtues Project" pathway. The teachers replace students' negative feelings with "encouraging, helpful, respectful, considerate, kind, tolerant, self-disciplined and hopeful" feelings and look to more positive behaviours and attitudes flourishing at school and in children's lives. The teachers adopt a "pastoral" role within the normal interactions with students at school. The teachers focus on developing positive behaviour and attitudes by tapping into the innate 'virtues' present in all children. The teachers provide the framework for this development through a systematic approach to their own expectations and modelling of 'virtues' in the daily interactions with students, parents and colleagues.

6.   The program must be free of any religious, sectarian or cultural bias

The VP’s core premise is the value of the individual’s inner being.  This is the spirituality of virtues.  Spirituality is the refinement of thought and feeling, drawing on the essence of being human.  It is a way of life, a way of being.

Public institutions, penal institutions, community activity groups, are bound by law to promote tolerance and acceptance of diversity.  This would include ensuring programs are non-religious and culturally un-biased.   The VP is being used by public school systems in many areas around the world.

7.   The program should have a data collection system linked to the intended outcomes.

Tools for assessment currently are in a different format, and can be easily converted to duplicate criterion-referenced assessment standards.  For example:

Virtue: (i.e) Commitment	Not yet within expectations	Meet expectations (minimally)	Fully meets expectations	Exceeds expectations.
	Makes no promises	Makes promises without thinking	Sometimes thinks before making a promise	Thinks before making a promise
	Never keeps agreements	Rarely keeps agreements	Often keeps agreements	Keeps every agreement made
	Has difficulty making all decisions	Makes few decisions confidently	Makes most decisions confidently	Makes all decisions confidently
	Does not get involved.	Involved minimally.  Takes little advantage of opportunities	Completes all work but no extras. Takes advantage of most opportunities. Shows some initiative.	Goes the extra mile. Gives 100% to everything you do.
	Makes poor choices for friends. Supports friends unwisely.	Chooses some friends wisely. Supports friends in good behaviours, not unwise behaviours.	Chooses most friends wisely. Shows positive behaviours in groups. Supports friends in good behaviours and promotes good behaviours	Are faithful to people you care about.

The BC Performance Standards are easily used in assessing the progress of the use of virtues in students’ behaviour.

Note:  it is preferred that the program should be approved and supported by the B.C. Ministry of Education through the B.C.  Safe Schools Program.

BC Safe Schools working in partnership with the Burnaby School District has incorporated the Virtues Project into a part of their Performance Goals.

BC Safe Schools offered Virtues Project sessions in a conference on Feb.20/21 2002  entitled “A Safer School and a Safer Community”.