The Relationship of Character Education Implementation and Academic Achievement in Elementary Schools

Applications from the 681 elementary schools applying for the California Distinguished Schools Award in 2000 were randomly selected, evaluated, and scored for character education implementation. Results were correlated with both the SAT9 and API rankings over a four-year period from 1999-2002. Schools with higher total character education implementation tended to have higher academic scores on academic measures for the year prior to their application, the year of their application and the subsequent two years. Small but positive correlations were found between three specific character education indicators and the total character education score and higher scores on California’s API and the percentage of students scoring at or above the 50th percentile on the SAT9.