EXCELLENCE & ETHICS

Updates from April, 2010

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  JTF Report: Dissemination and Advocacy

  RichParisi posted in IEE Insider at 12:14 pm on April 30, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  

  Publications

  • The winter/spring 2010 issue of excellence & ethics, with Tom Lickona’s lead story on feedback from the Power2Learn field-test schools, was published at the end of March.  For the first time copies were mailed to the full faculties of every field-test school in Iowa and Kansas and, at Sue Kidd’s suggestion, to the KS control schools as well (given that at least some of them will be using the Power2 programming in the coming academic year).  As usual, excellence & ethics was sent to our databases of elementary, middle, and high schools around New York State, previous Summer Institute participants, teacher education colleges around the country, our mailing list of over 3,500 interested individuals, pre-service teachers at SUNY Cortland, and our Smart & Good Schools partner organizations.  In addition to these postal mailings, nearly 4,000 issues have been emailed to interested educators and other individuals.

  This issue included an article by Mary Guilfoile and Patrick Queenan, with a commentary by Vlad, on “Using the CREE to Make School Improvements,” describing how The Glenholme School in Washington, CT used the CREE to evaluate and improve its school’s culture.

  A third article by Joe Drape, award-winning New York Times reporter and author of Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen, describes how the small-town Kansas football team won 79 straight games and 5 consecutive state championships. Matt provides a commentary on the character-and-culture secrets of Coach Roger Barta’s success.

  The back cover of the issue features the most elaborate rendering to date of our signature Performance Competencies and Moral Competencies ball.

  • We continue to update our brochures and marketing tools that members of our staff can use to conduct individual or small group meetings with potential clients of IEE. We are sharing all of these documents with all of our team members to see how we can best utilize to attract more schools for next year.
  • In March, Tom Lickona, as a member of the Education Advisory Council of the Character Education Partnership, guided the final revisions of CEP’s new position paper, Developing and Assessing School Culture: A New Level of Accountability for Schools. CEP’s Board unanimously approved its adoption at the March 18 Board meeting and will begin widespread dissemination of the paper.  In making the case that schools must be held accountable for assessing their culture, the position paper draws on Smart and Good concepts such as performance character, moral character, and a culture of excellence and ethics.  CEP is the leading national character education organization working with schools; its ongoing integration of the Smart & Good vision and language into its work continues a process that began with the joint publication of the Smart & Good High Schools report in 2005 and contributes to extending the reach of our work.
  • Tom, Matt, and Vlad have been invited to contribute a 5,000 word article on the new Power2 programming and its theoretical framework to a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Educational Research.
  • Program Publicity in Reader’s Digest: Joe Drape, New York Times sportswriter and author of the 2009 bestselling book, Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains With the Smith Center Redmen, has been asked by Reader’s Digest to do an article based on his book and describing character education in Kansas and beyond.  His article will include observations and interviews with Kate Erickson, one of the Power2Learn teachers in Junction City High School, KS (also featured in the lead article of the winter-spring issue of excellence & ethics), and interviews with Matt and Tom about the Smart & Good work.  At our upcoming June Summer Institute, Drape will speak about the role of character in Smith Center’s extraordinary record of athletic excellence.

  Online Dissemination and Advocacy

  • Tom Lickona continues to serve as an Advisory Board member of the newly established InfoVal: A Worldwide Digital Community for Education in Values and Virtues (http://www.infoval.org).  InfoVal seeks to promote character education internationally, features links on its home page to leading character education sites, and promoted our Smart & Good Schools Summer Institute.
  • Integration of Smart & Good into Student Leadership: Tom recently met at the Center with middle school social studies teacher Jeff Albrici from the Auburn school system to offer guidance on how to incorporate the Smart & Good work, especially the 4 KEYS, into a multi-year student leadership grant that Auburn has received.
  • Tom and Marthe Seales continue to work closely with Usha Balamore and the staff at Shipley School, to help them share how they have implemented the Smart & Good vision in their entire Lower School. Their story was shared in the fall issue of excellence & ethics. Usha and her staff continue to speak with other schools about how they have taken our ideas and integrated them into their program. Shipley has also been invited back to share at the 2010 Summer Institute. Usha Balamore will once again play a lead role but she continues to include more people in their program which is moving from the Lower School to the Upper School thanks to her influence.
  • Taiwan Visit: The Center has been coordinating an upcoming May visit to the Center and IEE by Taiwan’s Commonwealth Parenting Magazine. Its associate managing editor will be doing filmed interviews with Drs. Lickona and Davidson and then shooting footage at two schools in PA, including the Shipley School (featured in the fall, 2009 issue of excellence & ethics).  The Taiwan group has also invited us to provide a keynoter for their upcoming national conference on character education in Taiwan.
  • Japanese Scholar to Translate Smart & Good High Schools: The Center has been making arrangements to host a possible second visit in the coming academic year by Japanese professor Ryota Yaginuma, a specialist in moral and character education who is applying for a semester-long study in order to work here on translating Smart & Good High Schools into Japanese and to make further site visits to schools using Smart & Good practices.  Dr. Yaginuma hopes to write a book about U.S. character education, focusing on the Smart & Good Schools approach.
  • Smart & Good High Schools Report Sent to KS Schools: Our December site visit to KS pilot schools found that most did not have a copy of the Smart & Good High Schools report that provides the foundation of our current work.  With the encouragement of Sue Kidd, the Center mailed a copy of the report to each of the 18 KS pilot schools and also to key personnel in the KS Department of Education.
  • SUNY Education Majors Learn about Character Education: As part of its ongoing work to help SUNY Cortland education majors learn about character education, the Center has hosted, over the course of the semester, a number of undergraduate classes doing research in its character education library.
  • Tom was the guest speaker on February 26th at the annual conference for character education school trainers hosted by Iowa’s Institute for Character Development, our partner in that state.
  • Tom did a workshop on March 13th on “Preventing Peer Cruelty and Promoting Kindness” for the annual Cortland-Homer Teachers Center Conference.
  • Tom guest-lectured on character education during April in two undergraduate sections of “Classroom Management and Social Education” at SUNY Cortland.
  • During April Tom gave two talks—”Smart & Good Schools: A Paradigm Shift for Character Education” and “Developing the Ethical Thinker”—as part of a faculty symposium on ethics and character development at Mercer University, Georgia.

  

   

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  JTF Report: Trainings

  RichParisi posted in IEE Insider at 11:59 am on April 30, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  

  These are the trainings delivered in February-April, 2010, as well as efforts to recruit more schools for program delivery:

  • The training for Power2Learn for the Big Picture School (BPS) in LaFayette, NY was completed during February.
  • We have reached an agreement with the Pittsford School District to do Smart & Good 100 overview training for the Pittsford School District on June 28th. We have also tentatively set a date for an additional training session for them in August. We have now been working with Pittsford for over two years with a total of nine training days by the end of this summer. We also continue to discuss other options for the future with them including the implementation of our new Power2Achieve™ Toolkits programming, continuing the use of our assessment tools, and possibly in the future developing something for them to use in grades 3-5 to develop both moral and performance character in their elementary students.
  • In the last Templeton Progress Report we shared that Matt Davidson and Phil Catania met with approximately 20 high school administrators in Baltimore County the last week of January to introduce our Power2Achieve™ Programming. Since that time discussions have continued with five school leaders and two district officials in regards to ways to fund potential implementation in 2010-11. Phil Catania returned there in April for an additional in-person meeting. At this time four schools have expressed interest and we are trying to finalize an agreement with them for training to take place in June. Their hope, if the finances can be worked out, is to launch Power2Achieve™ Foundations course in the fall of 2010.
  • Rich Parisi met with Myles Goss, the Special Education Director, for the Brittonkill School District in February. In addition to Myles, the district character education committee was part of a series of meetings. Rich and Myles have continued to discuss updates over the last two months in regards to programs the district might want to implement next year.
  • Matt Davidson and Rich Parisi met with staff from three Parochial Schools in the Syracuse area during February to share the latest iterations of our programming. There were also a couple of district leaders at the training workshop. We have held a series of meetings with parochial school leaders over the last six months to explore various ways we might collaborate.
  • Matt Davidson was the primary speaker at the University of Scranton’s Bochicchio Sports Character Initiative regional coaching meeting on March 10th.  Matt presented to approximately 100 high school and college coaches and athletic directors on practical tools and strategies that can be used to build performance and moral character in competitive athletics.  Attendees actively participated in the session through small group discussion, large group sharing, and individual action planning for their own schools and teams.  In the weeks following the presentation numerous emails and phone calls were fielded from coaches and athletic directors who had already begun to use the tools and strategies discussed March 10th.  The evidence that coaches and administrators see the need for and have the opportunity to use performance and moral character tools and strategies bodes well for future IEE program and training development for coaches and athletes. March 11^th was named Matt Davidson Day in Scranton, PA to honor him for the contributions he is making to the field of character development.
  • John and Lucia Catalo along with Rich Parisi continue to contact a number of school districts in Central NY to conduct meetings with school leaders to discuss the Power2Achieve™ series. Our goal is to encourage more school districts to budget for our programming so that they can implement in 2010-2011. A secondary goal is to keep them aware of all that we are doing at IEE so they can look to us in the future to help them advance their programming.
  • Rich Parisi and Kyle Baker spoke with the Port Chester School District on April 20^th in regards to expanding their use of our programming for the 2010-2011 school year. Kyle Baker had done one day training on Power2Learn back in February for their after-school intervention program for at risk ninth grade students. They are now looking to expand this program to 260 ninth-graders for the 2010-2011 year. It is their hope to do the training for staff on June 21^st.

  

   
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  JTF Report: Program Development

  RichParisi posted in IEE Insider at 11:50 am on April 30, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  

  Program development over the past three months has continued to focus on two deliverables, previously named Power2Learn and Power2Teach, to reflect one of our core Smart & Good messages: “Character is power.”  (See the November, 2008 Progress Report for more detail on these programs.) During the last three months we have prepared and submitted an application for a registered trademark for our programming. As part of that discussion and looking at feedback we have been receiving from Field Test sites, we made a decision to change our umbrella title to Power2Achieve™. Power2Learn programming version 2.0 will be called Power2Achieve™ Foundations. Power2Teach will be replaced by Power2Achieve™ Toolkits for Teachers and Power2Achieve™ Toolkits for Leaders. We have shared these changes with our partners and customers and received positive feedback. Current schools are continuing with the old name for the completion of this school year and will make the change for next year.

  3.1 Power2Learn/Power2Achieve™ Foundations

  Kyle Baker, Cathy Fisher and Margaret Seidel have continued working with Matt Davidson to develop lessons for the 7-unit, year-long Power2Learn curriculum.   This process has involved regular phone conferences and monthly trips by Fisher to IEE headquarters in LaFayette, New York.  Units five and six are finished at the time of writing this report and unit seven is nearly completed. Each unit includes four lessons each and they will all be completed for Version 1.0 of Power2Learn by the first week of May. The unit titles and lessons that have been worked on over the last three months are all listed below.

  Unit 5 Focus: P2L teaches you essentials of efficient and effective collaboration.

  Lesson 1 – Communicating to understand and be understood. (P2L 2-Way Communication/Colony Case Study)

  Lesson 2 – Developing innovative solutions through teamwork and creativity. (P2L Creative Solutions Strategy)

  Lesson 3 – Negotiating team goals, strategy and roles. (Coast Guard Experiential Activity)

  Lesson 4 – Collaborating effectively through communication, creative thinking, and negotiation. (P2L Collaboration Continuum/Experiential Design Activity)

  Unit 6 Focus: P2L teaches you character development strategies for maximizing your potential for excellence.

  Lesson 1 – Being successful requires more than talent. (P2L Strengths Finder)

  Lesson 2 – Developing the mindset and will to continuously improve. (Touching The Void video)

  Lesson 3 – Reaching your potential for excellence through public performance and critique. (P2L Culture of Critique Tool)

  Lesson 4 – Using deliberate practice in pursuit of excellence. (P2L Deliberate Plan for Improvement)

  Unit 7 Focus: P2L teaches you strategies for living a balanced, purposeful and fulfilling life.

  Lesson 1 – Find your inspiration. (P2L Belief Box)

  Lesson 2 – Find your Inspiration. (P2L Belief Box + Graffiti Board)

  Lesson 3 – Establish a plan. (P2L Strategy Audit)

  Lesson 4 – Live the message. (P2L Send Off)

  • From February through the end of April revised Power2Learn lessons were implemented at our field test sites in Kansas, Iowa and Cherry Hill.  As previously indicated, we continue to receive feedback from each of these sites regarding the materials they are using. Tom Lickona will be visiting schools in Kansas during the last week of April and then sharing that feedback with our team that is developing the lessons. We continue to have consistent contact with the Iowa Character Development (ICD) group to get their suggestions as to ways we can enhance our programs. The field test sites have produced refinements of existing lessons and insights that have guided the design of new lessons as we worked on completing this curriculum.  All of the feedback we have received will help to guide our work for next year.

  3.2 Power2Teach/Power2Achieve™ Toolkits

  • Matt Davidson and Matt Cole and other members of our team have continued to work on our Power2Teach materials over the last three months. We have looked at a new structure for this program and have changed the name to Power2Achieve™ Toolkits. At this time we are looking at developing a minimum of six different Toolkits, two of which will be introduced during our Summer Institute at SUNY Cortland from June 28^th-30^th. We are excited about the opportunity to market these Toolkits as we believe they can both support our Power2Achieve™ Foundations course and also can be used as stand-alone programming resources to share with a full staff.
  • Kyle Baker had scheduled one day Power2Teach training for the Alternative High School in Cherry Hill, New Jersey in January which got cancelled due to a snowstorm. Kyle did the training in February.

  Our Power2Teach training was reduced to a one-day training model. We have streamlined our trainings in response to district concerns about the instructional and budgetary impacts of having staff away from students for two days. All of Toolkit trainings will also be one-day training sessions.

  

   
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  JTF Report: Research

  RichParisi posted in IEE Insider at 11:41 am on April 30, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  

  Progress in research includes the following:

  • Vlad Khmelkov and Matt Davidson of IEE and Tom Lickona of the Center for the 4^th & 5^th Rs continued collaboration on the development of a new assessment instrumentation that will be used to evaluate the Power2 series and to do research on schools using Power2 programs.
  • Tom Lickona was in Iowa from February 22^nd to 26^th doing site visits with ICD staff to the three Leader Schools pilot-testing the Power2 programming.  Each visit included meeting with school leaders to troubleshoot implementation challenges, meeting with the Power2 programming administration-faculty leadership team, conducting a focus group with Power2Learn teachers, doing a student focus group, and observing a Power2Learn lesson with a follow-up interview of the observed teacher.  At each school, conversations with the leadership teams identified steps that needed to be taken to strengthen program implementation, and plans were made to have the ICD person help with that process.  Following the visits, Tom began reviewing the tapes and preparing a series of reports and reflections for the Smart & Good team as it develops new lessons and begins work on version 2.0.
  • Tom has worked with Sue Kidd, the coordinator of the Kansas federal character education grant, and the Leader Schools there, to set up a  second round of site visits there (April 26-29).
  • Drawing on the qualitative data from the fall and spring site visits in Iowa and Kansas, Tom will be preparing an end-of-the-year report on Year 1’s pilot-testing of Power2Learn and Power2Teach, including case studies of the Leader Schools in each state.   The report will also include the experience of Cherry Hill, our pilot school in New Jersey.
  • Sue Kidd has notified the Center for the 4^th & 5^th Rs that Kansas has requested $10,000, as part of its restored funding from USDOE (if approved), in order to support continued qualitative evaluation of the Power2 programs during the 2010-11 school year.  The Center will underwrite the balance of the cost.
  • IEE continued development of the survey assessment system. Two scales have been added to measure the “Safe, Supportive, and Engaging Climate”: Student Safety and Faculty Support for and Engagement of Students. Also, a second part has been added to the faculty/staff survey focusing on the culture of excellence and ethics in the professional school community. This component now includes three scales: Leadership Practices, Faculty/Staff Beliefs and Behaviors, and Home-School Communication & Support. The expanded survey (version 4.2) will be implemented in all field-test schools in April-May 2010.
  • With the revisions and expansion of the survey instrument described above, the survey has also been renamed as Culture of Excellence & Ethics Assessment™ (CEEA). The new name more accurately describes to schools the focus of this assessment and will be used as an umbrella name for the quantitative tools and data analysis and reporting processes being developed by IEE. Additional information documents about the new CEEA process, such as matrix of items, sample data reports, validity and reliability information, and others, have been developed and made available on IEE’s website (http://excellenceandethics.com/assessment.php).

  

   
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  JTF Report: Economic Development

  RichParisi posted in IEE Insider at 11:39 am on April 30, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  

  • John and Lucia Cataldo continue to research foundations we might want to approach to support our continued efforts to develop our Power2Achieve™ programs. We continue to prioritize this list for future requests.
  • Matt Davidson and the Cataldos have continued to work with Scott Raecker in reaching out to the Iowa Business Council (IBC) to support the many initiatives going in Iowa.
  • Matt Davidson continues to meet with several potential individual donors to engage in cultivation of potential support for our work. Matt made a trip to St. Louis on February 17^th and 18^th to meet with a number of people in the St. Louis area including Sandy and Pris McDonnell who have supported our work with a $300,000 grant from their foundation. Matt wanted to update them on the progress in our work and the impact made by their support.
  • Rich Parisi and John and Lucia Cataldo worked with three local schools over the last several months to submit a grant proposal to the Community Foundation in Syracuse, NY.  The grant is asking the Foundation for over $20,000 to support our working with the three schools from August 2010-June 2011. The funds from the Community Foundation would be supplemented with contributions from all three schools and we would provide services to help them in working with students, teachers, and parents on our Power2Achieve™ Toolkit which would focus on Effort, Attitude and Achievement. We expect to hear about the status of this request by July 1^st.
  • In our last Templeton Report we shared that we enlisted the support of Dan Gage to help us in pursuing earmarks and to explore other additional funding opportunities to support our work. Dan is a consultant with J.A. Green, a company that does both consultant work and also serves a lobbyist role for certain organizations. Based on Dan’s feedback, John and Lucia Cataldo contacted several people we have partnered with in the past to guide them in steps they could take to pursue federal appropriations requests.  Some of the people we spoke with did submit such requests and we also submitted a request with our local representative.
  • John and Lucia Cataldo along with Vlad Khmelkov played a leadership role in pursuing i-3 grants from the Federal Government. We have held multiple conference calls with several partners or potential partners exploring alignment opportunities. After several weeks of examining the i-3 grant requirements and discussion, there was a mutual agreement that i-3 eligibility requirements preclude IEE from applying. We think that the next round of federal grants with a focus on school climate and culture will be a better fit with our programming.
  • Over the last three months Matt Davidson has established a relationship with Chip Weiant from the Sagamore Institute and the Philanthropy Roundtable. Several promising things have happened through that relationship.  First, Kip Morse, from the Ohio BBB, has instructed Chip to be their point person in exploring a potential partnership between IEE and BBB nationally. Chip also described our work to Jay Hein, president of the Sagamore Institute, who is bringing on Bill Bennett as a fellow and looking to get more involved in school reform. They think our work could be a very good match for what they’re trying to do (charter schools, etc.).  Jay Hein and Chip Weiant expressed particular interest in the fact that IEE is launching a programming model driven ultimately by market forces (real schools paying real money).
  • We submitted a Power2 Achieve Validation OFI to the Templeton Foundation in April. In the past three years we have built our programming and piloted it in diverse field research sites across the country. We have also laid the track for a self-sustaining business model including distribution through regional centers and P2A Certified Trainers (independent representatives). Power2Achieve™ has established itself as practically, empirically, and economically viable model.

  We believe we are on the verge of a breakthrough in character education programming. If funded, this validation and demonstration project would create conditions for national scalability by: (1) leveraging support from federal and state education agencies; (2) enhancing direct sales to school organizations and schools; and (3) securing additional philanthropic funding for further research and improvement of the programming, including reducing future costs to schools.

  

   
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  JTF Progress Report: Strategic Partnerships

  Institute for Excellence & Ethics posted in IEE Insider at 11:32 am on April 30, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  

  We continue to make progress in building the strategic partnerships with aligned organizations that are helping us go to scale with the Smart & Good vision.

  • During the past three months we have continued to work with the Institute for Character Development (ICD), our principal partner in Iowa, on several fronts.  ICD has contributed significant direct and indirect matching funds towards the research and development of the Power2 series (see Financial Progress Report).   We have worked with ICD during the last three months to support the implementation of Power2Learn and Power2Teach at four Iowa high schools. The schools in Iowa are doing a lesson per week and giving us feedback on how the program is working.
  • Matt Davidson travelled to Iowa from February 24^th-26th to meet with Scott Raecker, Executive Director of ICD, and his staff.  One key part of the trip was a meeting with Scott and Eric Martin which Vlad Khmelkov joined by phone to discuss our program offerings and pricing for next year. The feedback from Scott and Eric was extremely positive. They felt prepared to deliver our Power2 Programming for next year. ICD is committed to continue the partnership in 2010-2011. ICD is currently working with its Board to establish reasonable benchmarks for generating revenues off the sales of Power2Achieve™ programming and assessment services for next year.
  • During his visit to Iowa, Matt Davidson had a two hour meeting with the Iowa Department of Education, which included the staff who are heading up the State’s 21^st Century Skills and Iowa Core Curriculum. We have been meeting with DOE staff over the last two years and continuing to look to align our work with that of the DOE. In this visit we think the fruits of our continued shuttle diplomacy, field research, and our evolving programming really came together. We utilized the new documents to show them a matrix of our lessons and for each lesson the specific competencies (ours and the accompanying 21st century outcome). Then we shared lesson 1.5.4 which features authentic assessment with students demonstrating collaboration, negotiation, creative thinking, and communication. Finally, we shared our new document that demonstrates each item of the CREE and the related 21st Century outcome. In other words, we were able, in about 25 minutes, to show them the theoretical, practical, and empirical development of the 21st Century skills and the Iowa Core curriculum alignment. At the close of our presentation, they said, “Wow.” They were authentically interested in what we have accomplished thus far, what schools were using it, and how it might be utilized through the AEA’s across the state (teacher centers responsible for servicing schools).
  • The Iowa DOE agreed to partner with us in pursuing a Federal Grant on school climate and culture this spring.
  • We met with the 4 Iowa field research sites to lay out for them the 2010?11 program offerings. This was our chance to explain to the schools what version 2 of our programming would look like. We began by laying out the endorsement of the Iowa Business Council (IBC) and the alignment work with the DOE. The sites were very appreciative of the new alignment documents and to learn that the work we have been doing with them is well aligned with the DOE approach. The schools could see that they are actually ahead of other Iowa schools needing to comply with the Iowa Core and the 21st Century outcomes. These alignment documents will help them to demonstrate to staff and school boards why Power2 programming is a good investment of time and resources.
  • During his visit to Iowa Matt also had a successful meeting with staff from the Drake Athletic Department. This meeting helped us define the deliverables involved and the details of the future collaboration. First, we established that the Power2Achieve™ is a very transportable branding, one that allows our tools to be used in a sport context, as well as an educational context. So, the Power2Achieve™ is our general IP brand, and then for the Drake AD, we added Power2Achieve™ Motivational Assembly, which describes the venue we’re working in. We target it for students in grades 6?8, which provides advance marketing for our High School programming. The assemblies are to be delivered by Drake student?athletes. We develop the assemblies from the base tools and materials of the Power2Learn (soon to be Power2Achieve™ school program).
  • As shared in the last update, Scott Raecker has continued to advance the integration of the Power2 series into the Iowa Business Council’s 21^st Century Excellence campaign.  The Business Council’s 2010-2011 focus statement now explicitly identifies the development of moral and performance character as a priority for Iowa schools and businesses, see:  http://www.iowabusinesscouncil.com/files/IBC_CorpBrochure_0.pdf.  We will continue to pursue direct financial support from the Iowa Business Council (IBC) and its member organizations for implementation of the Power2 series.
  • IEE and the Center for the 4^th and 5^th Rs have continued to hold phone conferences with the leaders of the Kansas PCEP Grant during the last three months. The primary focus of these discussions has been on trying to keep the project alive after the PCEP funding was cut. The good news is that all of our combined efforts have helped to keep the project alive. This was made possible by IEE and the Center directing part of the JTF funds toward program delivery, research, and assessment activities with 20 impact schools in Kansas in 2009-2010. Kansas project officers have been told by the Federal DOE officials in a phone conversation that part of their federal grant may be restored. However, they have not received official confirmation yet.
  • In collaboration with Sue Kidd, coordinator of the Kansas federal character education grant, Tom Lickona developed a proposal for seven ways the Kansas External Coaches can more effectively work with the pilot schools to facilitate implementation of the Power2Learn.
  • Matt Davidson continues to work with Ken Fisher, who is based in Colorado, to establish a partnership in that state.  Potential partners include Jim Olmstead and Mark Jennings of the Colorado Foundation for Character Development. Matt will be taking another trip to Colorado to meet with key leaders in June. He also continues to conduct phone conferences and to send e-mails to keep people up to speed with our work. John and Lucia Cataldo, consultants with IEE, have also made contacts with Colorado leaders to share funding opportunities that they might pursue.
  • Kyle Baker continues to have consistent contact with Neil Burti, Alternative High School Principal in the Cherry Hill School District in New Jersey.  A March meeting that had been set up for Matt Davidson and other members of our team to go back and meet with district leaders to plan for the future was postponed due to their budget challenges.
  • During a February trip to St. Louis Matt Davidson was able to meet with Liz Gibbons and Diane Sterling from Character Plus, a network of 59 school districts and nearly 500 schools. Sandy McDonnell helped to broker this meeting. Matt was given 75 minutes to lay out both Power2Learn and Power2Teach for a group of about 30 which included Sandy and Pris McDonnell, Liz, Diane and several schools from the Character Plus network. At the end of the two day visit, Matt met with Liz and Diane who were very interested in a regional partnership. Many topics were discussed with them including our providing more Power2 trainings, an opportunity for them to sell our assessment tools and related support services, an opportunity for them to train on our P2A Toolkits, and a possible opportunity for us to replicate our Summer Institute in St. Louis. They also expressed an interest in teaming with us to pursue grant opportunities in the future.
  • Rich Parisi has continued to contact the Pittsford School District to keep them updated on our programs. He visited there for a special evening program on April 28^th as a follow up to his visit in January.

  Over the last three months we have been working on our business plan for establishing a network of P2A Certified Trainers. We have developed a number of documents and conducted several phone conferences with members of our extended team of National education Consultants to review and revise this plan. We are also planning to have future P2A Certified Trainers attend a four-day certification training from June 29^th-July 2^nd. We are establishing other components of the P2A certification process to assure quality training, delivery, and support of P2A services for our customers.