Cedar Hill Isd Character Lessons Improve Grades

Oct. 21, 2010 - PRLog -- Cedar Hill, TX- October 20, 2010 - The Cedar Hill Independent School district has found that integrating character lessons into various curriculum and student activities impacts both student grades and behavior.  Based on data from a four-year character education grant that ended this summer, the character lessons helped to increase student achievement by 5 percent and decrease negative student behavior by 40 percent.  

“When the students put their character lessons to practice, we find we have less disruptive behavior to interfere with learning,” said Dr. Chanda McGee, Director of Student Support and Community Services.  “Because of the success of the character education grant, we have decided to continue integrating character building into the curriculum in all of our grades K-12.”

The character curriculum is based on the six pillars of character.  The pillars include trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship.  The CHISD program is based on the Josephson Institute’s Character Counts program.  The U.S. Department awarded CHISD the $229-thousand dollar grant.

October 17-23 is National Character Counts Week.  Cedar Hill students will be observing the week in various ways.  A few of the events include:

-October 20, 2010 Cedar Hill High School students and staff donate money to buy coats for elementary students; 1 Longhorn Blvd. Cedar Hill, TX 75104

-October 21&22, 2010 Highlands Elementary School students at 131 Sims Drive, Cedar Hill, TX 75104 will bring various donations to school for Goodwill

-October 22, 2010 Cedar Hill students and staff pay $10 to wear pink to raise money for the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation

-Saturday, Oct. 23, 2010 11:00 a.m. Student will volunteer to clean area around Cedar Hill Recreation Center at 310 E. Parkerville Rd. Cedar Hill, TX 75104

-Acts of Kindness and Character by students at Cedar Hill High School will be recognized all week during announcements; 1 Longhorn Blvd. Cedar Hill, TX. 75104

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The Cedar Hill Independent School District has 8200 students. CHISD has three Exemplary schools, seven Recognized schools and four Academically Acceptable schools. It has an AA- financial bond rating from Standard and Poor’s.