VALUES EDUCATION IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE Office of Instructional Services May 1991 Georgia Department of Education Werner Rogers State Superintendent of Schools VALUES EDUCATION IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE History and pevelopment of the Concept At its March 1991 meeting the State Board of Education (SBOE) adopted a list of core values concepts and initiated a rule requiring the teaching of values in all schools, grades K-12. Three years of work support the core values list (Appendix A): an extensive data search, correspondence with other state education agencies, conversations with school system personnel in Georgia, and input at seven regional public hearings. The proposed rule (Appendix B) is intended to build on existing values-oriented activities in Georgia while giving focus to the board's concepts. The 5BOE's values education concept is comprehensive, developmental, and continuous across grade levels and throughout the curriculum. The family is recognized as the cradle of values development, and the school's role is to complement the family's contributions. Because values education should appear explicitly through classroom instrudion and implicitly through modeled behavior, the total school climate becomes extremely important. Planning Status assessment is the first step for a school system implementing values education. Planners should consider: What materials are presently used? What funds are available? How can auality Core Curriculum (aCC) objectives be keyed to the core values list? How can explicit values 'be conveyed through the curriculum? For example, which staff, at what grade levels, and in what subjeds are the core values addressed? What kinds of opportunities on and off campus are provided for student pradice of the values taught? To what degree are implicit instructional strategies used; for example, cooperative learning, developmental discipline, building positive school climate? What staff development has been done to build skills in using the implicit and explicit delivery strategies? How effective has it been? The system plan for values education should comprise what is being done plus what needs - to be done to address the core vaiues list, grades K-12. The content of the systjlm's values education plan will reflect the miss-ion of that school system; however, such tOpiCS as explicit and implicit instructional strategies to be employed, curriculum objectives, practice opportunities, and staff development activities might all be included. Curriculym Dellyery SerVices How to provide values education will be a local decision. The following comments are suggestions compiled from values education literature and from Georgia school systems that have been significantly involved for some time in delivering instruction on this topic. Appendix C lists system resource persons who have agreed to respond to questions about what works for them. Infusing values across the curriculum in grades K-12 is one of the most workable, most used approaches. Many schools and school systems begin with a core staff; e.g., all at one grade level, two per grade level, or all in a subject discipline and expand gradually to include all staff. Another approach matches core values concepts to appropriate disciplines; e.g., freedom of conscience and expression with civics or government; conservation with science courses. In most instances these concepts are addressed in segments of time, such as six-week units. Some elementary schools assign some time daily for values-oriented instruction. The school, the home, and the community, including religious institutions, should be used as venues to practice values. Students in all grade levels should have opportunities to 'practice values that range from role playing and decision making exercises to actual community service. ace To ensure the broadest possible coverage, objectives should be reviewed for all subject areas to identify those that can be keyed to the core values list. As part of the planning process, this activity would result in instructional strategies and lesson plans, including outcome statements. 2 A wealth of commercially developed material is available. Some is comprehensive; however, most resources are supplementary and topic specific. For example, drug --- education, sex education, and la't!trelated education materials may be relevant to a -~ number of the core values. The reader is encouraged to consult the list of systems in Appendix C and contact those persons fisted for specific suggestions. As schools implement values education, the implicit curriculum should not be ignored or underestimated. The manner in which teachers and administrators relate, how teachers relate to parents, and how we communicate with students all provide invaluable opponunities for modeling behavior based on the values we seek to develop in students. This modeling process should permeate the total school climate, including the way discipline is administered. Classroom management strategies, such as cooperative learning, can encourage the development of such values as counesy, cooperation, selfcontrol, and dependability. Staff Deyelopment Extraordinary sensitivity and skill are required to conduct explicit instruction in many concepts on the values fist: therefore, teacher pre-service and in-service training is imponant. Some commercially developed programs provide training, usually in the trainthe-trainer mode, as pan of a total package. (Some of the schools listed in Appendix C have purchased these packages.) Colleges or universities with schools or depanments of education should be contacted about in-service opponunities in values education. Humanities depanments may also be available to provide staff development on such topics as ethics, citizenship, and democracy. Organizations such as the Georgia Humanities Council may provide technical assistance on preparing training grants for such activities as summer seminars. Local county extension service agents have training programs and a curriculum on values that are available through the 4-H organization. Civic organizations, such as the Uons, Kiwanis, and League of Women Voters, can provide help. The Georgia Depanment of Education often has workshops directed to the explicit and implicit curricula. The Georgia Education Leadership Academy, the Health and Physical Education Unit and the Student suppon Services Unit, among others, sponsor workshops on such topics as positive discipline alternatives, cooperative learning, managing conflict, multicultural issues, and sex education. 3 The Law-Related Education Consortium, coordinated through the Vinson Institute at the University of Georgia, provides training and materials to help students learn about the responsibilities of citizenship, the)aw, and coun systems. The Staff Development Unit in the department of education can-:provide information regarding procedures for revising or writing local staff development plans to include values education emphases. The network of Regional Education Services Agencies has excellent potential for planning and implementing regional staff development for values education along with the usual benefits of bulk purchase of materials. Funding Soure There is an obvious, natural link among materials acquisition, staff development, and funding aVailability. School systems implementing values education, including those listed in Appendix C, use a variety of sources to fund their effons. Business, industry, civic, and service organizations often sponsor activities in concen with their philosophy. Federal and state grant funds are available for training and materials in such areas as drug abuse and sex education. Building self-respect and resped for others, for example, are appropriate activities under the heading of "values education- as well as -drug educationor sex education.- School systems are encouraged to carefully examine the purposes and acceptable expenditures for all state or federal programs. Many private organizations and foundations offer funds for educational programs, including values-oriented education. Details on these sources are available from the Student Suppon Services Unit in the Georgia Depanment of Education. Finally, state staff development funds may be used for training related to values education. Eyaluatlon This section is intended to guide schools and school systems in assessing the values education program. The following procedures (which are not exhaustive or inclusive) may be taken as a whole or piecemeal and may be long-term or shon~term in focus; they will be subject to extraneous variables. They could be determined with self-repon scales, anecdotal records, or published scales. The evaluation model suggested here focuses on process and product. 4 A Precess: things done. and the efficiency with which they are done 1. Number$ and types of materials used _.~;- 2. Numbers and kinds of-activities 3. lesson plans; course objectives 4. Curriculum scope and sequence statements B. Produd: the effectiveness (outcomes) of what is done 1. Attitude changes regarding self. home. school 2. Behavioral changes in groups or individually: discipline referrals, suspensions. dropouts. fighting, participation in adivities, volunteerism. etc. 3. Academic performance 5 Appendlz A LIST OF CORE VALUES Adoptitd by the State Board of EaJcation Man::n 1991 Vwes deve~ntusually 0CQn'S over I raJmber of years and within I oomber of enYircnmenrs. Slnce family members are the first lnc:Mduats with WhOm one comes IntD coruCl. the infiJence Of the famly contiooes to be extremely i~nant to a ChIld's vaile deYek)pmerl. ThIs faa ts partiQJlaI1y appropriate In the presc:noot and .any sc:nool years. As S1Uderts progress through pubic SChool, It is ~ that their e