FRANCIS HOWELL MIDDLE SCHOOL success story

Amy Johnston, Ed.D.

Johnston, A. (2012). Case Study 6A: Francis Howell Middle School, Missouri. In Brown, P./ Corrigan, M. & Higgins-D' Alessandro, A. (Eds.), The handbook of prosocial education: Volume 1 {pp. 137-142}. Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield

Francis Howell Middle School (FHMS) is a large (850 students) traditional middle school (grades 6 through 8, with a homeroom/advisory-like structure and academic teams) in a large suburban school district. It has a history of success and draws from a largely suburban, privileged, mostly Caucasian community. This led, as is common in such schools, to a sense of complacency and hence inertia. I began my tenure as principal at FHMS in 1998 (after serving as counselor and assistant principal there for five years), and by 2001 I felt as if I was treading water. At this point it was suggested I apply for the Leadership Academy in Character Education (LACE) under the direction of Dr. Marvin W. Berkowitz. At that time, I was not even aware of the character education concept; it was not on my radar at all as a potential strategy to change our school culture. Serendipity led me to LACE in 2002. Little did I know that the experience would change my philosophy as an educator, and more importantly change the course of Francis Howell Middle School. This yearlong academy enlightened me as to what character education is and the impact it can have on schools. I graduated from LACE believing that character is the foundation of real success and with the realization that too much of our time as educators is spent on academics and testing. If students are taught the importance of exhibiting good character, they will be successful students and, more importantly, good people.

My LACE experience filled me with renewed enthusiasm for what our school could become, and after a year of learning about leadership, comprehensive school reform, and character education, in 2003 I began a remarkable journey with my school and staff. In the beginning, fear was our greatest obstacle: teachers' fear that it would be another thing to do, parents' fear that academics would suffer, and my own fear that it just might not work.

My first challenge was to convince the staff to take the character education journey. In LACE, I learned that the principal must lead character education, but to be successful the staff must willingly follow and eventually co-lead. When I began sharing my excitement for character education with the staff, their reaction was typical in that they saw it as one more thing on a very full plate, but I saw that as a "knee-jerk reaction" to a bigger concern. Together we needed to acknowledge that before we could ask our students to respect one another, we had some work to do as a staff. We had to discuss things like gossip, cliques, and disrespect among the adults in the building before we could lead those conversations with our students-and this is tough stuff! Instead of admitting personal flaws and working to change them, it is much easier to say the plate is too full. All character education begins in the mirror, which is why so many people reject it. Another knee-jerk response was, "FHMS has always been a good school, so why do we need it?" The answer was "because we can be better!" Thanks to the wisdom and direction of Dr. Berkowitz, we spent a full year on staff development and getting the true buy-in that is critical to long-term success. We discussed books like The Courage to Teach by Parker Palmer, Eight Habits of the Heart by Clifton Taulbert, Life's Greatest Lessons by Hal Urban, and Character Matters by Tom Lickona. A committee of teachers and parents who were interested in investigating possibilities for how to best reach students with important character education lessons met monthly. The more we learned, the more we realized that it was a journey we wanted to take. This first leg of the journey was the most important because good character in schools begins with the staff. As the staff learned more about character education, we learned more about ourselves and the importance of being real and vulnerable with one another and with our students.

Since each Character Connection group comprises sixth, seventh, and eighth graders, students from different levels have the opportunity to bond with one another. Character Connection meetings were designed so that they typically start with a dilemma being read over the public address system to the whole school; then students comment and share perspectives about the choices and solutions to the dilemma meeting in their Character Connection group. The goals of the class were simple-create connections and build character. The curriculum for the class was a challenge largely because there wasn't one. The committee believed that a mandated curriculum would make the class feel more academic and less relational. It was decided that CCC would be a blend of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders that would loop with the same teacher for three years. Like anything new, it was a struggle in the beginning, but as teachers became comfortable with their Character Connection Class and students became comfortable with one another, it blossomed. During the first year, CCC met one morning a week, but within a few months both students and teachers were asking for more time. The second year of its implementation it met three times a week, and by year three, every morning at FHMS began with CCC.

After eight years of use, the CCC still has no structured curriculum, yet staff, students, and parents at FHMS believe it accomplishes the goals of character building and developing strong relationships. When guests visit, students describe CCC as the most important thing in making FHMS a school of character. CCC has evolved as students and teachers develop stronger core values and better relationships. The development of character in our students extends beyond "the head" and into their hearts and hands. CCC’s have raised money for various organizations, local families, soldiers, and victims of natural disasters. By discussing their core values of respect, responsibility, honesty, and compassion and working hard to understand the importance of positive relationships, many at FHMS have learned the reward and value of serving others. In the third year of implementation, FHMS began to focus on the Character Education Partnership's Eleven Principles of Character Education (Character Education Partnership [CEP], 2010). In doing so, we were able to ensure that the implementation was deep and thorough. We did a self-assessment using the CEP Quality Standards rubric for the Eleven Principles to discover our strengths and weaknesses and create a plan for how to successfully continue our efforts.

Our next step was to implement CEP's first principle of effective character education, identifying and promoting core ethical values. At FHMS, staff, students, and parents agreed on our core values after lengthy discussions about what values are and what makes them ethical and core to who you are. Students and staff defined the core values in terms of behaviors that could be observed, and classes discussed how the four selected values (respect, responsibility, honesty, and compassion) looked and sounded. Over many years, these have been developed in a variety of ways. They have a visible presence all over the school and the school's website. We have collaboratively created a table of expectations applying each of the values to each of the domains of school life. For example, being responsible in the cafeteria means "bringing your own money for lunch, cleaning up after yourself, sitting in an assigned seat, and paying back charges in a timely manner," and being compassionate in the hallways means "saying 'excuse me,' picking up trash, honoring personal space, and engaging in appropriate conversations." They also have collaboratively created a rubric of levels for each of the four values.

Principle 2 defines character comprehensively to include thinking, feeling, and behaving. It is imperative that students understand good character cognitively, but even more important that they are given opportunities to be the recipients of good character and to demonstrate it to others. When natural disasters and other tragedies devastate communities and lives, teaching students the importance of compassion and guiding their desire to help is a lesson that has relevance and power. Discipline at FHMS also went through a transformation. Students now describe it as "TTD"-talking to death. It is not uncommon for students to eventually ask for a detention rather than have to continue dialoguing and reflecting about their behavior and character. These discussions and reflections are built upon two pillars: (1) positive relationships between staff and students and (2) commitment to the collaboratively generated four pillars of character. The latter are right on referral forms, and students know the rubric as well. For example, one fine day I received a call that the floor was flooded in a boys' restroom because someone had intentionally clogged the sink. With a little investigation, I quickly ascertained the most likely suspect and found out where he currently was in the building. All I had to do was knock on the classroom door and say, "follow me." Two words. He followed me to the boys' room and saw our custodian, Don Potts, who had just had two heart surgeries, working hard to mop up the mess. The student simply said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Potts; let me do that." No punishment, no yelling. Because this student understood respect and responsibility, and because a relationship had been built with both me and Don Potts, discipline was easy. That student learned a powerful lesson about character and being prosocial. When students do make poor choices, teachers model how to manage emotions. They spend a great deal of time talking to students about their behaviors and asking them for alternatives to poor choices.

Principle 3 states that schools should have a comprehensive, intentional, proactive, and effective approach to character education that creates a caring school community. The FHMS Character Connection Class is foundational in this effort. Principle 4 states that effective character education creates a caring school community. Visitors to FHMS often comment that the school "feels" different or that it "feels comfortable." Such statements are difficult to assess and translate into data, but they are a reality and an indication that FHMS is providing a caring school community. Principle 5 states that effective character education provides students with opportunities for moral action. At FHMS, students go out of their way to show various groups their appreciation throughout the year. The Connection Class acts like a family. For example, when a seventh grader was diagnosed with type I diabetes, she recalls, "So many people called and asked me how I was. It really helped me."

As FHMS worked through the Eleven Principles, principle 6 caused the most heated discussion and leveraged the greatest change in how business was done. Principle 6 indicates that effective character education includes a meaningful and challenging academic curriculum that respects all learners, develops their character, and helps them succeed. We changed the collaborative environment by instituting professional learning communities simultaneously with our character development efforts so that academics and character training went hand in hand. Prior to character education, many teachers believed thus: "I taught it. They didn't learn it. Not my problem." As strong relationships among teachers and between teachers and students grew, it became almost impossible to continue that philosophy. I frequently simply pose difficult questions for the staff to consider and discuss, such as the difference between teaching and learning. And this has often led to important changes in how we operate. One of the most significant changes our staff agreed to was allowing students to redo failed tests and assignments. Teachers realized that the only real goal should be to see students learn, not for them to learn in a predetermined time frame. This philosophical shift had an enormous impact on the school culture.

I feel that the staff at FHMS were always good, but now they are exceptional. Their desire to see students succeed academically is matched by their desire to see them develop into caring adolescents. In essence, we are striving to assist them in becoming smart and good. Schools that value curricula and test scores more than they value the students themselves cannot teach the value of intrinsic motivation. At FHMS, teachers teach, reteach, grade, and regrade until they are satisfied that each student knows what he or she is expected to know. When students who formerly struggled with school success begin to take pride in themselves, they develop an intrinsic motivation to continue to do their best.

Principle 7, developing students' self-motivation, hinges on providing reasons to be motivated. For FHMS, the link between motivation and academics is directly related to the nurturing environment that encourages students to be engaged with learning as part of the culture. As the parent of an eighth-grade student put it, "Grades fall into place because children learn in a caring environment and feel safe."

Principle 8 indicates that successful character-building efforts must include the entire staff, and they require positive leadership from both staff and students. One of our strategies for including all staff was to have each Character Connection group "adopt" an adult who works in the building and does not have a CC class. Marvin Berkowitz recalls coming to FHMS on a site visit and seeing Don Potts, a long-standing and beloved custodian, pushing a cart laden with wrapped packages. He explained that his CC class had just thrown him a surprise birthday party.

Principle 9 states that effective character education fosters shared moral leadership and long-range support for the initiative. Our climate committee regularly discusses ways to assess, sustain, and improve building culture and student leadership opportunities.

Principle 10 points out that parent and community involvement are central to all character-building efforts because the first and most important character educators are parents. We were and continue to be aggressive in seeking out insights and support for our character-building efforts from our parents and community. We think of our parents as essential stakeholders in our efforts and welcome their input. I often personally lead book study groups about adolescents with parents.

Principle 11 stresses the importance of assessing how effective the CE initiative is. We are constantly assessing our efforts. We change what is not working and seek to improve on our successes. To assess continued growth, each year, staff, students, and parents are surveyed regarding the climate of the building. Site-improvement climate goals are based on these survey data. In addition to this formal, annual survey, students complete goal sheets each quarter. FHMS continues to formally and informally assess progress to prevent character education from growing complacent. Ultimately the proof is in the data. From 2004 to 2010, F grades dropped from 490 to 158. From 2003 to 2010, detentions dropped from 1,153 to 203, in-school suspensions from 110 to 37, and out-of-school suspensions from 45 to 27. There are five middle schools in our school district. When FHMS began this journey, FMHS's data looked much like the others. However, they are now decidedly different; for example, over the past five years, total suspensions for FHMS are 373. The other four schools range from a low of 1,141 to a high of 1,666. These findings are not limited to behavior. The district average percentage of eighth-grade students meeting the state standard on state achievement tests (MAP) is 66 in math; for FHMS it is 74. In communication arts, the district is 64; for FHMS it is 68. Even one year in the school makes a difference: for sixth graders, the district math percentage is 67; for FHMS it is 76. The district communication arts percentage for the district is 56; for FHMS it is 65. The same pattern holds for seventh graders.

FHMS is doing something right, and I believe it is character education. If students graduate from our school with good character, then we are doing our job. While we are certainly a school of character in name and in action, FHMS does not have a character education "program." We have a culture that sustains and nurtures a philosophy, not a program. We have high character expectations for our students and staff. Because the staff continually models and expects good character, the students are willing, responsive participants in these life lessons. People behave the way they are expected to behave, and we expect both students and staff to demonstrate respect, responsibility, honesty, and compassion daily.

In 2007, Francis Howell Middle School earned the honor of being named a Missouri School of Character. In 2008, we were honored with the distinction of being named a National School of Character by the Character Education Partnership. Character education isn't a quick fix; it is a philosophic shift in how you treat people and how you want everyone in your school to learn and grow as people. I believe that the key to our success started with my having the opportunity to learn all I could about what character education is before I attempted to "do" it in our school. Once I felt grounded in the philosophy, I was able to share my knowledge and excitement with our staff and continue to learn together. This process built trust and strengthened the professional relationships that laid the foundation for a school rich in character. Above all, I continue to urge all of our adult stakeholders to be the moral compass in the lives of their students/children.