Core Values
Identify the core virtues that are consistent with your identity and purpose as a school community, specifying those habits that you would like to see practiced among all the members of the school. Most school communities choose to engage in a democratic process of discussing and selecting these core character traits. These virtues (such as respect, perseverance, loyalty, self-discipline, and kindness) will become your starting point in shaping a strong moral ethos.

Partnerships with the Home
Invite parents to collaborate with teachers in a joint effort to help students acquire and develop integrity. Schools need both the commitment and the trust of parents to help children become morally responsible. Parents and teachers must work together to help students understand what it means to take pride in their work and to be personally accountable for what they choose to do or not to do. They can also jointly assist students in their development of intellectual virtues and skills, such as diligence, concentration, listening, planning, and organizing.

Teamwork
Divide teachers and administrators into either grade-level or subject-area teams. Have these brainstorm possible ways to create a stronger moral ethos in the classroom. Together they should carefully go over the school's curriculum, assessing its moral richness (or poverty). Then they should work together to develop and exchange lesson plans that tap the moral dimensions of a particular story, event, experiment, or topic. Science teachers need to ask themselves, for example, how conducting a science lab can become a character-building experience for students. Teamwork with one's lab partner, responsibility and care for the instruments and materials used in the experiment, diligence in striving to get the best possible results are among the many lessons that can be included in a science lab.

A Formal Launch
Introduce your character education initiative at a formal assembly for the entire school community. Parents, as well as school, political, and religious leaders, should be invited to celebrate this new effort. This is not intended to serve as a pep rally but rather as a forum to acquaint the community with the school's mission statement, core virtues, policy revisions, and plans for implementing character education schoolwide.

Regular Meetings and Assessment
Make character education a priority item in regular faculty meetings. Discuss and assess.

Involved Staff
Involve your library, custodial, administrative, and cafeteria staff, as well as volunteers and bus drivers, to achieve greater resonance. Their work, example, and daily involvement with students should embrace character education. Bus drivers should insist on courteous behavior. Cafeteria workers should expect students to clean up after themselves. Librarians can work with teachers to feature books on character education that inspire students.

Involve Students
Give students stake in the school's character education initiative. Engage students in creating classroom constitutions and defining behavior expectations. Make sure they know that the school counts on their insights, feedback example, and leadership in sustaining a community of virtue. Invite students to fill out surveys each year with candid comments on the school's climate, academic classes, and extracurricular activities. Invite them as well to describe how they use their time and their level of engagement in school life. Students need to see that the quality of friendship and relationships in the school is key to the quality of life at the school. Therefore, the school's mission and core virtues should be regularly and carefully reviewed with them.

Integrated Extracurricular Activities
Athletics, performing arts, and clubs are important for all students to practice the school's core virtues. Students need to see that there is a larger purpose than fun and games behind these activities-to help them develop good character. The language of virtue and high expectations should be maintained in all of the school's sponsored activities, events, and field trips.

Relevant Evaluation
It is important to return to your mission statement and core virtues, to reflect on where your school is and where it is heading as a community. What can be done, for example, to promote greater collegiality and support among all the adults in the school? Take a look at absenteeism in your school (among both students and teachers), the condition of the school grounds, the tenor of schoolwide events, the atmosphere in the cafeteria, the language and social interactions in the hallways, the state of the lavatories-to what extent do these corners of your school's life represent who you are and what you stand for.
In the last decade, American corporations have done it in large part by transforming their ethos. In the corporate world, a strong ethos is what distinguishes a mediocre business from an outstanding one. A company's ethos is inspired by its core values and purpose. The extent to which these are embedded in the staff's thinking has a great impact on their job satisfaction and productivity. What matters most in a successful corporation is not its competitive edge but the community and commitment it creates. Evaluation, then, is shared deeply. Like outstanding corporations, the schools of character we have found are able to state with confidence who they are and what they stand for. It is these shared ideals and principles that govern these schools' lives and serve as their social glue. Building a community of virtue requires a commitment to these shared ideals, ongoing reflection, understanding, and assessment. A community is sustained and communicated through relationships of trust and respect-the connective tissue that binds together students, teachers, administrators, staff, and, by extension, parents and community members.