EXCELLENCE & ETHICS

Updates from January, 2012

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  Power2Achieve Schools Receive State's Top Honor

  Kyle Baker posted in Character Blog, IEE & Partners' News, Power2Achieve Community at 6:48 pm on January 30, 2012 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Academics, award, AYP, ethics, excellence, Graduation, Kansas, performance (2), Power2Achieve (7)

  Post by Kyle Baker, Program Coordinator for the Institute for Excellence & Ethics.

   

  Northern Heights High School (Allen, KS), Clifton-Clyde Senior High School (Clyde, KS), and Weskan High School (Weskan Township, KS) have received the highest honor the state of Kansas bestows on K-12 schools, the Governor’s Award, which recognizes the top performing schools in the state.

  In order to receive this award, high schools must:

  • Achieve the Kansas “Standard of Excellence” in both reading and mathematics.
  • Made AYP (Annual Yearly Progress) in reading, math, and graduation rate.
  • Be among the top 5 percent of schools in reading and mathematics on state assessments.

   

  These three schools all currently utilize the Power2Achieve Foundations classroom curriculum through the their participation in the Kansas PCEP grant project (coordinated by Sue Kidd).

  In addition to utilizing Power2Achieve Foundations, each of these schools has also received multiple Culture of Excellence & Ethics Toolkit professional development workshops for the school’s entire faculty/staff, has used the Culture of Excellence & Ethics Assessment (CEEA) to assess the culture and climate of their school, and have learned to use that data to guide improvement strategies through IEE’s Using CEEA Data for School Improvement professional development workshop.

  These services were also provided through the Kansas PCEP project and the Toolkit workshops were delivered by IEE’s outstanding team of trainers in Kansas:  Kansas PCEP coach DeAnne Heersche and Excellence & Ethics Certified Trainers Jara Wilson, Audrey Neuschafer, Noalee McDonald-Augustine, Susan Johnson, and Mary Ghetto.

  Silver Lake Junior/Senior High School (Silver Lake, KS), another Governor’s Award winner, utilizes the CEEA survey (also made possible by the Kansas PCEP project).

  The recognition of these four school’s as Governor’s Award winners continues to confirm the positive impact a comprehensive implementation of Power2Achieve Foundations, Culture of Excellence & Ethics Toolkits, and the Culture of Excellence & Ethics Assessment produces in schools.

  You can read more about the Kansas Governor’s Award on the Kansas State Department of Education’s website here.

   

  Congratulations to Northern Heights High School, Clifton-Clyde Senior High School, Weskan High School, and Silver Lake Junior/High School!

  

   

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  Corporate Creativity & Innovation

  Eric Martin posted in Character Blog, Excellence & Ethics in Business, IEE & Partners' News at 7:47 am on November 17, 2011 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  

  Eric Martin is the Director of Outreach at Character Counts In Iowa (CCII), a non-profit institute housed at Drake University in Des Moines, IA.  CCII proudly partners with IEE to serve as Iowa’s Excellence & Ethics Regional Center.

  Over the past year, we’ve had the opportunity to partner with Hy-Vee a large retail and grocery store chain that is based in Iowa and spans across eight states in Midwest with more than 220 stores. Much of our professional development work with numerous leadership teams within the company have focused on enhancing the corporation’s strong core fundamentals; Helpful, Friendly, Honest, Respectful and Dedication.

  These fundamental values are a rich tradition and key to the success of this rapidly growing company.  Through our work, we’ve aligned their company’s fundamentals within the moral and performance character framework.  This alignment has provided us with a new lens to view these core fundamentals. Together, we are taking an in depth look at how these look, feel and sound in action among employees, vendors and customers.

  In addition to the continued promotion of the fundamental beliefs, the President of Hy-Vee recently encouraged his store directors to support and inspire creativity across the company.

  In response to the President’s interest in promoting creativity and innovation, we’ve partnered with their education and training department to develop a course for their executive leadership program called Hy-Vee University. This training program provides extensive learning and developmental opportunities for future store leaders. The course that we have designed is built around the following Culture of Excellence & Ethics Tools that engages creativity, innovation, critical thinking and problem solving:

  • Creative Solutions System
  • Group Brainstorming Guidelines
  • Innovation Stimulators (SCAMPER Technique)
  • Innovation Map

  Participants were given an assignment to take these research-based tools back to their stores and use them to support and encourage creative thinking.  Our training team is eager to meet again with this cohort in February to learn how they used these tools with their employees.

  We are looking forward to the continued use of these and other Culture of Excellence & Ethics Tools to meet the needs of our corporate clients across Iowa.

  

  Hy-Vee University - Culture of Excellence & Ethics Innovation Map

   

   

   

  

   
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  CEEA Included in Federal School Climate Survey Compendium

  Vlad Khmelkov posted in IEE & Partners' News at 11:40 am on March 22, 2011 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: assessment (5), CEEA (2), school climate (2), school culture (2), surveys

  On March 8 2011, IEE’s Culture of Excellence & Ethics Assessment (CEEA) surveys were included in the School Climate Survey Compendium compiled by the Safe and Supportive Schools Technical Assistance Center of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. The review of the psychometric information conducted by the S3 TAC recognizes the surveys included in the Compendium as valid and reliable assessment tools that can be used for school climate needs assessment: http://safesupportiveschools.ed.gov/index.php?id=133.

  The initial list consists of 8 instruments. Of these, only two instruments are publicly available, and CEEA surveys are one of these two options. IEE is proud of this accomplishment and expresses gratitude to the John Templeton and Sanford N. McDonnell Foundations for their financial support, as well as to students, staff, and parents in many schools and districts across the country that participated in pilot- and field-testing of the current version of CEEA surveys in 2009 and 2010.

  CEEA surveys version 4.5 are the result of 10 years of intensive design and testing work. In-depth information about the survey history, theoretical background, psychometrics, sample forms and reports, as well as assessment services offered by IEE, can be found on our website:

  http://excellenceandethics.com/assess/ceea.php

  

   
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  New assessment options added

  Vlad Khmelkov posted in IEE & Partners' News at 4:47 pm on February 22, 2011 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: CEEA assessment, school culture assessment

  In the last several months, the research team here at IEE worked diligently on our assessment options. I’m happy to announce several new developments.

  One of the most exciting is an addition of a full range of developmentally appropriate CEEA surveys. We have worked closely with the staff at Allen Creek ES in Pittsford, NY, to develop and pilot-test Primary and Intermediate versions of the survey. The primary version may be generally recommended for grades 3-5, which makes it a survey of choice for most elementary schools. The intermediate version is most applicable for grades 5-6, but can also be easily extended to grades 7-8. Thus, it can be used as either upper elementary, or as middle school survey. The original survey for middle and high schools is directed toward high schools, but can also be used in middle schools with grades 7-8. With this developmental overlap, we now have options for most schools. We are continuing to work on a version that would be appropriate for early elementary schools, grades 1-2, and hope to have it finalized by fall 2011.

  The second development is revision of the conceptual model of CEEA and of the surveys for versions 4.5. This work clarified labels for the scales to make them consistent with the language that schools are familiar with through a range of current educational initiatives. In addition, extensive psychometric analysis of the data collected in 2009-2010 allowed us to shorten the length of the survey without losing its reliability and validity. Version 4.5 of the student survey contains 72 items (versus 110 in the previous version), whereas the faculty/staff survey is down to 100 items from 139. This reduces the time requirements both for survey administration and for review of the results.

  Finally, we have developed a range of Excellence & Ethics Inventories. These are short (28 items or fewer) assessment tools compiled from CEEA, that can be administered in under 15 minutes. They allow a school to assess a single focus area or area of concern for internal benchmarking.

  We have updated most of the documents on our assessment page, and are continuing to add relevant information. The new surveys are available for review both in paper-and-pencil and online formats. Please check them out and let us know if you have questions of suggestions for further improvement of our assessment services:

  http://excellenceandethics.com/assess/ceea.php

  

   
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  Pictures from Leadership Academy for HS Students!

  Kyle Baker posted in IEE & Partners' News at 10:49 am on February 15, 2011 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  

  On February 12th, IEE hosted an Excellence & Ethics Leadership Academy for high school students.  The topic was “Integrity-in-Action” and the participants worked on identifying core beliefs and values, learning concrete ethical decision-making strategies, and developing skills needed for leading a life of high impact & high integrity.  In addition, they ate a lot of pizza, donuts, and candy and were able to meet and interact with students from other schools and communities!

  Check out the Pictures by clicking here!

  

   
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  2010 Ray Character Award video

  Institute for Excellence & Ethics posted in IEE & Partners' News at 11:53 am on November 17, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: character award

  As you know, on October 23rd Matt Davidson, President of IEE, and Dr. Tom Lickona, Director of the Center for the 4th & 5th Rs at SUNY Cortland, received the 2010 Robert D. Ray Pillar of Character Award from Character Counts In Iowa!

  See a video prepared by our friends at ICD and KDSM-TV (Des Moines, IA) for this event.

  

   
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  The 2010 Ray Award goes to Davidson and Lickona!

  RichParisi posted in IEE & Partners' News, IEE Insider at 9:28 am on October 15, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  

  On October 23rd Matt Davidson, President of IEE, and Dr. Tom Lickona, Director of the Center for the 4th & 5th R’s at SUNY-Cortland, received the 2010 Robert D. Ray Pillar of Character Award from Character Counts In Iowa!

  Congratulations to Matt & Tom!

  http://www.excellenceandethics.com/news/101410_Davidson_Lickona.pdf

  

   
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  Central New York Community Foundation Meeting

  Matt Davidson posted in IEE & Partners' News at 10:05 am on August 19, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  

  Yesterday we had a planning meeting with schools that are working with us on a Central New York Community Foundation Grant.  The grant involves three schools–two Parochial Schools,  Bishop Grimes and Cathedral at Pompei, and one public school, LaFayette).  The schools will be utilizing a Power2Achieve Starter Toolkit, that includes a core battery of tools for shaping character and culture (Compact-4-Excellence, Attitude-Effort-Improvement Rubric, Two-Way Communication, Integrity-in-Action Checklist, Goal Achievement Map & Checklist).  It’s exciting for us to have local support to work with local schools.   Today got the planning under way in earnest, we’ll post more about the project as it comes fully online.

  

   
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  CEEA v4.2 Reliability/Validity Reflections

  Institute for Excellence & Ethics posted in IEE & Partners' News, IEE Insider at 4:43 pm on May 10, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: assessment (5), CEEA (2), research (3)

  I just posted current validity information about CEEA v4.2 (formerly, CREE) on IEE’s website. Currently, 12 schools have collected the surveys from at least part of their student body and staff, and we had data from over 20 schools in the fall.

  The preliminary data results can be seen at: http://excellenceandethics.com/assess/CEEA_v4.2_ReliabilityValidity.pdf

  As I shared before, all scales, including the ones added in version 4.2, have Cronbach’s alphas that range from .83 to .94. These are excellent results for the internal consistency of the scales supporting reliability and validity of CEEA. Validity of a survey is further demonstrated by how well the pattern of relationships identified in the data confirms what can be expected theoretically. Let me mention just a couple of observations that point to strong validity of CEEA.

  Individuals tend to perceive themselves more positively than others, especially if they are asked to report on ability, rather than actual behavior. In these data, just as one would expect, students on average report much higher perceptions of their own Competencies of Excellence/Ethics (3.74/3.82), compared to their reports of peer behaviors captured in the scales of Culture of Excellence/Ethics (2.88/2.91).

  When examining the pattern of bivariate correlations in student data, the highest predictors of student competencies and school culture are faculty practices impacting excellence/ethics and faculty support for & engagement of students. At the same time, Student Safety is barely correlated with students’ reports of competencies and strongly correlated with their perceptions of student culture. Again, taken together, this pattern of relationships confirms what would be expected theoretically.

  There is a similar pattern in the faculty data. Faculty give highest responses on the items about their own practices impacting excellence and ethics (4.17 and 4.09). However, in the correlations data, we see that these same scales are just barely correlated with faculty assessments of student competencies and student culture of excellence and ethics (from .111 to .169). Instead, faculty perceptions of what other faculty do (measured by such scales as Faculty Support for & Engagement of Students, Faculty Beliefs & Behaviors) are all much strong predictors of student competencies and culture (from .412 to .553).

  For students, perceptions of peers (the Culture scales) are only modestly correlated with reports of students’ own competencies (from .269 to .306). In faculty data, however, student culture scales are stronger predictors of student competencies than any of the faculty practices/behaviors (from .610 to .688). This is to be expected, as faculty tend to think similarly about students and somewhat differently about themselves and colleagues. (In statistical and research methods language, one would refer to this pattern of findings as evidence of divergent/convergent validity).

  More work remains to be done to collect the remaining data and generate school CEEA (CREE) reports. While giving strong support to the validity of the instrument, these results also identify a range of concerns, such as the discrepancy in faculty’s beliefs about their own work and what happens around them in the school I just mentioned. When studied carefully and discussed with an open mind by school leadership teams and faculty, the CEEA reports should provide excellent entry points for serious dialogue and decision-making for improvement.

  

   
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  Business Council Leader Highlights Moral & Performance Character Needed for 21st C Success

  Matt Davidson posted in IEE & Partners' News at 10:27 am on May 7, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  

  A recent editorial in the Des Moines Register by  Elliott Smith, Executive Director of the Iowa Business Council, highlights the essential need for developing the moral and performance character competencies targeted in our Power2 programming.  The full text submitted by Mr. Smith can be accessed here IBC op ed re IDoE visionary leadership – Apr 2010 _5_.  It’s a hard driving and nuanced perspective on preparing youth to thrive in the 21st century.  I’ve excerpted (and added highlighting) below to the parts that highlight direct connections to our approach.  With our partners at the Institute for Character Development we have have worked closely with the IBC to align our programming with their strategic growth areas.  Power2 programming is an essential part of the rigorous and innovative education being used by schools in Iowa and around the country to prepare youth for success in the 21st C.

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  April 26, 2010

  IOWA NEEDS VISIONARY LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION

  By Elliott Smith – Executive Director, Iowa Business Council

   In the 4^th century B.C., Aristotle said, “The fate of empires depends on the education of youth.”  Today, more than ever, education is the key determinant of who will best succeed in the 21^st century, when technology dominates as never before.

   It is difficult to discuss the concept of economic development without recognizing its critical dependence on a rigorous education system.  The new “typical worker” will be asked to competently apply basic math, reading, and science skills in ever-more creative and innovative business environments.  The proficiency of educators to stimulate and engage the interest of students in these areas will determine the extent to which Iowa’s economy continues to grow and compete in the world marketplace.  IBC believes:

   — Our children and young adults must be prepared for the demands of today’s global society,engaged with an innovative and vibrant preK-16 education system that:

   spurs student achievement in key subject areas like math, science, reading, problem solving, creative thinking, team building, cultural awareness, foreign languages, financial literacy, physical and nutrition education, and the arts;

  • incorporates the latest best practices and current technologies;
  • drives administrative efficiency throughout the system; 
  • promotes excellence and ethics in all aspects of performance and moral character, such as health and wellness, effort, diligence, work ethic, positive attitude, self-discipline, honesty, respect, dependability, and integrity;
  • encourages and facilitates professional development for teachers and merit-based assessment of their performance; and,
  • enhances a meaningful lifelong learning experience for all Iowans.

   — To be most effective, the academic opportunities for the flow of students between Iowa’s secondary and post-secondary school systems need to be as seamless as possible.  It is essential to have healthy, aggressive, and accessible post-secondary institutions that offer advanced learning opportunities to high schools.  

  This state owes much of its current stature to the investment of human and financial resources made by past generations.  Going forward, our obligation is to renew those commitments in education, research, and innovation.  This will ensure that Iowans continue to benefit from the remarkable opportunities offered by the global economy and its considerable underpinning in technology.

   # # #

   Elliott Smithis Executive Director of the Iowa Business Council based in Des Moines.  He can be reached at 515.246.1700 or esmith@iowabusinesscouncil.org.