M-DCPS WINS $1.5 MILLION FEDERAL GRANT
TO BOOST CHARACTER EDUCATION

MIAMI – The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) a $1.5 million grant to support the District in teaching nine core values to its students. The grant was one of only three awarded this year from 186 proposals nationally.

M-DCPS exhibited one of those core values – pursuit of excellence – in snaring the competitive grant from the Partnership in Character Education program.  The other eight key values approved by the School Board in 1995 as the basis for the local character education efforts are citizenship, cooperation, fairness, honesty, kindness, integrity, respect and responsibility.

Last year, School Board Chair Frank Bolaños pushed for the District to pursue outside funding to review its character education curriculum and to increase teacher and parent training in that content.

“It is essential that our schools give students a compass of values to guide them through difficult straits in their lives,’’ Bolaños said Wednesday. “I am glad that our efforts were recognized and funding awarded to support this important effort.”

As part of a secondary school framework he presented to the School Board last spring, Superintendent Rudolph F. “Rudy” Crew called for mandatory character education and ethics classes in all District middle and high schools.  Schools are using this year to plan for changes that will take effect next school year.

The federal grant will allow the District to expand character education to every school in the county by improving teaching materials and providing regular training for teachers.  In elementary schools, the grant will pay to create materials for parents to use at home.

An important element of the expanded character education offerings will be collaboration with community leaders and agencies to ensure that the skills and knowledge students acquire matches the challenges they face in the “real world.”

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