Character Education in Harrisburg School District: A Partnership with Facing History and Ourselves

What happened to the nine African American students who integrated a high school in 1957 in Little Rock, Arkansas, and how the community reacted, has made a profound impact district-wide in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. This is the result of a partnership with the district and Facing History and Ourselves and the introduction of Choices in Little Rock, a case study about the desegregation of Central High School.

For years, the Harrisburg district has had many of the same problems that face many urban school districts today, including a high drop-out rate in a community affected by high poverty and inequity. Some parts of the city have never fully recovered from the 1972 flood of the Susquehanna River after Hurricane Agnes, which destroyed many homes and businesses, and was the beginning of urban flight which left a mostly poor and minority population in the center city area.

Under the control of Harrisburg's Mayor Steven Reed and the educational leadership of its Superintendent, Dr. Gerald W. Kohn, the district has made gains during the last several years in graduation rates, attendance and student learning and brought in programs that focus on prevention and character education in the elementary grades. Judy Nuss, District Director of Social and Emotional Learning, has led these efforts in collaboration with her colleagues in the district as well as partner organizations. But the district knew they needed to do even more to address the needs of the middle school students.

"It was very clear that in our 7th and 8th grades that we needed to do some major intervention," said Nuss. Fortunately, in 2006 the district was awarded the federal grant "Partnerships in Character Education Project." According to Nuss, the purpose of their project is to infuse character education into the 7th and 8th grade curriculum so that students will learn to demonstrate attributes of character such as empathy, self-control, assertive participation, respect, justice, fairness and cooperation.¹ She began looking for evidence-based programs that met those needs.

It was at the annual conference sponsored by the "Center for Social and Emotional Education" in New York City, that she attended a Facing History workshop. There, she connected with Facing History, while exploring possibilities for the grant proposal. The workshop was so powerful that Nuss tracked down Facing History's Director of Program Growth and Development, Molly Schen. Together they planned a two year program for students to experience during 7th and 8th grades. Central to the development of the module was considering what the students would need to be more engaged in learning, and from that, how they could help students become more aware of themselves and others and interact in more positive ways. They chose Facing History's resource, Choices in Little Rock, a teaching unit that focuses on efforts to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957, for 7th grade, and selected Holocaust and Human Behavior for 8th grade. Facing History's historical case study approach explores decisions people make as citizens in a democracy and helps students understand that seemingly small choices can have a lasting impact on society. Both resources follow the Facing History scope and sequence--beginning with exploring identity, considering group membership, focusing on a historical case study and the legacies of that history and culminating with reflecting on civic participation.

In the spring of 2007, teams of 7th grade teachers from four schools in the district attended a professional development on Choices. Facing History's Molly Schen and Associate Director for Staff Development Phredd MatthewsWall facilitated a six-day workshop which provided strategies and approaches for engaging students in challenging conversations about race and the legacies of this history.

Mel Bannister, who teaches 7th grade English at Downey Elementary and attended the workshop, said it brought forth an awareness of the history that the middle school students typically don't get to learn about.

"Molly and Phredd were absolutely phenomenal-willing to go above and beyond and listen to all of our questions and give us plenty of strategies. They gave us ways to implement [this curriculum] in the classroom that would make it comfortable not only for the students but for the teachers as well, because we are just as new to it as the students are," she said.

The workshop was also one of the first times the district brought together the 7th and 8th grade teachers across schools for a common experience. Many of the teachers were not used to working collaboratively in teams, having been working in isolation for the most part, in their schools.

"They were bowled over. I have not seen our teachers be so engaged in adult learning and just embrace it," said Nuss.

The teachers began to develop an interdisciplinary approach and to practice working collaboratively.  After the training, the teachers created a Facing History Curriculum group and worked through the summer to develop the unit and integrate it into the district curriculum.

That fall, Bannister was excited about the unit and couldn't wait to get started. She created a blog about the course in October 2007. For Bannister, the blog was a way to tweak her lessons, reflect about how she felt about teaching the lesson and consider what she might do differently next time. It was also a way to share what she was doing with a first year teacher she was mentoring.

"He was working a few days behind me, so it was helpful for him to learn from my mistakes, if you will. It made the lessons a little easier for a 1st year teacher," Bannister reflected. (Explore Bannister's Blog about teaching Choices.)

Bannister said a break-through lesson for her was the video "A Girl Like Me." Produced by Kiri Davis when she was 16, the 7-minute film recreates Kenneth Clark's famous "doll experiment," in which black and white children are asked to choose between dolls that are identical except for skin color. In Davis' modern day experiment, like in Clark's, both white and black children preferred the white dolls.

Bannister said this revelation was when the legacies of segregation and racism really hit home for her students. "It made a huge impact on the kids, as far as self-evaluating and relating the history lesson right to themselves," she said.

Throughout the course students reviewed historical documents, read Melba Pattillo Beals' memoir, Warriors Don't Cry, and wrote daily reflections about the decisions individuals made, what influenced those decisions and the impact of those choices. Students made connections to choices they make in their own lives and learned about the role of bystanders and upstanders (those who speak up or act on behalf of justice for others.)

The students also had the amazing opportunity to hear Dr. Terrence Roberts speak about his experience as one of the Little Rock Nine. Nuss recalled this was a powerful moment for the students and teachers, and linked the school to the broader community with an event hosted by the Mayor.

Fifty years after the events at Central High School, the choices people made then resonated with students today and helped them reflect about their choices today. Wrote one student,

"Choices can be powerful, not just for personal situations, but for world public situations. No matter how many pressures you are under, you can have the power to change the course of history for yet another greater good."

Pennsylvania State University's Prevention Center is evaluating the program and is collecting data from the first year of implementation. The district has already planned to make it a permanent part of the seventh grade curriculum. Starting in January 2009, Facing History's Holocaust and Human Behavior unit will be implemented in the eighth grade

It's been bigger than we ever dreamed," said Nuss.

Footnote 1: Judy Nuss, "A Collection of Student Writing Relevant to Their Study of the Desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957," Harrisburg School District, June 2008.