Toward a Science of Character Education

A growing body of research on character education offers the opportunity to derive lessons on effective practice. While there is little focused research on the effectiveness of specific practices, reviews of effective programs have been mined for well over a decade to reach conclusions about “what works in character education.” More recent reviews and meta-analyses offer the opportunity for a review of reviews. This article examines 8 reviews and identifies 42 evidence-based practices. However, such a list can be unwieldy by itself. Hence, a conceptual framework of 6 foundational character educational principles (PRIMED) is presented and used as an organizational structure for the 42 practices. In addition, a comparison is made of practices that have been shown to support academic achievement and those shown to foster character development, showing substantial overlap in effective academic and character practices.