Project LEGAL's

Character Education Public Policy Analyst

Public Policy Steps


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Defining the social problem

Your school will first need to select at least three problem topics and then specifically define a social problem for each topic. A social problem exists when at least some members of your school community feel that social conditions are undesirable. The following topics are taken from the Character Education grant application. (All schools in Region 10 must select topics one and two, and at least one other from the remaining topics). If your school administered the School As A Caring Community Profile—II (SCCP—II), the results may help your school to select one or two additional topics to analyze from this list or from problems related to the Six Pillars of the Aspen Declaration:

  1. discipline problems (a required topic for Region 10)
  2. student achievement(a required topic for Region 10)
  3. participation in extracurricular activities
  4. parental and community involvement
  5. faculty and administration involvement
  6. student and staff morale
Another source for identifying school social problems relates to the Six Pillars of the Aspen Declaration: respect, responsibility, trustworthiness, caring, justice and fairness, and civic virtue and citizenship. The extent to which these any of core ethical values are lacking could also be used to develop a problem statement. Examples might include:
  • Many students show disrespect toward other students (lack of respect)
  • Many students do not do their homework (lack of responsibility)
  • Some teachers do not do enough to help students with low achievement (lack of caring)
When your school has selected at least three topics, form committees for each topic. Each committee needs to specifically define the nature of the problem as it applies to your school. For example, what is one of the major specific problems that your school has regarding student discipline? If committee members identify several, then you may want to subdivide into subcommittees. Likewise, what is the school’s most pressing problem regarding student achievement? Are there too few honor students compared to prior years? Are too many students performing below grade level in reading? Again, you may wish to form subcommittees.

State your problem as a declarative sentence. Do not include any causes or policies in your statement.