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The National Heritage Academies charter school network educates more than 59,000 students across its 80-plus schools in nine states. While it might be one of those much-maligned for-profit operators, multiple studies have found positive academic results for the network.
But National Heritage Academies’ test scores are not the most interesting part of their story. The network is particularly intriguing because they have a specific focus on character formation and moral development.
I had a chance to chat with Chanavia Patterson, the Director of School Quality for National Heritage Academies who also happens to be a former school principal in the network and Michigan Charter School Administrator of the Year. I had some questions about how they formed character, and she was kind enough to answer them.
Michael McShane: Character formation and moral development form a central pillar of your approach. What are the characteristics you would like your students to exhibit?
Chanavia Patterson: Public education bears a vital responsibility to prepare students to be prepared for success, both academically and throughout their lives. At National Heritage Academies, our moral focus curriculum was designed to cultivate the skills, behaviors, and virtues students will need to contribute to their communities. Throughout the school year, our students study nine virtues:
- Wisdom to make good choices.
- Respect to treat others the way they want to be treated.
- Gratitude to be thankful for all the good things happening in their lives.
- Self-control to control their emotions, actions, and reactions to others.
- Perseverance to work hard to reach their goals.
- Courage to trust they have the strength to do difficult things.
- Encouragement to be there for others when they need motivation.
- Compassion to care for and support others when they need help.
- Integrity to do what is right, even if it is hard.
McShane: Why focus on moral formation, why not just concentrate on academics?
Patterson: Learning these virtues is as important as anything else a child will learn at school. Knowing how to do the right thing and treating others with respect and kindness will impact every aspect of their lives for many years to come. When we talk to families who are considering our schools, we hear over and over that the focus on moral formation is an important factor and they appreciate how we build it into the school day.
In the classroom, virtues help our students build positive relationships with their teachers and with other students, and ultimately build a stronger school community. When everyone is using these virtues, it makes our schools safe, caring places to learn and grow. Outside the classroom, it reinforces the strong moral values that help children interact with their friends, families, and communities with respect and care.
McShane: Your schools operate in diverse communities where families might have different religious traditions or values. How do you unite your school communities around a shared vision of moral formation?
Patterson: Our schools, particularly those in Detroit, serve extremely diverse communities. At Hamtramck Academy, more than 70% of our students are English Language Learners—many of those students are new to the United States. Alvin Ward, the principal of Hamtramck Academy, will tell you that his top priority is to make sure the school offers students a welcoming environment. The Moral Focus virtues are a significant part of that because it all comes back to how we (students, teachers, parents) treat each other. The idea of treating each other with kindness and respect transcends different religious and cultural traditions. We do work closely with parents to make sure that students and families have the opportunity to share what makes them unique. Each year, for example, Mr. Ward and his team host “Multicultural Day,” where families come—many wearing native garments—and share their culture with their classmates. This builds a shared understanding and respect among members of our school community.
McShane: What do you do, specifically, to try and inculcate these values?
Patterson: At each of our schools, we aim to develop students’ hearts as well as their minds. In order to do that, we integrate the Moral Focus virtues into our curriculum by identifying a “virtue of the month” that teachers incorporate into their lesson plans. The students are introduced to the virtues through storytelling, group discussion, and fun activities. Through these lessons, students build and maintain strong personal character and develop traits needed to achieve academic success and become good citizens.
We also recognize that parents are a crucial partner in instilling Moral Focus virtues. When I was principal of Detroit Enterprise Academy, parent engagement was a significant part of my plans to create an excellent school. When we have parents in the school, we are able to share how we are introducing and learning about virtues, so that they can support our efforts at home. At one of my schools, the principal walks around with moral focus bracelets. As students are exhibiting the virtues on a daily basis, they earn a bracelet right off of her arm. She shares this with parents, and parents now ask their children if they earned a bracelet and if so, how. This keeps the conversation going from school to home.
McShane: I worry that a lot of character and moral formation curriculum ends up getting watered down, essentially amounting to “be a good person.” When you talk about courage or integrity or wisdom how do you make sure that those aren’t just platitudes, but are real things that students can define and live their lives by?
Patterson: We make these real things for students by incorporating them into daily classroom living – such as social contracts on how students and their teachers agree to show up and be present every day, activities designed to provide the space for students to learn coping skills that will benefit them now and in the future, assignments that help students link these concepts (character and moral formation) to real-world examples – from historical, to present day, to the future, and think about how they can in turn apply that to their own lives.
The discussion becomes real because we’re engaging kids in thinking about how they apply these concepts – how to walk the talk, if you will.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
