Ethical Literacy® Approach—Capacity Building

An Ethical Literacy team of eight to ten people is established at the school. This team participates in a two-day Ethical Literacy training with an Ethical Literacy coach, on site at the participating school.  All Ethical Literacy training includes these common elements:

• Basic Ethical Fitness®:  Teams are acquainted with the four sessions, “Awareness,” “Values Definition,” “Dilemma Analysis,” and, “Dilemma Resolution” that comprise Ethical Fitness. Team members are trained to deliver specific activities from these sessions.
• Schools of Integrity:  Teams explore the ten common findings from this project and consider the results from their school’s culture assessment. They’re trained to deliver specific activities that will address identified needs or starting points in their school community.
• Communications and Action Planning:  Teams are encouraged to identify their school constituents and to think about the best ways to build buy in for the Ethical Literacy® initiative.  They determine the sequence for reaching different constituents—start with teachers?  Or, put students in the lead? Or, work on deeper understanding at the leadership level first?—and the specific activities or steps to carry out. 
• Documentation and scheduling:  By the end of the second day of Ethical Literacy® training, teams have:
  1. Understanding and facility with key vocabulary and concepts about ethics, including why ethics matters, core ethical values and ethical decision making.
  2. Grounding in best practices for helping school communities support ethics, and a clear sense of their own school’s strengths and needs in this regard.
  3. A month-by-month action plan for the first year of work, and a broad plan for future work