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The Six Pillars of Character

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Superintendent Horne strongly believes in the Six Pillars of Character program given its universal success over the years. The Six Pillars of Character are the core ethical values of CHARACTER COUNTS!

These values were identified by a nonpartisan, secular group of youth development experts as core ethical values that transcend cultural, religious, and socioeconomic differences.

When I was last Superintendent, from 2003 to 2011, we successfully implemented character counts and its six pillars:

Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Citizenship, and Caring.

We had a six pillars band that I played in. Unlike social and emotional learning, which has been a distraction from academics, Character Counts program was integrated into academic education such as students writing essays on each of the six pillars. As we work to renew the focus on academics, and eliminate distractions, Character Counts will provide an important balance to our students’ education.

A message from Scott Raecker, Executive Director of The Robert D. and Billie Ray Center at Drake University, the proud global home of CHARACTER COUNTS! serving over 8 million people worldwide:

CHARACTER COUNTS! provides a meaningful and measurable framework to help focus on character skills that shape a positive culture for students and prioritize character development. Through this effort, we can achieve improvement in students’ character, academic skills, and ensure their school is a safe and welcoming learning environment.

We are proud to partner with the Arizona Department of Education to positively impact schools through The Six Pillars of Character.

Over the past several years, CHARACTER COUNTS! has worked with many schools in Arizona, and we are looking forward to more Arizona schools utilizing CHARACTER COUNTS! in the future!

2024 Poster Contest

Matching Grant

FY25 Character Education Matching Grant – Year 2 Continuation.

Character Education Matching Grant Program §15-154.01

Any public or charter school that teaches a character education curriculum pursuant to section 15-719 is eligible for a state matching grant. The school shall provide matching monies from any lawful source, except that the school shall not use resources obtained from a federal character education grant as matching monies to obtain a second state character education grant.
The character education program shall be an age-specific, stand-alone character education curriculum.