LACE Program Description

Leadership Academy for Character Education (LACE) held two sessions of orientation, Best Practices in Character Education, at Alverno College on Monday, September 14, 2009. Participants reported wonderful, meaningful content and shared the various adversarial elements of their schools and how they overcame them through a systemic change in the culture.

Four great school leaders spoke of their journey, which was packed with information, ideas and gave an excellent understanding of the benefits of participating in LACE. Each of these principals had gone through the LACE program and described how LACE made it possible to transform their schools. One of the presenters repeated a Teddy Roosevelt quote, “To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.”

During the past two years, Alverno College, in cooperation with WCEP, CEP and St. Louis LACE has been developing a formal curriculum and program for managing and conducting the course that has been taught in St. Louis for 10 years. Many school districts in the St. Louis area currently require all of their school leaders to attend this program. The St. Louis school system has a five-year program to get all of their school leaders trained with LACE knowledge.

In January 2010, LACE begain in Wisconsin with one session per month. To-date, it provides participants with:

  • Presentations from some of the best-known national experts in character education.
  • Foundational knowledge about character education
  • Strategies for implementing character education in your school without adding another program or taking time from your already packed daily schedule. (Teachers in character-focused schools often indicate increased instructional time.)
  • An introduction to award-winning schools and a chance to talk with the leaders of those schools.
  • A library of books and materials to help you learn more about character education and how to implement it in your school.
  • A series of steps that will help you develop a character education plan for your school.
  • Feedback from mentors during the development of each phase of your school plan.
  • A chance to learn from peers who share your desire to educate well-rounded, ethical students.
  • A way to improve to improve climate and instruction for all students, minimizing the need for tier 2 or 3 interventions in either the Response to Intervention (RTI) or Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) approaches.
  • A 3 or 6 credit option through Alverno.

Through Alverno, WCEP is offering a substantial discount to the typical program costs for those who will be the founding participants in the LACE program Wisconsin, which will be an annual program.

Wisconsin has a long tradition of innovative education. This is yet another element of Wisconsin’s contribution to the national scene. Come and join us.

You can access information on the LACE program from this website.

 

    The maximum number of participants in the program will be 30. The most qualified will be accepted, determined by the Alverno committee that is responsible for the program.