Character Building Programs Improve Student Educational Outcomes

From "KEY TO SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT: READING, WRITING, ARITHMETIC — AND CHARACTER?" on ScienceBlog:

A study of 20 elementary schools in Hawaii has found that a focused program to build social, emotional and character skills resulted in significantly improved overall quality of education, as evaluated by teachers, parents and students.

The concept includes organized activities to build character that go beyond more traditional rules or policies to control or punish problem behaviors. But it still takes only about an hour a week away from traditional education, and previous research has documented much lower numbers of suspensions, lower absenteeism, and better reading and math scores on standardized tests.