The Center for the 4th and 5th Rs
(Respect and Responsibility)
The Center for the 4th and 5th Rs, located in the School of Education at the State University of New York at Cortland, was founded in 1994 by education professor Dr. Thomas Lickona. Its staff now includes Dr. Thomas Lickona, Director; Dr. Matthew Davidson, Research Director; Marthe Seales, administrative assistant; and Debra Finn administrative assistant.
The Center:
- Offers an annual Summer Institute in Character Education, which has trained more than 4,500 principals, teachers, and other educators from 35 states and 14 countries; sponsors an annual High School Conference and Fall Seminar; and provides on-site workshops and training.
- Promotes a comprehensive approach to character education that has been widely adopted in the field. This approach uses every phase of school life—the teacher’s example, the content of the curriculum, the instructional process, the rigor of academic standards, the handling of rules and discipline, and the school’s intellectual and moral climate—as opportunities for character development.
- Publishes a best practices newsletter, The Fourth and Fifth Rs (print and electronic versions available).
- Provides guidance and resources for assessment of character education.
- Conducts research on character education, including the national study, Smart & Good High Schools: Developing Excellence and Ethics for Success in School, Work, and Beyond. The 227-page report on this study was disseminated in September 2005 to 25,000 high school principals, public and private. It is available here.
- Conducts regional institutes and individual school trainings on “Smart & Good Schools.”
- Is developing a national Alliance of Smart & Good High Schools.