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Wisconsin's Department of Public Instruction has taken a significant and progressive action in the field of character education with the creation of its Standards of the Heart in its K-12 English/Language Arts curriculum.

Developing the standards focuses K-12 students on "becoming caring, contributing, productive, and responsible members of society. To help students become contributing citizens, the school curriculum must reflect a clear commitment to equip students with the skills, attitudes, values and knowledge necessary to achieve the ideal."

Wisconsin has identified seven characteristics of schools that promote life-skills character development. They are:

• Promoting core values

• Creating a safe, disciplined educational environment

• Shaping family and community involvement.

• Addressing societal risk prevention issues.

• Encouraging positive, caring relationships.

• Engaging students' minds through developing interactive and challenging classroom settings.

• Seeking student high expectations to do their best and model positive behavior.

The seven identified characteristics are now integrated into the K-12 literature throughout the state's curriculum to achieve reading and language arts standards such as presentation of literary genres; providing oral and writing interpretive responses; and exploring broad-base knowledge of universal themes in literature such as love and duty, heroism, reality and illusion, death and rebirth and explain how these themes are developed in a particular work of literature.

Each of the seven characteristics are explored in multi-grade level literature recommendations, grades K-3; 4-6, and 7-12 with accompanying classroom teaching-learning strategies to present character education themes.

Elizabeth Burmaster, Superintendent of State Public Instruction, said, "This guide is a resource for parents and educators to use in choosing quality children's literature that exemplifies positive character development."