For more than two decades, one central part of the mission of the Center for Character and Citizenship at the University of Missouri–St. Louis has been a simple but powerful question: What actually works in character education?
To answer this question, CCC scholars have led extensive research efforts focused on collecting, analyzing, and translating evidence from the character education literature. This work—known as What Works in Character Education—examined dozens of studies to identify practices that consistently support students’ moral, social, and civic development.
Cultivating Virtue for Leadership
Cultivating Virtue for Leadership (CViL) is a virtue-based model of servant leadership developed by the Center for Character and Citizenship (CCC). CViL supports school leaders in cultivating the personal and organizational virtues needed to lead with integrity, care, and purpose—creating school cultures where educators and students can flourish.
Grounded in research on effective school leadership and evidence-based character education, CViL positions leadership not as command and control, but as service, stewardship, and moral responsibility.