Social & Character Development

Research Program

The Social and Character Development (SACD) Research Program is a three-year multi-site randomized field trial that examines the efficacy of school-based programs designed to promote positive social and character development, increase prosocial behavior, and reduce problem behavior in elementary schoolchildren. The U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES), in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), initiated the SACD research program in 2003. IES awarded grants to seven research institutions and a contract to Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. to work in partnership with IES and NCIPC on the implementation and evaluation of seven school-wide social and character development programs. The multi-site evaluation tracks the development of a 3^rd grade cohort of children from Fall 2004 to Spring 2007 in 88 schools across six states.