IntroductionIn recent decades, the need for character education programs in American schools has been widely debated and has become increasingly popular, especially at the elementary level. However, the roots of character education in the United States date back to Horace Mann in the 1840s, who asserted that “character development was as important as academics in American schools” (USDE, 2011, para. 1 ). In response to more recent awareness of the importance of character education, the U.S. Congress authorized the Character Education Partnerships Program in 1994; and character education was reemphasized in 2001 in the No Child Left Behind Act (USDE, 2011). Due to the U.S. Department of Education's goals to "promote strong character and citizenship among our nation's youth" and increase student achievement, numerous federal resources as well as grants at the state and local levels were created to assist in the design, implementation, and maintenance of “high-quality opportunities for students to learn and understand the importance of strong character in their lives” (USDE, 2011, para 9). Additionally, President Bush increased funding for implementing character education programs in 2003, from $8 million to $25 million, following a White House conference at which included “nationally recognized experts” who met to discuss “the need for and effectiveness of character education programs” (USDE, 2003). , p. 1). To date, 18 states currently mandate character education in the education code; California is one of them (CEP, 2010). Additionally, of the 41 character education interventions listed on the U.S. Department of Education website, 28 have no studies meeting evidence standards, and...... middle of article. .....research on character education at the secondary level is paramount given the absence of such research correlating any type of character education program with student success.ReferencesCharacter Education Partnership. (2010). August 22, 2011 at http://www.character.org/index.cfm.Gay, LR, Mills, GE and Airasian, PW (2009) Educational Research: Skills for Analysis and Applications. (9th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. ISBN-10: 0135035015U.S. Ministry of Education. (2003). Character education is crucial to the education system, Paige says “cultural insensitivity” must stop; announces technical center for character education and civic engagement. Retrieved August 22, 2011 from http://www2.ed.gov.US Department of Education. (2011). Character education...our shared responsibility. Retrieved August 22, 2011 from http://www2.ed.gov.