Communities of Excellence Overview

Communities of Excellence – Living the 8 Keys (CoE) is a student life skills and character development program that unites community leaders, businesses, organizations, educators and parents in a common goal of building excellence and creating a socially aware, capable, responsible, caring community of young people.

This program features the 8 Keys of Excellence, which were developed over 25 years ago by Bobbi DePorter to help guide students attending her learning and life skills summer enrichment program, SuperCamp. The Keys consist of eight principles Bobbi identified as common traits shared by a number of successful people whom she studied from many walks of life who maintained personal excellence. You can get definitions and descriptions of all 8 Keys, by clicking here.

School Character Program

CoE’s school character program is implemented in classrooms throughout the school year. Teachers begin the year by presenting an overview lesson of the 8 Keys of Excellence to their students. They focus on one Key per month, starting with a Key lesson early in the month and integrating the Key into the curriculum in a number of ways, including student journaling, writing assignments, and test preparation tips.

A Communities of Excellence – Living the 8 Keys school program includes the following:

• Training for teachers and school administrators to introduce them to the 8 Keys of Excellence and provide instruction on implementation of the Communities of Excellence program in the school and in classrooms as “student excellence” component in the curriculum.
• A set of 8 Keys keycards for every student. As each Key is presented, students add a keycard to their ring.
• The 8 Keys of Excellence book.
• One of Bobbi DePorter’s 8 Keys of Excellence books for every teacher.
• Teacher access to a password-protected area of this website for teachers, which supports their implementation of the program with information on how to present each Key, stories and worksheets for students, how to integrate the Keys into curriculum, and a section to support participating students.
• Student access to a password-protected area of this website for students, which provides on-going reinforcement for their 8 Keys training.

In addition, participating schools are encouraged to hold 8 Keys assemblies, involve local civic leaders, fundraise with local businesses, and attract local media coverage of the school’s character development efforts and results.