In 1998 the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) received a "Pilot Projects in Character Education" grant from the US Department of Education to develop partnerships with state and local education agencies, non-profit organizations and community groups for the purpose of establishing and evaluating pilot projects in character education. OPCE was created as a result of this grant as a partnership of ODE with more than 65 schools, districts, and community and business organizations. With assistance and guidance from OPCE, these schools, organizations, and communities developed and implemented locally-determined character education programs. Staff from each site meet regularly throughout the project (1998-2002)to participate in professional development training with regional and national experts in character education as well as to share their experiences and learn from each other.

Each funded site provided a brief description of their program for the website. Some sites participated for 4 years, and others received funds for only one year. Since all funding ended in June 2002, some of these sites may no longer employ all of the strategies listed, but information is provided on what types of programs were utilized by these schools over the course of the project. Sites are listed by county and by types of program (elementary, middle school, high school, etc) to facilitate the search for pertinent information.