OSSE Ed Digest
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Vol. 4, Issue 9
September 2007
Bringing urban P-16 education resources to policymakers, parents, advocates, and district and school staff in the District of Columbia
Research on DC Schools
National Lessons Learned
New Ideas
The Office of the State Superintendent of Education does not endorse the views expressed in the resources and reports contained in the OSSE Ed Digest.
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Service-learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities. The practice of service-learning dates back much further than the term itself, beginning with educational movements and social change in the late 1880s. The intellectual foundations of service-learning in the United States trace back to the early 1900s with the work of John Dewey, William James, and others who promoted models of “learning by doing,” and linked service to personal and social development. The term “service-learning” was coined by two educators in 1967 to describe the combination of conscious educational growth with the accomplishment of certain tasks that meet genuine human needs. The National Service-Learning Clearinghouse provides a distinction between community services and service learning: community service is volunteer action taken to meet the needs of others and better the community as a whole. Service-learning is integrated into and enhances the academic curriculum of students engaged in service, or the educational components of the community service program in which the participants are enrolled. Service-learning provides structured time for thoughtful planning of the service project and guided reflection by participants on the service experience. Overall, the most important feature of effective service-learning programs is that both learning and service are emphasized. Several national studies suggest that effective service-learning programs improve academic grades, increase attendance in school, and develop personal and social responsibility.
This issue of the OSSE Digest presents a range of research and information on service-learning. This issue is especially timely because the week of September 17 to September 23, 2007 is the National Learn & Serve Challenge. During this week of special events and activities, the Learn & Serve Challenge will spotlight service-learning successes around the country in order to build awareness of students’ contributions to their communities; spread effective service-learning practices; and inspire other schools and communities to launch their own programs and projects.
National Resources
Local Resources
Research
National Resources
Local Resources
Research
It is well documented that individuals with higher levels of education tend to be more civically engaged. In a two-part study conducted for the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), the authors provide empirical evidence using 1988-2000 panel data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS) that civic engagement might also promote educational attainment: civically-engaged teenagers make greater scholastic progress during high school and subsequently acquire higher levels of education than their otherwise similar peers.
In 2002-2003, American Youth Policy Forum conducted a series of forums and field trips, each focused on issues related to the development of effective citizenry and youth engagement.
Participants in these experiences had the opportunity to learn about the wide variety of work currently taking place to help young people take action in their schools and communities and to become engaged and effective citizens. This publication reports some of the ideas that were presented and discussed during the course of these activities, and describes some of the work that individuals and groups are currently engaged in to promote the development of effective and engaged citizens. It also captures some of the knowledge that was presented by participants and issues some recommendations, based on the wisdom shared by panelists, about characteristics of effective programs and practices for engaging youth and helping them to become effective citizens. This report is a discussion of lessons learned from these events and then summaries of each forum and field trip in the series. The report concludes with recommendations collected from the series for building an effective youth citizenry.
Using panel data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS), this study empirically analyzes the relationship between two forms of civic engagement—student government and community service—and educational progress made after the eighth grade by addressing the following questions. Does civic engagement affect academic progress in mathematics, reading, history, and science? Does voluntary community service differently influence scholastic progress compared to involuntary service, and does the frequency of this engagement matter? Are teenagers involved in civic activities more likely to acquire higher education than their peers? In general, the authors indicate that civically-engaged high school students tend to make greater academic progress and are more likely to graduate from college than their peers several years later.
Closing the Achievement Gap: Using the Environment as an Integrating Context for Learning (2001)
Using the Environment as an Integrating Context for learning (EIC) defines a framework for interdisciplinary, collaborative, student-centered, hands-on, and engaged learning. This report presents the results of a nationwide study. It: describes the major concepts and assumptions underlying EIC; describes a range of successful EIC-based programs across the United States; identifies the major characteristics of successful EIC programs; and, analyzes the implications of EIC-based education for student learning and instruction. EIC uses a school's surroundings and community as a framework within which students can construct their own learning, guided by teachers and administrators using proven educational practices. EIC-based programs typically employ the environment as a comprehensive focus and framework for learning in all areas: general and disciplinary knowledge; thinking and problem-solving skills; basic life skills, such as cooperation and interpersonal communications; and understanding of one's relationship to the environment - community and natural surroundings. This report presents the evidence gathered from the study of the 40 selected schools and indicates that students learn more effectively within an environment-based context than within a traditional educational framework. Evidence comes from site visits, interviews, survey results, and gains on both standardized test scores and GPAs. Benefits of EIC-based programs include: better performance on standardized measures of academic achievement in reading, writing, math, science, and social studies; reduced discipline and classroom management problems; increased engagement and enthusiasm for learning; and greater pride and ownership in accomplishments.
This guide illuminates common ground between two dynamic movements—education reform and service-learning—often viewed as existing in separate worlds. Comprehensive school reform models are working to systematically improve the education of children and youth based on scientifically based research and effective practices. Quality service-learning, executed by thoughtful teachers and monitored by diligent principals, completes the fundamental mission of education by stimulating children and youth to act as responsible and participating members of the community. Effective comprehensive school reform models in many communities are already integrating service-learning or elements of service-learning. This report encourages the inclusion of service-learning as a viable partner in education reform and revitalization efforts. It advises further research as to how service-learning can support the academic school reform movement to educate students in a truly comprehensive way—heart as well as head. The reader will find an analysis of leading school reform models with a focus on their compatibility with service-learning. Also included is a description of how models ranked themselves against essential service-learning elements, a brief description of both service-learning and comprehensive school reform, suggestions on how these two initiatives could work more closely together, and examples of barriers that must first be overcome.
Growing to Greatness: 2006 State of Service-Learning Report (2006)
Growing to Greatness: The State of Service-Learning Project published its first report in 2004 with the premise that “all young people are — or can become — contributing members of society, and what they contribute and how they learn while serving needs to be widely documented, understood, and valued.” As service-learning practitioners and researchers, Growing to Greatness (G2G) editors and contributors envisioned this framework for two overarching reasons: (1) Documenting the contributions of youths who work to better our communities expresses the thanks and respect they deserve; and (2) as an annual report, G2G provides with regularity the data needed to expand service-learning practice and quality, and therefore, the contributions of youths. To do this, G2G examines service-learning from both sides of the service-learning hyphen: How does service help youths successfully complete learning objectives, and how does an emphasis on learning enhance a service experience? Growing to Greatness 2006 provides completed profiles of all U.S. states and territories. It also includes the following: the impact of service-learning on transitions to adulthood; lessons from research on teaching and learning; resources for young people, service, learning, and disasters; youth courts; parent and family involvement; Native American service-learning; the community impacts of service-learning; integrating and sustaining service-learning through policy, practice, and capacity; and comparing scope, institutionalization, and quality across low-income urban and suburban schools.
This study compared more than 1,000 high school students who participated in service-learning programs with those who did not participate (in schools matched for similar demographics and student achievement profiles). The intent was to estimate the effects of service-learning compared to more traditional ways of teaching similar subject areas. The outcomes measured ranged from civic knowledge, behaviors, and dispositions to school engagement factors, such as attachment to school and enjoyment of coursework, that generally predict academic success. More than half of the students in the sample were Latino/Hispanic. Although service-learning students scored higher than comparison students on several outcomes, most of the differences were not statistically significant. However, service-learning students were significantly more likely to say that they intended to vote and that they enjoyed school. There were substantial differences in outcomes among the various service-learning programs in the study. The study suggests that service-learning is effective when it is implemented well, but it is no more effective than conventional social studies classes when the conditions are not optimal. In particular, student outcomes improved when service-learning programs lasted longer and when programs were taught by more experienced teachers. The type of service project was related to the outcomes. Students who engaged in direct service (e.g., tutoring or visiting seniors) were most attached to their communities. Students who engaged in indirect service (e.g., fundraising or research) showed the highest levels of academic engagement. Students who engaged in political or civic action (e.g., circulating a petition or organizing a community forum) scored highest on civic knowledge and civic dispositions.
On November 14, 2005, the American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) held a forum to follow-up their November 4, 2005 forum Maximizing Civic and Academic Outcomes: Understanding What Works in Service Learning, which shared the latest research on service-learning and its impact on student academic achievement. A team from Stafford County, Virginia, shared details of their service-learning program, now 13 years old, including successes in improving student academic achievement by integrating service-learning across the curriculum; meeting adequate yearly progress (AYP) by increasing student attendance; experience with shifting from Learn & Serve America support to sustained funding from the district; and experience with standards, assessment, teacher training, and evaluation. This brief gives a summary of information presented at the forum.
Learning In Deed: The Power of Service-Learning for American Schools (2002)
This report of the National Commission on Service-Learning documents the alienation that many American young people feel both from their schoolwork and from traditional forms of civic activities. It also shows that such disengagement is neither universal nor inevitable. The Commission, having studied the current state of service-learning in American schools, argues that this method of teaching and learning is a powerful, practical, and exciting way for American schools to address the problems of academic and civic disengagement among young people. It thus recommends the following: every child in an American primary and secondary school should participate in quality service-learning every year as an integral and essential part of his or her education experience. Four specific recommendations are made to achieve the broad goal of making service-learning a universal experience in American public schools: 1) reclaim the public purpose of education; 2) increase policy, program, and financial supports for service-learning in K-12 education; 3) develop a comprehensive system of professional development regarding service-learning; and 4) provide leadership roles for youth in all aspects of service-learning.
On November 4, 2005 the American Youth Policy Forum held a forum on Maximizing Civic and Academic Outcomes: Understanding What Works in Service Learning. During this forum, RMC Research Corporation presented findings from their three year national study of the impact of service learning on civic and academic engagement among students. This brief provides a summary of data and information presented at the forum.
National Evaluation of Learn and Serve America School and Community-Based Programs (1999)
Between 1994 and 1997, Brandeis University conducted an evaluation of the national Learn and Serve School and Community-Based Programs for the Corporation for National Service. The evaluation examined Learn and Serve programs in seventeen middle schools and high schools across the country using a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods. These included analysis of survey data and school record information for approximately 1,000 Learn and Serve program participants and comparison group members; surveys of teachers at the seventeen schools; telephone interviews with staff at community agencies where students performed their service; and on-site interviews and observation of program activities. This report summarizes the results of the evaluation. Findings include the following: programs had a positive short-term impact on participants’ civic attitudes and involvement in volunteer service; programs had a positive impact on participants’ educational attitudes and school performance during program participation, though only on a few of the measures used in the study; programs had no significant effects on measures of social and personal development for the participants as a whole, although there were positive impacts on teenage parenting and arrests for middle school students; participants gave the programs a strong, positive assessment; and programs showed little evidence of longer-term impacts. One puzzling finding in the long-term follow-up is a negative impact on English grades for program participants. One possible explanation is that while engagement in service may prompt students to work harder in classes where they normally struggle (e.g. math or science), their involvement may also lead them to “coast” a little more in classes in which they are already doing well. The study also revealed that the dollar benefits of well-designed service-learning programs substantially outweigh the costs. On average, participants produced services valued at nearly four times the program cost during the 1995-96 year.
Perceptions: Understanding and Responding to What People Think about Service-Learning (ND)
In 1999, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation launched Learning In Deed, a national initiative that aims to make service to others an integral part of classroom learning in every school district across America. The Foundation focused this four-year initiative on improving policy, practice, research and leadership by working with teachers, administrators, community members, students, parents, policymakers and national leaders. A key goal of this initiative is to support the field in its efforts to broaden the base of support for service-learning. As a starting point, Learning In Deed gathered information through focus groups, a media scan and other sources to provide a snapshot of perceptions about service-learning. Although research indicates that service-learning is not widely known or understood by the general public, education is, inarguably, an issue that resonates with almost everyone. Understanding what the general public thinks about education can offer insight into communicating about service-learning. This booklet is designed to provide a snapshot of perceptions about service-learning and suggestions for responding to these perceptions. This “snapshot” was compiled over a period of several months in late 1998 and early 1999 using various types of opinion research. This document should not be considered a comprehensive study on public opinion about service-learning, but rather initial findings that will be useful to the field.
Restoring the Balance between Academics and Civic Engagement in Public Schools (2005)
Throughout 2004, three consecutive roundtable discussions were convened on Capitol Hill bringing national, state, and local policymakers, education leaders, researchers and practitioners to the table to examine and offer recommendations for addressing how to educate children and youth to become engaged members of their communities as responsible and informed citizens. Across the nation, regional focus groups of parents, teens, teachers, administrators, business and community members and other citizens were given the task of reacting to and further shaping the recommendations. The product of this year-long process is an adaptable action plan designed to guide schools toward producing students who are both academically proficient and civically engaged in the age of NCLB. The report’s Action Agenda consists of seven propositions addressing the following: 1) understanding the business of public education; 2) knowledge, dispositions, virtues and skills of responsible citizenship; 3) civic knowledge as integral to a broadened "core of learning" in schools; 4) teaching methodologies such as service-learning as a promising strategy; 5) benefits of an integrated curriculum; 6) necessary components of the action plan; and 7) community, parental and youth voice in the action plan. Leading programs and school-community partnerships that have pioneered programmatic approaches to balancing academic learning and civic engagement are featured in the report as well as key national reports such as the Civic Mission of Schools and research that supports the report’s recommendations.
Service-Learning and Community Service Among 6th- through 12th Grade Students in the United States: 1996 and 1999 (1999)
Trends suggest that the percentage of American high school seniors who participated in community affairs or voluntary work in any given year was relatively stable from the mid-1970s through the early 1990s, and the percentage of students who volunteered in 1995 was similar to the percentage who volunteered in 1991. However, schools appear to have become more interested in promoting community service. In 1984, 27 percent of high schools offered community service opportunities to their students, and by 1999, over 80 percent of public high schools were doing so. In this brief, data from the NHES:1996 Youth Civic Involvement component were compared to data from the NHES:1999 Youth Interview to estimate changes across years in student reports of school practices to promote community service, student participation in community service activities, and service-learning experiences. Findings include the following: a higher percentage of students were in schools that required and arranged community service in 1999 than in 1996; students in grades 9 through 12 are more likely to attend schools that require and arrange community service than students in grades 6 through 8; approximately 50 percent of 6th through 12th- grade students participated in community service and over half of these participants were engaged in service-learning in both 1999 and 1996; parents’ highest level of education is positively associated with community service participation, whereas it is inversely associated with service-learning; and it appears that black and Hispanic students, and students whose parents have less education, are more likely to be enrolled in schools that place greater emphasis on service-learning.
Service-Learning and Community Service in K-12 Public Schools: Summary of Key Findings (1999)
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U.S. Department of Education used the Fast Response Survey System (FRSS) to conduct the National Student Service-Learning and Community Service Survey in spring 1999. This is one of the first surveys to provide reliable national estimates of the percentage of public elementary, middle, and high schools incorporating service-learning into their course curriculum, as well as providing the most recent data on school engagement in community service. The survey found that: 64 percent of all public schools, including 83 percent of public high schools, had students participating in community service activities recognized by and/or arranged through the school; 57 percent of all public schools organized community service activities for their students; 32 percent of all public schools organized service-learning as part of their curriculum, including nearly half of all high schools; schools with service-learning tended to have grade-wide service-learning, service-learning in individual courses that were not part of a broader grade or school-wide initiative, or discipline-wide service-learning programs; 83 percent of schools with service-learning offered some type of support to teachers interested in integrating service-learning into the curriculum, with most providing support for service-learning training or conferences outside of school; and most schools with service-learning cited strengthening relationships among students, the school, and the community as key reasons for practicing service-learning.
Youth Helping America. Building Active Citizens: The Role of Social Institutions in Teen Volunteering (November 2005)
This report highlights the state of youth volunteering and considers the relationship between youth volunteer behavior and three primary environments where youth form their social networks: family, religious organizations, and school. These social institutions play an essential role in connecting youth to volunteer opportunities and encouraging them to become engaged in service. Fostering environments that encourage volunteer activities are critical to creating a commitment to service and community involvement that will remain with them for their lifetime. Through this analysis, the authors looked to build on existing research that has demonstrated that connections to the community and volunteering form a positive feedback loop, whereby opportunities provided to youth to engage with others leads to a greater sense of reciprocity and trust that in turn leads youth to develop a personal ethic of community engagement. Findings include the following: 15.5 million teens participated in volunteer activities during 2004, contributing more than 1.3 billion hours of service; 5.9 million, or 39 percent of those youth that volunteer, serve with an organization on a regular basis; youth are volunteering at a higher rate than the adult population, 55 percent to 29 percent, but adult volunteers are more likely to engage in such activities on a regular basis; 38 percent, or approximately 10.6 million teenagers nationwide, have engaged in community service as part of a school activity, and 65 percent of these youth were engaged in the service-learning related activities of planning and/or reflecting on the service project; and the higher a student’s grade point average, the more likely it was that teens volunteered and volunteered regularly.
Youth Helping America. Educating for Active Citizenship: Service-Learning, School-Based Service and Youth Civic Engagement (March 2006)
This brief focuses on participation in school-based service — service opportunities made available or required by schools — among middle school and high school aged youth. It pays particular attention to the extent to which youth participate in service-learning courses, which integrate school-based service opportunities into the academic curriculum such as those programs supported by Learn and Serve America. Findings include the following: 38 percent of youth, or approximately 10.6 million youth nationwide, report current or past participation in school-based service; high school students are 37 percent more likely than middle school students to participate in school-based service, whether in the previous year or some time in the past — 41 percent to 30 percent respectively; of those youth who have engaged in current or past school-based experience, 77 percent, or an estimated 8.1 million, also experienced one or more of the generally accepted elements of high-quality service-learning; among students who report current or past participation in school-based service, 10 percent, or an estimated 1.1 million youth nationwide, also report participation in service-learning that included all three of the quality elements of service learning: planning the activity, reflecting on the service experience in class, and participating in regular service that lasts at least one semester; youth who report current or past participation in service-learning with all three quality elements are more than twice as likely to report that their experience had a very positive impact on them than those youth who only participate in school-based service, 78 percent to 36 percent, respectively; and high school students, youth who attend private school, and students with higher academic achievement are all more likely to report current or past participation in school-based service and high quality service-learning.
Youth Helping America. Leveling the Path to Participation: Volunteering and Civic Engagement Among Youth From Disadvantaged Circumstances (March 2007)
This report explores the attitudes and behaviors of youth from disadvantaged circumstances toward volunteering and other forms of civic engagement. Findings indicate that youth from disadvantaged circumstances are significantly less likely than those who are from non-disadvantaged circumstances to participate in volunteer activities, 43 percent to 59 percent. Other findings include the following: when youth from disadvantaged circumstances volunteer, they demonstrate the same level of commitment as youth from non-disadvantaged circumstances, with 38 percent serving at least 12 weeks of the year; youth from disadvantaged circumstances are more likely to volunteer with religious congregations, and less likely to volunteer with youth civic or leadership organizations, when compared to youth from non-disadvantaged circumstances; regardless of their economic circumstances, youth are most likely to volunteer because they are asked; youth from disadvantaged circumstances are more likely to be motivated to volunteer to gain work experience or to fulfill their religious or spiritual beliefs; and youth from disadvantaged circumstances are significantly less likely to discuss politics with friends and parents or other adults, to plan to volunteer in the future, and to vote once they are eligible.
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