SERVICE-LEARNING AT A GLANCE

What is Service-Learning?

Service-learning is a teaching method that combines meaningful service to the community with curriculum-based learning. Service-learning takes place in K-12 schools, in higher education classrooms, and in community-based organizations. This document focuses on K-12 school-based service-learning.

Serving. The service itself should address a genuine community need, as determined by existing or student-led community assessments. The service should be thoughtfully organized to solve, or make a positive contribution toward solving, a problem.

Linking. In quality service-learning, the service project is designed to meet not only a real community need, but also classroom goals. By ensuring strong linkages between the service and the learning, students are able to improve their academic skills and apply what they learn in school to the broader community. Through service-learning, students demonstrate to teachers what they are learning and how they are meeting specific academic standards.

Learning. Reflection is a key element of quality service-learning. The teacher structures time and methods for students to reflect on and analyze their service experience. Through this process, students learn and understand the complexity of community issues. In addition, students understand how to view such issues in their broader social, political and economic contexts. Reflection and analysis help reinforce the connection between the students' service and the curriculum content.

Why is Service-Learning a Valuable Part of Public Education?

A summary of research by Learning In Deed documents the impacts of service-learning on students, schools and communities.

Research findings show that service-learning benefits students in the following ways:

• boosts students' academic achievement;
• fosters a lifetime commitment to civic participation;
• improves social skills; and
• prepares students to enter the workforce.

By teaching young people that they can and should play a positive role in their community, service-learning encourages life-long civic participation. Service-learning gives students a sense of competency; they see themselves as active contributors rather than passive recipients of adult support.

Service-learning also helps address real community needs, builds stronger connections between schools and communities, and improves the overall school climate.

How Prevalent is Service-Learning?

Today, schools in all 50 states offer service-learning. A 1999 survey released by the National Center for Education Statistics found that 32% of all public schools organize service-learning as part of their curriculum, including nearly half of all high schools. A recent report from the University of Minnesota examined the prevalence of service-learning from 1984-1997. The report documents a dramatic increase in involvement in service, including a significant rise in the percentage of all high school students involved in service-learning activities - from a mere two percent in 1984 to nearly 25 percent in 1997.

What are Examples of Possible Service-Learning Activities?

Below are examples of service-learning in K-12 schools.

• High school foreign language students create English vocabulary books to help the community's growing Spanish-speaking population learn English. Through creating the books, the high school students increase their knowledge of Spanish vocabulary and Latin cultures.

• Fourth graders enhance their reading and writing skills by making alphabet books for preschool children. They then "host" a preschooler during the first week of school - helping with tours of the school and spending time reading with the preschoolers. Through this project the fourth graders meet grade level objectives for punctuation, use of expressive words, multiple meaning words, creative writing and critical thinking, and at the same time help younger students.

• As part of their science curriculum, middle grades students take water samples of their local waterway. They analyze the amount and nature of pollutants in the water and look for the source of that pollution. They write letters to their local government to inform the city officials of the problem and encourage them to take action.

More Examples of Service-Learning in Action Around the Country

Who Supports Service-Learning?

Service-learning is primarily a locally-driven activity, with most decision-making and control at the local level. Community leaders, students, parents, school district superintendents and teachers in cities and towns across the country are outspoken advocates for service-learning.

The first federal legislation, passed in 1990, created a federal commission to award grants to states, schools and community organizations to develop and implement service-learning. The National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993 expanded the federal role in service-learning and provided funds for every state to incorporate service-learning into schools. In addition, many states and school districts provide financial resources and other support for the development and implementation of service-learning in K-12 schools.

In 2000, the Corporation for National Service's Department of Service-learning distributed over $20 million in funds through its Learn and Serve America program to support local service-learning efforts.In addition to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Corporation for National Service, other funders include the following: Carnegie Corporation of New York, Dewitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, The Ford Foundation, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and Surdna Foundation.