Seanet News

Loebsack Introduces Legislation That Brings New Hope For Academic Service-Learning

2012-05-07T18:59:00.003-07:00

Congressman Dave Loebsack today introduced legislation that will help students apply the knowledge and skills gained in the classroom to real world experiences by incorporating academic service-learning to teach curriculum. The Engaging Students Through Service-Learning Act aims to connect the classroom to the community by establishing a national center to expand opportunities for students to incorporate skills that are critical to success in the 21st century economy, such as critical thinking, problem solving and collaboration by engaging students in applying knowledge and skills learned in the classroom to solve problems in the community. The bill would also help teachers to provide students with this hands-on education.

Academic service-learning is key to addressing the most difficult problems our schools face, such as widespread lack of engagement, a widening achievement gap, soaring dropout rates, and rampant bullying. It has been found to promote behavioral and dispositional factors that mediate students’ educational success such as greater motivation for school, engagement in learning tasks, building of self-efficacy and self-esteem, and propensity to engage in pro-social behaviors. Service-learning just happens to be one of the strategies that captures the types of practices that will help our schools become more effective. Consider the following data points:

1. Students learn best when they are actively engaged in meaningful and challenging learning experiences that encourage higher order skills development, critical thinking, and problem solving;

2. Students invest themselves in learning when the educational experiences have personal meaning to students and are connected to authentic, real issues in their everyday lives;

3. Among the 33% of all students who drop out of high school each year, 69% state that they leave school because they find classroom learning uninteresting and the classroom curriculum unrelated to their real lives;

4. Research demonstrates that effective teachers are those who are adequately prepared to use instructional strategies that challenge students to use higher order thinking skills, engage students in solving complex problems, probe for deeper learning, and seek opportunities for students to transfer knowledge from one context to another;

5. The key elements of effective teaching and learning include active learning, authentic experiences, opportunities for peer collaboration, student leadership and empowerment, democratic classrooms that promote positive, safe, and caring school climate, inclusive environments that address the needs of all learners, and cognitively challenging academic activities.

At its best, academic service-learning is not a standalone pedagogy. Rather, it is incorporated into the very fabric of how we "do" education, and more importantly, it is experienced as a universal strategy that benefits all students. The Engaging Students Through Service-Learning Act is an important step in achieving that vision.

Teri Dary Co-Chair NCASL

Site visits are the best part of the job. Or is it just me? Okay maybe it is me.

2011-07-01T14:41:00.000-07:00

I will make no apologies, as one cannot help but be lifted up even in times like these, about the learning going on in our schools after you have visited a service-learning site. There is nothing like seeing students, no matter the age, actively involved, engaged, and engrossed with community and education. Whether you visit elementary school students solving local hunger issues through a co-op garden, or high school students tackling issues like bullying or distracted driving by creating PSA’s for local news media, these are indeed the leaders of today.
However, as a program officer overseeing these fantastic efforts, you must have a structured plan going into any site visit. It is not enough to simply show up expecting to be told everything you want to know about the project. There are many aspects to each service-learning project, especially if you are administrating a grant for it, which you must be prepared to inquire about when you arrive on site.
I personally have found the following steps to be vital in insuring a successful site visit to any of my twenty-plus sites around the state of North Carolina this year:
• Develop (or personalize an already existing) rubric for site visit.
• Inform your sub-grantee of your intention to visit and what you will be asking on your visit (time frame is up to you). It is a good idea to share your rubric with your sub-grantee, because should not be a state secret!
• Review all documents to date about site before your visit.
• Arrive with a flexible schedule and nothing else that could take your attention away from your visit. It is vital that students, teachers, and staff who have put a year or semester work of time have your complete attention, so that you can completely grasp their efforts.
• Take copious notes. Trust me it is a lifesaver when you get to the final step.
• Save a detailed record of strengths, weakness, discussion items, who you met, and timeline of progress when you are finished with the visit.
This is my model and it may be different for your state office’s site visit procedure due to the programs you are running. It is more important for you to have a structure that is going to play to your strengths as a program officer in conducting site visits, than it is to replicate mine!
Remember, site visits are one of the few times you actually get to enjoy these great projects, interact with the students, and have heart-to-heart discussions with your project leaders. This is the best part of the job. Don’t let it feel like another day at the office!

Submitted By: Nick DiColandrea, North Carolina

Service-Learning in Wyoming

2011-05-31T19:01:00.000-07:00

As a Commission, staff and commissioners at ServeWyoming have both a unique and precarious role in promoting service-learning. We find it easy to promote the advantages of service-learning to community-based and afterschool programs, but to schools it is harder because we are not a state education agency. One of our biggest challenges has been to convince the Department of Education that although the federal funding for Learn and Serve America is not huge, the benefits are. In Wyoming, it will take a long time to find evidence that service-learning will make a big impact on the academic success of all students because the current impact is only seen in small, local communities. Therefore, evidence-based research would assuredly help us inform policy-makers and teachers, especially since we don’t believe our commission has the level of expertise needed to be effective in our advocacy efforts. Should the evidence prove that service-learning enhances test scores, what a difference that would make in our discussions with key players! In addition, while the push behind service-learning is geared towards academic success, after school programs that often close the gap between in school and out of school time, play a critical role in service-learning. Our youth are “mines, rich with gems” and using all effective strategies, to extract their ideas and energy, will help us solve the most challenging issues facing our world today.
With the elimination of Learn and Serve America, many of us in the field are left with a lot of questions. One of the unanswered questions is, “What is next?” Two things are clear-we are not done yet and the fight is not over. America’s Service Commissions has recently held its first Youth Engagement work group. They hope to discover best-practices from the 14 state commissions that administer Learn and Serve funding and clarify a role for them to sustain service learning and other youth service opportunities. Nonprofits that work with schools on service-learning, like Kids Consortium, NYSL, and YSA, are also having discussions to determine their role.
It is evident, at events like the National Service Learning Conferences, list serves, and conference calls, that for many people, service-learning is not just a methodology or an approach to learning, but a spirit. It’s the spirit in which we all practice service-learning that gets us excited and underlines the benefits we see emerging in the youth and the field. It is why despite the funding cuts we will continue to find every effective avenue to keep service-learning alive, to finish currently funding programs with a bang, to capture results and stories, maintain partnerships and continue to nurture the enthusiasm of our youth! With this captured energy behind us, we will use this challenge as an opportunity to further legitimize service-learning. This is an opportunity to use all that we have learned, up to this critical moment, towards the services offered and provided by staff, program directors, communities, schools, and most importantly, the students. Hopefully, “What’s next” is answered with, “Just you wait and see!”

Submitted By: Nurieh Glasgow, Program and Training Officer ServeWyoming

Moving Forward in Service-Learning Practice in K-12: A Case for Infrastructure

2011-05-10T15:24:00.000-07:00

The Learn & Serve America program, as we know it, is being eliminated, and service-learning in K-12 practice will now go through a transition period. As we all know by now, the FY 2011 Continuing Appropriations Act signed into law on April 15th eliminated FY 2011 program funding for Learn and Serve America. This means that the LSA program we have all worked on so diligently over the years is now discontinued. Whether the program will return at CNCS in FY2012, whether federal funding from another agency will support K-12 service-learning, or the national effort grows/stagnates/shrinks will depend on efforts we and others take now and in the near future.

Given the funding cut, it can be easy to get depressed about the future of service-learning in schools, but it is important to keep perspective. Congress eliminated many social programs in the final budget; L&SA, therefore, was not the only program impacted. There were also no public reports or statements about L&SA being ineffective as a program; it was a question of funding and we were an easy target given our grant size and scope and the lack of enough key voices speaking on its behalf.

Learn & Serve America as a program at CNCS may be ending for now, but we must remember that this does not mean that service-learning is “over.” There are too many schools, teachers, administrators, students and community partners out there completing meaningful high-quality service-learning and making a difference for all involved for this movement to disappear overnight. Service-learning is fundamentally important to schools and will always remain viable in education in one form or another.

The question is how we will maintain the infrastructure to support these existing high-quality programs—and help new programs get started--when there is no funding at CNCS to accomplish this? It is not difficult to maintain a service-learning program at a school using grants and community support at a moderate scale. But one isolated program without monitoring can easily devolve from existing best practices to “whatever works” on a given day.

We know that service-learning infrastructure is essential. We know that a state-level presence is essential to define and insure quality, to recruit new teachers and programs, to provide ongoing training and technical assistance and program monitoring, to create opportunities for networking and advocacy, to link service-learning programs to current education policy, to help identify and replicate exemplary efforts, and to ensure that activities are truly service-learning. Research states that service-learning does not necessarily have positive impacts on student outcomes, but high-quality service-learning does. The L&SA-funded administrators around the nation were the primary guardians of quality in the complex K-12 service-learning field; what happens when we are gone?

The potential here is a loss of the many gains that we have made over the last 20 years of service-learning practice. Without state-level support and guidance to sustain the field, service-learning quality will likely erode. It was hard enough to maintain quality with the minimal funding that we received from CNCS! Therefore, in moving forward we need to be clear and concise in our messaging that what has been eliminated was an essential component of maintaining service-learning as a quality instructional school-based pedagogy. Service-learning cannot be accomplished meaningfully without infrastructure to support it. It will devolve into programming of disparate quality and consistency in various school programs around the country; some programs will look like service-learning as we know it, but many will be community service, which is fine but does not result in meaningful student outcomes.

If service-learning is to have an impact on academics, drop-out prevention, school climate and turnaround issues (not to mention on communities that are served) then it must be done in a thoughtful, intentional, and organized way. We need to keep this argument at the forefront of our ongoing messaging about the immediate needs of our field based on the potential for widespread loss of program effectiveness in schools due to lack of infrastructure support.

Javier Betancourt, Florida Learn and Serve

The Service-Learning Impact on Teacher Quality

2011-05-10T12:48:00.000-07:00

A unique opportunity lies before us. Over the next few years, the United States is expected to lose more than a million teachers due to retirement. At the same time, our current system of teacher preparation and ongoing professional development is woefully inadequate to the task of preparing teachers to deliver 21st century skills in a global economy.

To be successful, the new teachers will need plenty of preparation, including both education in content and instruction and ongoing professional development to hone their skills. They will need to continue learning as new research on effectiveness comes to light. Our democracy needs to both attract and retain more people in teaching professions, especially those who are drawn to the science and the art of teaching. Providing a process for more teachers to learn how to successfully use service-learning can transform the teaching profession, our classrooms, and our communities.

Principals report that service-learning has a positive impact on teacher satisfaction, school climate, academic achievement, and school engagement. Teachers who use service-learning are significantly more likely to use high quality teaching strategies like cooperative learning, participate in projects integrating technology and requiring data collection, use primary resources, and make meaningful connections to the community (Billig, Jesse and Root, 2005).

The Need:

• A review of research (Furco, 2007) indicates that high quality service-learning, because of its utilization of effective, experiential learning strategies, can enhance academic outcomes in such content areas as reading, writing, mathematics, and science. A variety of studies have shown evidence of a range of achievement-related benefits from service-learning, including improved attendance, higher grade point averages, enhanced preparation for the workforce, enhanced awareness and understanding of social issues, greater motivation for learning, and heightened engagement in prosocial behaviors.

• Schools in high poverty areas are less likely to employ service-learning as a teaching strategy, yet research has shown this is a particularly effective pedagogy for use in such schools. Fewer schools serving lower-income communities offer service-learning programs (29 percent versus 36 percent), even though principals at lower-income schools place a higher value on the benefits of service-learning projects (National Youth Leadership Council, 2004).

• In Philadelphia, low socio-economic status students in service-learning classes gained more on math and science standardized tests than their nonparticipating peers. Similar results occurred in Michigan and Texas when service-learning was of high quality (Billig, 2008).

• Service-Learning can significantly reduce the achievement gap between affluent and low-income students. Low-income students who participated in service opportunities and had lengthier participation in service-learning had better school attendance and grades than low-income students who did not participate. (Scales, Roehlkepartain, Neal, Kielsmeier, & Benson, 2006).

• Scales & Roehlkepartain report evidence that service-learning may have particular educational benefits for low-income students and schools. Involvement in service appears to contribute to lessening the achievement gap, with low-income students who serve doing better academically than students who do not serve.

• A review of data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS) suggested that:
o Civic engagement activities raised the odds of graduation and improved high school students’ progress in reading, math, science and history.
o Students who participated in service-learning activities in high school were 22 percentage points more likely to graduate from college than those who did not participate.
o Students who participated in service-learning scored 6.7 percent higher in reading achievement and 5.9 percent higher in science achievement than those who did not participate in service-learning.
o Service-learning makes good teachers.

• Research demonstrates that successful teachers are those who are adequately prepared to use instructional strategies that challenge students to use higher order thinking skills, engage students in solving complex problems, probe for deeper learning, and seek opportunities for students to transfer knowledge from one context to another (Rosenshine & Furst, 1973; Darling-Hammond, Wise, & Pease, 1983; Good & Brophy, 1986; National Research Council, 1999).

• Less well-prepared teachers are less able to manage active, inquiry-oriented classrooms and more likely to resort to easier to manage strategies that rely on passive tasks and workbook activities (Carter & Doyle, 1978; Cooper & Sherk, 1989).

• Active pedagogies and inquiry-based instruction are the very methodologies that develop the 21st century skills our students need to succeed in their communities and workplace. Service-learning effectively addresses these 21st century skills, while also engaging students in their communities and meeting one of the essential, and neglected, functions of schooling: preparing students for active and effective citizenship.

• Service-learning studies have shown a large impact when done well. This pedagogy works because students are more likely to be engaged when their work is challenging, when they have some autonomy, and when they are given meaningful tasks to perform (National Research Council, 2003).

• Teachers that use service-learning in the classroom as a type of positive teaching strategy achieve better results in a variety of academic and behavioral categories than those who don’t (Billig, S. H., Root, S., & Jesse, D. (2005). The relationship between quality indicators of service-learning and student outcomes: Testing professional wisdom. In S. Root, J. Callahan, & S. H. Billig (Eds.), Advances in service-learning research: Vol. 5. Improving service-learning practice: Research on models to enhance impacts (pp. 97–115).

• Yet, according to the Corporation for National and Community Service, of the approximately 53.3 million youth in the US, only 24% of K-12 students have engaged in any kind of service-learning experience, a decline from 32% in 1999.

When teachers and administrators work in a thriving educational system, performance improves, retention is greater, and continuous improvement is evident at every level. Service-learning has been shown to have a significantly positive impact on teacher attitudes, student engagement, and overall school climate. Students’ academic performance, civic engagement, and social-emotional functioning will improve when teachers are equipped with the skills they need to incorporate service-learning as an effective pedagogy. Schools will become vibrant centers of learning which radiate a positive, safe, and caring environment within which all students thrive. Teachers will be more effective, challenged, and energized within their chosen profession. And most importantly, students will emerge from our schools better prepared for success in college and the workplace, skilled in 21st century skills, which will increase their competencies as global citizens who contribute meaningfully to the global economy.

~ Submitted by Teri Dary, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction

Youth: Ethics in Service (YES)

2011-04-19T22:33:00.000-07:00

The School for Ethical Education's (SEE) organizational mission is to encourage learning experiences that foster positive ethics and character. SEE uses various strategies including college teaching, a state wide writing program and a service-learning program to further its mission. The service-learning strategy is delivered through a program called Youth: Ethics in Service (YES).

The Youth; Ethics in Service program works with teachers and after school providers to use service-learning as a teaching strategy to to engage students in learning through applying knowledge to completing a community service project. Service-learning is an evidence based teaching methodology proven to engage students in their learning while developing and providing practice using skills such as; reflection, project planning, ethical decision making and cooperative team work. Service-learning has eight teaching standards developed over 25 years. The staff at the School for Ethical Education has been teaching teachers and students the practice of service-learning for over 12 years. Since 1998, over 7,600 teachers and students have engaged in the Y.E.S. program. Participants have donated over 197,000 hours of service valued at approximately 1.4 million dollars at CT minimum wage.

http://www.ethicsed.org/

Submitted by: Agnes Quinones, Connecticut

Hawaii Statewide Service Learning Conference, Ho`olale i ka `ai a ka u`i, “Show What Youth Can Do”

2011-04-14T14:17:00.000-07:00

The Hawaii Service Learning Partnership1 held an exceptional “talk of the town” statewide conference at Kapiolani Community College (KCC) located at the foot of Diamond Head, overlooking Waialae Kahala and the Pacific Ocean, on Saturday, March 5, 2011 from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (It turned out to be a beautiful day starting with a blessing of a light shower and gorgeous rainbow…wish you could have seen this!)

The original idea of this conference was typical, having a keynote speaker followed by various breakout sessions and closing with award recognitions. However, two months before the conference (through planning calls with Cathy Berger Kaye), we decided to revolutionize our conference and have participants engaged and active in the service learning process instead of being recipients of information only. The biggest challenge was finding facilitators to guide the 5 stages of service learning in the various sections and miraculously we were lucky to find 15 willing souls. The format of the conference changed by having participants 1) learn and practice the 5 stages in the early morning, 2) do the investigation and planning stages before lunch, 3) engage in a service action after lunch 4) convene in demonstration groups (sharing of projects) and 5) write meaningful reflections.

The biggest attendance ever (330 participants2) squeezed into KCC cafeteria to learn the five stages of service learning from the energetic and inspirational Cathy Berger Kaye. 1) Cathy focused on water issues and used Going Blue as a resource as well as experts from the Board of Water Supply to provide background information. After the morning break, the attendees participated in one of 15 sections3. One section focused on removing food waste from the waste stream. 2) The lead facilitator, a retired environmental education teacher, led her group in investigating the issue of overflowing landfills in Hawaii. The co-facilitator and community partner, EM Hawaii, shared success stories of people using EM4 in homes to reduce the amount of waste going into the landfills and to encourage the recycling of organic waste. The participants also learned and planned the logistics to make bokashi5 as their service activity.

Delicious bento (lunch boxes) consisting of rice, mahimahi, teriyaki chicken, and bar-b-que meat were prepared by KCC’s culinary academy. Vegetarian bento was also prepared consisting of noodles and vegetables. During this lunch break, participants interacted with 45 community and school exhibitors in the exhibit hall. 3) After lunch, participants went back to their sections to complete their service activity. The food waste group made bokashi to be used as a tool to transform food waste into nutrient-rich compost that can be used for gardening and landscaping. 4) During the demonstration stage, this group shared what they learned with other participants at the conference and 5) the reflections gathered revealed the value this food waste group had to improving the fragile island environment and the personal commitment participants made to use bokashi in their homes.

The general mood at the conference was one of excitement and engagement. The participants were active – understood the connections of learning and service; used various resources to gather information/data for their investigation including the internet, the Youth Service Hawaii’s chat room, and agency experts at the conference; made decisions regarding the type of service to provide; engaged in meaningful service activities; and completed deep reflections. Now the challenge is to sustain the momentum started at the conference through networking, collaboration, and workshops.

*****************************************
1Hawaii Service Learning Partnership includes Hawaii State Department of Education, Youth Service Hawaii, Kamehameha Schools, Punahou Academy, Hawaii Pacific Islands Campus Compact (Higher Education SL Consortium), Kapiolani Community College, and State Farm Insurance.

2Participants include students and teachers from public and private schools and higher education institution, community agencies, retired educators, VISTA and AmeriCorps volunteers, administrators at all levels, parents, and students from Matsuyama University (Japan).

3Sections – needs/topic areas include Access to Health Resources; Dependence on Fossil Fuel; Conservation of Natural Habitats; Solid Waste Solution and Mitigation; Foster Children and Healthy Living; The Importance of Physical, Emotional and Psychological Safety; Developmental Skills for Adolescents; Literacy Education for Underserved Communities; Health Issues and Developing Advocacy Initiatives (AIDS, Obesity, Bullying), Global and Local Peace Initiatives.

4EM – Effective Microorganisms. Contains food-grade microbials such as those used to make cheese, bread, yogurt, miso, and other foods. The microbes in EM are not harmful, non-pathogenic, not genetically energized or modified, and not chemically synthesized. When the correct conditions are provided, EM sets in motion a fermentation process to transform food waste and other organic materials into nutrient-rich compost.

5Bokashi is a fermented compost starter made from wheat bran and EM (a mixed culture of naturally occurring beneficial microorganisms). Bokashi (Japanese word meaning fermented organic matter) can decompose food waste in less than half the time of conventional composting methods, without any unpleasant odors.

Submitted by:
Colleen Murakami
Hawaii State Department of Education

Developing Exemplar Models

2011-04-01T10:32:00.001-07:00

I frequently get requests for sample curricular units that incorporate high quality service-learning. In response to this request, Mike Mangan and I decided to join forces with Shelley Billig this year to host a “curriculum” writing event, which is happening as I write. We brought a group of practitioners together representing K-12 and higher education, all with an interest in helping to deepen the field by developing example unit plans that illustrate how to weave a service-learning experience into mastery of core academic standards.

The teachers that gathered from Wisconsin were hand selected as practitioners who have a strong understanding of both best instructional practices and high quality service-learning. The task before these educators for the past two days has been to develop a set of exemplar models that can be used not as a replication tool, but as an illustration, providing a vision for other practitioners of what high quality service-learning looks like. In observing the discussions and sequence of tasks that have been posed by Shelley, it strikes me once again how difficult the reflective process is for practitioners in trying to deepen practice.

Shelley began this institute with asking participants to conduct an analysis of the intersections between best instructional practices in general, best practices in their specific content area, and best practices in service-learning. These discussions revealed how little attention is generally given to best practices in education, but also highlighted how critical it is to provide teachers with professional development that challenges them to do so. For me, it underscored the importance for every one of my professional development experiences to ensure that we build in reflection of practice and work to help educators seek continuous improvement. Part of this is for selfish reasons, as when we move teachers to higher levels of practice, we will have an ever increasing set of exemplar models to help us create a vision for high quality service-learning in our state. The other part goes far beyond my own corner of the world. Unless each of us within our individual states is intentionally working to deepen and replicate practice throughout the field, service-learning will never achieve its potential as a pedagogy that can be used to transform education systemically.

My questions for all of you are: What do you do in your states to drive continuous improvement in practice? And for SEANet, how are all of us collectively driving continuous improvement at the programmatic level, developing exemplar models, and pushing ourselves and each other to advance our practice?

Submitted by Teri Dary, Wisconsin

Making Service-Learning a Policy Reality in a School Culture

2011-03-28T13:44:00.000-07:00

Effective educational policy implementation strategy is something that we deal with on a daily basis. As grant managers for a competing experiential/academic methodology that is attempting to become part of school infrastructure with real ties to long-term school goals, vision and climate, we are constantly seeking ways to make service in the community with curriculum links a structured and research-based school learning practice.

But how do we make this happen? The educational policy field is crowded with competing interests. There are hundreds of programs, projects, policy trends, and similar educational methodologies staking claims for student improvements in consideration at every level in the policy-making process. How do we make service-learning stand out? Typically, our answer to this question is the service experience, which is what makes our program different from others, but we still have to make the case about the effectiveness of the strategy.

One method is to fully analyze the structure for implementation and to be highly organized and thorough at each step. Policy implementation can be structured in many ways, but below is a typical organizational list for the steps involved:

Pre-Implementation (typically part of “Needs Identification”)
Internal Support Determination
Feasibility Studies
Research Base
Mobilization/Adoption
Motive-setting
Training (Analysis and Provision)
Planning with forward mapping (school-level coalition)
Resource analysis (money, time, personnel, space, equipment and materials)
Implementation (initialization of programmatic activity)
Early/Late Implementation.
Cross-cutting themes:
Monitoring and feedback (policy evaluation)
Ongoing assistance
Problem coping and technical strategies (political/cultural)
Institutionalization - Final stage of a successful implementation
Post-Institutionalization - successful policy can be “scaled” to other schools or to a district-, state-, or nation-wide effort.
(Fowler, 2009, pp. 281-3,284-299, 294, 299)

Each of the policy implementation areas above should be analyzed from the service-learning viewpoint. As our sub-grantees initialize their programs at the school level, proper guidance should be provided at each step.

Implementation as an Evolutionary Process (i.e., not a one-shot deal)

It is also important to remember that policy implementation may be presented above in a linear fashion, but it should be considered cyclical and concurrent. Needs assessment and feasibility studies do not stop with the first year of implementation and should recur on a yearly basis as part of the ongoing progress monitoring effort (continuous improvement model). I n Florida, sub-grantee programs provide a detailed “needs assessment” each year, which highlights the way the program is meeting the needs of the school and the community populations. This type of recurring self-analysis can help a new implementation achieve success in the long-term and increases the chances of institutionalization.

Implementers as Learners (Teachers as Learners)

Another item to consider in terms of moving from initial implementation to effective institutionalization is the ability to maintain a continuous feedback model. Teachers who are struggling to learn new ways of working need help, and that assistance should be well planned and carefully targeted to the local situation (Fowler, 297). This also speaks to the dynamic way in which implementation challenges teachers to see past existing models of thought and teaching methodology to expand their teaching practice. Realistically, and based on behavioral and psychological understanding, most teachers in an new educational implementation process will tend to teach to aspects of the new methodology that most meet their current understanding, (Fowler, p. 279), but the eventual goal is for the expansion of practice to take place which will incorporate service-learning; this again requires a long-term viewpoint of creating the training framework that will impact daily practice in a profound way.

Being Part of the Network

Another important aspect of achieving a successful service-learning implementation is creating the idea that the teachers are part of a school-wide, statewide, and national effort that has a strong structure and research-based outcomes for defining practice. This becomes increasingly important when a new implementation begins to move toward scaling. Holding a central conference, providing best practice resources and ongoing communications about use of the new implementation model (service-learning) allow teachers to participate in a forum to evolve and develop their practice on the new method. Florida Learn & Serve provides these resources to ensure the effective implementation of the service-learning by sub-grantees and to create a dynamic network of inter-connected teacher practitioners. Indeed, active participation in the network can be considered an indicator for ongoing success. No news in this case is not good news. Typically, if a school program is not communicating with us or with the network, it means it is not off to a good start or is not implementing thoroughly. This dearth of communication would usually prompt us to check expenditures and begin an inquiry process or provide increased technical assistance and monitoring.

Student Implementation (Youth Voice)

It is also important to note that the students in service-learning programs should be encouraged to take a highly active role in the implementation process, taking on all levels of grant management tasks (typically in high schools, though it is not impossible at other levels) thus greatly expanding the efforts in ongoing training and technical assistance that are necessary for strong implementation and additionally creating a resource of student time and effort for accomplishing ongoing program tasks.

Future blogs from the Southern Cluster will explore more topics in Policy Implementation, including “Scaling up” and “working within the school culture” as well as analyzing the policy implementation steps in more detail.

Reference List

Fowler, F. (2009). Policy studies for educational leaders: An introduction.
Boston: Allyn & Bacon/Pearson.

Submitted by Javier Betancourt, Learn and Serve Florida

State of SL Funding - What's your "State"?

2011-03-21T15:08:00.000-07:00

Today, I will send out another update to my subgrantees to keep them informed of the status of our funding for the rest of this federal fiscal year... As I am sure you all are keeping up on the continuing-continuing resolutions (CR), we are all trying understand the various funding scenarios that evolve with each CR and the background political shenanigans that precipitate them.

I will again remind my subgrantees that because we are currently funded with 2009-10 funding we will be good until our 2010-11 grant period ends, which our case is June 30, 2011. After that time we are a the mercy of the CR/ appropriation Gods for the rest of the 2010-11 federal fiscal year. We will also continue to be at their mercy for our funding for the 2011-12 fiscal year which in our case starts four months into our 2011-12 grant period...

I will soon send out our subgrantee renewal applications for the 2011-12 school year and they will be due in early May. And my subgrantees like the rest of us, will be wondering how a plan can be written for the coming year with the uncertainty of two funding periods looming ahead.

I have been asked by my grantees, "If we are not funded, will they be allow to extend their 2010-11 grant...?" If I say yes, they will reduce their spending to save for the pending famine... If I say no, they will stockpile materials and supplies, and use our funding prior to using their other funding sources.

Then there is of course, the closely personal issue of the availability of funding to support our state level roles... If at some point in time we thrown under the bus (or off the bus as the case may be) by a 10-11 CR (or an actual 10-11 budget appropriation), what steps should we take to go on life support for the few months between the end of our 2010-11 grant and the start of a 2011-12 grant... all in the hopes that we will be funded in the 2011-12 budget?

Am I the only one thinking about this.... all the while educating the heck out of my members of congress? And, of course this is all playing out with my state level politicians participating in the same devise political games that center on allowing the voters of CA to decide on raising taxes or going ahead and systematically defunding education in CA.

We certainly are living in interesting times...

Michael Brugh, CalServe Program Director
California Department of Education

Stamford Public Schools and Future 5

2011-03-14T11:09:00.000-07:00

Stamford Public Schools has partnered with Future 5, a nonprofit youth development agency based in Stamford, to run service-learning activities for students in the Alternative Routes to Success (ARTS) program. Our service-learning program began with a series of Future 5-led discussions on the meaning of success, life as a teenager, and the obstacles that get in the way of success. Students came to the conclusion that a purpose was necessary to success. They then agreed to interview people in their community about the importance of having a purpose in life. They would edit the video interviews and create a video project to present to their peers.
Interviewing initially was a challenge for the students. They were afraid to interview adults outside their circle of influence. Despite their fears, the staff, especially the service-learning teacher, has coached them through the process, and to date, the student who was the most reluctant to interview another individual has now interviewed the most people, including the Superintendent of Schools. Interviewing has boosted the students’ self-confidence.
The project also presented students with the opportunity to learn about community resources. Some of them had never been inside the Stamford Government Center, or if they had, one student admitted, it was for unfortunate reasons (“they were in trouble”). They learned about the Urban League, and its programs, the resources available at the public library, the career opportunities with the Army and Navy, as well as the Center for Academic Programs (CAP) at UCONN-Stamford – to name a few. As a result of our visit to UCONN-Stamford, one student has become more motivated and determined to graduate from high school in order to enroll in the CAP program. His school attendance, traditionally poor, has improved since the start of our service-learning program. Another student, who missed two years of high school because he “did not like school,” spends his time in the CAP office in order to finish his homework and talk to college students. He has also taken the initiative to talk to the CAP director about programs for high school students, and encourages his friends, who are worried they cannot go to college, to consider the CAP program.
Currently, students are editing the interviews, and selecting clips that resonated the most with them. Initially a project about other people talking about purpose, the students have decided to include themselves in the project. They are going to share their stories, and experiences so that the video will cater to other students who are lost, and are looking for a purpose.

Agnes Quinones, Learn and Serve CT

Administrative Leadership for Service-Learning

2011-03-06T21:59:00.000-08:00

Administrators have a key role to play in supporting service-learning in schools. One way we can help is to share specific examples of ways that principals and superintendents can create the conditions for service-learning to take hold and flourish.

Here are a few examples that I’ve gathered with input from colleagues around the country and that were included in Empowerment Through Leadership: Quadrant D Practices, a recent publication of the International Center for Leadership in Education. Please post your examples by commenting on this blog so we can continue to add to the list!

• Integrate service-learning into the NCLB school site plan. At Rocklin Elementary School in Rocklin, California, for example, the school site plan includes service-learning as an instructional strategy for improving test results in mathematics and language arts and for supporting students who are below grade level through extended day activities and clubs.
• Require a service-learning project as an activity for a professional learning community (PLC). Administrators for Maine’s Mount Desert Island High School supported English Language Arts and Social Studies teachers as they collaborated for a year to create a new Global Literacy course, that includes service-learning, as a requirement for all 9th graders.
• Incorporate service-learning into partnerships with nonprofits, agencies, and businesses to provide opportunities for students to serve. At Quest High School in Humble, Texas, such partnerships take learning into the community by allowing all students weekly service opportunities at local agencies and nonprofits.
• Make service-learning a part of the district or campus professional development plan. This might involve bringing in a trainer from the Service-Learning Providers Network (www.slprovidersnetwork.org), having a lead teacher present to others, or structuring time for service-learning strategies in other workshops.
• Invite key teachers to participate in service-learning professional development. At Ryland Heights Elementary School in Northern Kentucky, principal Cathy Barwell purposefully invited a few master teachers to a workshop in service-learning. As she notes, “What began as a few excited teachers engaging their classes in service learning projects turned into a staff that has had 100% student and teacher participation in service learning activities for the last four years.”
• Incorporate service-learning into culminating projects. At Ridgefield High School in Ridgefield, Washington, students must complete a 30-hour project to graduate, write a 10-page paper, and submit logs and reflective writing in a service project portfolio.
• Leverage resources to help teachers learn with and from each other. At Amundsen High School in Chicago, Illinois, teachers in the small learning community received support to create a service-learning website that helped them integrate service-learning into their curriculum.
• Recognize principals, teachers, and students for their accomplishments with service-learning. In San Diego Unified School District, students who participate in service learning projects/activities are also eligible to receive service learning recognition on their report cards.
• Purchase practical resources for teachers such as The Complete Guide to Service-Learning by Cathryn Berger Kaye, which provides a wealth of tools to engage students in civic responsibility, academic curriculum, and social action and includes a blueprint for getting started with service-learning.
• Report regularly to the school board on service-learning. Greendale Schools in Greendale, Wisconsin, provides an annual report to the board on service-learning, character education, and civic engagement that summarizes progress on goals and objectives and highlights service-learning projects.
• Hire teachers with a service orientation and require new teachers to be trained in service-learning. In Hudson Public Schools in Hudson, Massachusetts, Community Service-Learning (CSL) Induction of new faculty is provided each August by the superintendent, CSL Committee Chair, CSL Director, teachers, and students who describe the methodology of service-learning and provide concrete examples.
• Distribute information sheets and pamphlets on service-learning from the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (www.servicelearning.org) to teachers, parents, and community partners.
• Develop board policies or resolutions on service-learning. In the Elk Grove Unified School District in Elk Grove, California, board policy 6142.4 (b) “encourages each student to participate in at least one age-appropriate service-learning activity at each grade span” and “encourages staff and students to collaborate with local public and nonprofit agencies in order to develop service-learning activities.”
• Create a budget line item for service-learning and identify allowable sources of funding such as Learn and Serve America, Title I, Title II, Title III, Title IV – Part B, IDEA, etc.
• Align service-learning with district goals. For example, Round Rock Independent School District, in Round Rock, Texas, is using service-learning as a strategy for the district’s dropout prevention initiative.
• Encourage positive school climates with safe and nurturing learning environments for all students through programs such as Project UNIFY, an initiative of Special Olympics funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

Submitted By: John Spence, Service-Learning Texas

Human Trafficking: Can Service-Learning Programs Address This Issue?

2011-03-01T08:25:00.000-08:00

I recently had the opportunity to attend the Girl Scout event titled “A Girl’s World is Different”. I had heard about human trafficking prior to attending the event but had no idea so much was happening right here in the United States! Here is a brief description about the event:

Girl Scouts convene community leaders to work on prevention of Human Trafficking

More than 200 professionals - including police officers, prosecutors, social service experts and community leaders joined together on Thursday, February 25th in Phoenix to work on action we can take together - at home, at church, at school, and at the state level - to interrupt the horrific cycle of human trafficking.

While human trafficking can involve prostitution, its scope is much wider. Predators lure children away from their homes and families, kidnap them, and then sell them as prostitutes, live-in nannies and more. These girls did not choose this lifestyle; in many cases, they are too young to understand that the predator adult is not a friend and that what is happening to them is against the law. (http://www.girlscoutsaz.org/events/a-girls-world-is-different/)

What if someone you loved was in this situation? What if it was your daughter, granddaughter, sister, niece, cousin, or best friend? What if it was you? Although most of the day was focused on the trafficking of girls, I also learned that boys can be trafficked too, if not for prostitution, for labor. The big message of the day was that ANYONE can become a victim of human trafficking, young or old, black, white, or brown. It does not matter who you are, how much money you have, or where you live. We are all at risk.

So how can service-learning programs address this issue? Some might ask “Is it appropriate to talk to our programs about sex and prostitution?” or “There are so many causes out there and my programs address many wonderful causes, this is just one more and it is too risky to talk about with my programs.” To those individuals I would say “Your concerns are valid, it is a risky topic to discuss, but ALL of us are at risk, especially our youth, so isn’t it worth talking about?” I would also add “There are ways to address this issue without focusing on sex and prostitution, there are many forms of human trafficking right here in America”.

I understand the criticality of youth voice in service-learning programs and truly believe that if we educate our youth about the world of human trafficking, they will want to take action. This topic can be incorporated into many academic courses.

Here are some examples:

Math:
Study the statistics on the types of human trafficking, where it happens in your state, and how your state compares to other states and countries.

Science:
Study the physical and psychological health impacts of human trafficking.

English:
Read a book or articles about the topic and write essays, letters, stories, or articles, to advocate for and raise awareness about human trafficking.

Social Studies:
Study the impact human trafficking has on society, the historical trends of human trafficking, and the laws in your state related to human
trafficking.

Please visit the following website for a list of organizations working to combat human trafficking, also known as modern day slavery:

http://www.girlscoutsaz.org/files/agwid/AGWID_Resource_Guide.pdf

Stephanie Hahn, M. Ed., Arizona Department of Education

H.R. 1 - Eliminate CNCS?

2011-02-25T09:56:00.000-08:00

Greetings SEANet Members:

Early Saturday morning (February 19, 2011), the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1, legislation that would make deep cuts in government spending for the rest of this fiscal year. The measure terminates the Corporation for National and Community Service and its programs, and passed on a vote of 235-189. Go to http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2011/roll147.xml to see how your representative voted.

The bill would immediately eliminate the Corporation for National and Community Service and the programs it funds: Learn & Serve America, AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, VISTA, NCCC, the Volunteer Generation Fund, the Social Innovation Fund, etc.

But this is not the final say in the federal budget process. The House bill has been sent to the Senate for consideration, and the Senate and the President will have opportunities to shape and influence the final spending package. We are all believers in the Learn & Serve program and the impacts it has on students, schools, and communities, so each of us must take this opportunity now to help inform members of Congress about the program in each state.

Currently, members of Congress have left Washington and returned home for a week-long recess. They will be in their states and districts talking to constituents, and this presents the opportunity for program participants and partners to educate key elected officials about the value of the Corporation for National and Community Service and its Learn & Serve America program. You can take advantage of this Congressional break by taking part in the "SEANet Support Service Learning Day" on Friday, February 25th. On this day, we encourage you to visit your local Congressman/woman’s office or call them while they are in the local office and to encourage your sub-grantees to do the same. If you miss this day, don’t worry: the Senate and the House will be working on this budget reconciliation process over the next two weeks so any messages over the next week will still be timely.

If members of Congress do not learn about the value of your efforts, it is likely that the program will be reduced or discontinued.

Who to Call:
• Your State’s U.S. Senators
• Your State’s U.S. House of Representatives members
• President Barack Obama

A this critical moment, direct calls are the most likely to make an impact on the decisions being made. Faxes, letters and e-mail may take too long to reach the appropriate person. If you are unable to call, e-mails are the next best method. Contact information is provided below. Follow-up is important too, so send the letters from your program, just don’t count on them as your only outreach strategy.

Tell your U.S. Senators and the President that Learn & Serve America provides service to millions of Americans and addresses critical needs in education, including decreasing dropouts, increasing academic achievement, narrowing the achievement gap, improving school climate, and increasing teacher quality. Do not tell them how to vote on the bill, as that is considered lobbying if you do it on time paid for by Learn & Serve.

Regarding your messages to Congress remember that through service-learning participation, K-12 students meet real needs, have improved academic outcomes, are more prepared for careers, have enhanced social skills, are more civically engaged, and help foster thriving communities and a more participatory democracy. Service-Learning programs also show substantial return-on-investment by leveraging strong contributions on match from the community. This is not about a government program; it is about real beneficial outcomes for students and communities which can stimulate economic growth and better prepare citizens for careers.

We also suggest you encourage your sub-grantees to send letters to your local papers, attend town hall meetings, and use every available opportunity to talk about what will be lost if there is no longer a Learn & Serve America program to support schools in the implementation of service-learning. H.R. 1 - as it passed the House - will not be the final funding package. But Congress must reach a compromise before March 4, 2011, or the government will shut down. Tough choices on funding priorities will have to be made, to include support for the Corporation for National and Community Service.

EMAIL
The link below will take you to the “Write Your Representative website. Enter in the information for the Legislator you are attempting to reach and you will be provided an email form: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

Please follow-up with us at SEANet to let us know of any progress you have made on the calls with your sub-grantees and who you reached.

Thanks for all that you do for creating positive change for students and communities through service-learning!

Javier Betancourt - Program Officer - Florida Learn & Serve

EASTCONN Service-Learning Connecticut: The Thames River Watershed Project

2011-02-15T06:05:00.000-08:00

A watershed is:
"that area of land, a bounded hydrologic system, within which all living things are inextricably linked by their common watercourse and where, as humans settled, simple logic demanded that they become part of a community."
~John Wesley Powell, scientist geographer

Our watershed service-learning project centers on the study of the Thames River Watershed. Through a series of field studies and science labs, students are learning about the importance of their watershed to their lives and the lives of other living things. Students from three areas of the watershed, Chaplin (upstream), Norwich (middle), and New London (downstream), are looking at their local water resources and the roll that humans play on the quality and quantity of potable water. Lessons, activities and field experiences are aligned to the Connecticut Science Frameworks and include connections in math, reading, writing, geography and social studies.

Students in the project will be contributing their experiences and responding to each other on their Thames River Watershed wiki. This wiki resource will be accessible to anyone with an internet connection and can be used to raise awareness and help educate the local citizenship. Chaplin students have been collecting data from the local streams and rivers and will be sharing it with their school partners from Norwich and New London.

The watershed project includes several field studies funded by our Learn & Serve grant, including a trip to the Natchaug River in October by Chaplin 6th graders. They conducted a rapid bio assessment collecting and counting macro invertebrates from the riffles in the stream in the morning, and they spend the afternoon in the science lab, identifying and graphing. Their data will be sent to DEP for the State database on water quality. Chaplin students will be visiting the Connecticut Science Center on March 1st, and trips to the fish hatchery in Plainfield, the fish ladder at the Greenville Dam and the water and waste treatment plants in Willimantic are planned for the spring. They will also participate in the biological species (fish count) at Mohegan Park, Norwich with selected students from the Thames River Academy.

Chaplin 6th graders are also participating in the Trout in the Classroom program. The reason they are raising trout in the classroom is to help raise the population of brown trout in the Natchaug River. The trout is an important food source for other animals. The goal of Trout in the Classroom is to teach about the importance of water quality and how to preserve the population of trout.

In May, Chaplin students will go to Rocky Neck to collect data for a longitudinal study on invasive species, led by environmental education consultant, Juan Sanchez. Students will compile what they have learned themselves and from their partners in Norwich and New London, and current data about Long Island Sound to determine the impact of siltification, run-off and pollution from their own backyard, way upstream in Chaplin.

Their culminating project will be a Thames River Watershed calendar that will include student photographs, illustrations, and researched facts and conservation tips for every month. The calendar will simulate a journey along the watershed starting with January as the headwaters and ending with December as the Long Island Sound. Chaplin students are responsible for the first four months, Norwich the next four, and New London, the final four. The different months will help educate the public about the watershed, its wildlife, people, non-source point pollution and the Long Island Sound.

Submitted by Agnes Quinones, Connecticut State Department of Education

CTE and Service-Learning

2011-02-07T10:09:00.000-08:00

Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs are a great place to utilize the service-learning (SL) teaching strategy. Being the manager of the Learn and Serve America K-12 SL grant for Arizona and the state supervisor for the Early Childhood Education and Education Professions CTE programs has given me the opportunity to explore the connections between CTE and SL. I’m excited to share my discoveries with you!

Some of the similarities between the CTE and SL teaching methods are as follows:
- Both address academic and program specific standards
- Both require students to work and learn outside of the classroom by doing
- Both allow students to utilize the skills they’re learning in class in a real world setting
- Both rely on the students to take an active role in their learning and the teachers to act as facilitators of student learning
- Participation in a CTE or SL class helps students develop workplace readiness skills

Some of the differences between the CTE and SL teaching methods are as follows:
- SL focuses on student’s working to solve and/or address unmet community needs through service activities embedded into the curriculum while CTE programs may or may not include community service in the curriculum.
- The CTE work based learning experience may or may not be paid work and SL always utilizes community service as the avenue for practicing student skills and knowledge gained through the curriculum
- CTE programs have program specific standards for each program and SL programs have SL specific standards
- CTE programs are for students in 7th-12th grades while SL can be incorporated into any classroom grades K-12 and beyond

Some of the ways CTE programs may benefit by utilizing SL as a teaching strategy are:
- Students have the opportunity to utilize their newly learned skills to plan and carryout community service projects and meet unmet community needs as opposed to just practicing their skills in a work setting. This allows them another avenue to practice and build their skills
- Students have the opportunity to increase their civic engagement
- Students may get the opportunity to see how their skills can be used outside of the workplace to impact the community they live in
- Students have the opportunity to learn more about their community
- Offers students the opportunity to show their communities the value they bring

Although this is not a comprehensive comparison of the two valuable teaching methods, I think it does justice in showing how easily SL can further connect the CTE students’ learning to the curriculum and community, offer them another chance to practice their skills, and improve the community they live in. It would be great to hear your feedback regarding CTE and SL. Do you think they marry well? Do you think CTE classes are too restrictive for SL? What else do you know about CTE and SL? I’m anxious to hear your feedback!

Stephanie Hahn, Arizona Department of Education

My First Year on the Job

2011-01-31T07:15:00.000-08:00

My path to the point where I am now is probably very different from the path many of you took to get to this point. There were transitions happening at my workplace, and opportunities were coming available. The Learn and Serve Indiana grant was one of these.

My knowledge of the grant was very little. I worked in close proximity to the previous grant manager, and through cubicle eavesdropping – which is unintended at times – I knew that this grant was capable of many great things that others were not. So, when it opened up, I jumped at the opportunity.

The first year of the job flew. Undeniably, it was one of the most challenging points in my life. Almost everything was new to me. What were these strange things: Semester of Service; mini-grants; LASSIE – isn’t that an old show my grandparents used to make me watch? It was kind of like Mars to me – it was foreign soil and I was the astronaut sent to discover it.

I was quickly introduced to our Service-Learning Technical Advisors and we dove in right away. Our SLTAs – who have become the face of LSI in the field – are and continue to be my rock with LSI. I cannot and will not ever be able to thank them enough for the work that they’ve helped me accomplish while I’ve been in charge of this grant. In many ways, they are the ones that make the grant what it is, and they deserve much more credit than I do at times.

Soon, the time came for me to go to D.C. – er, Crystal City – and receive my mandated LSA training. Being new to this, I was in instant shock. There was a whole world of service out there that I had never known about. I have to admit, I volunteered in high school and college, but I wasn’t the everyday go-getter. However, the people I met at the conference helped me further realize that service is more than just going overseas and fighting for your country. There is service that needs to be done right here in our country – in our own backyards – and we are the ones tabbed for this responsibility. And this realization is what brought me back to Indianapolis ready to serve.

Throughout my first year, I met many different administrators, teachers, students, and community members who thought the same. I have been knocked off of my feet on numerous occasions after meeting 8- and 9-year olds who can recite – from memory – how pollution affects their community to a roomful of adults in a hot, hotel meeting room. I have seen people brought to tears because of their demonstrations.

Over my first year, I saw many great projects that have motivated communities to make changes; that have motivated business to change their policies in regards to what’s best for the environment; that have brought a rich history back into a community that has provided for so many. I have met many great, well-rounded students who will someday be the face of this country. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that being a part of a service-learning project had something to do it.

Although my first year was shockingly new at times to me, I welcomed the test. Being able to see – in person – the affects of a good service-learning project, both in and out of the classroom, has offered me a much different and brighter outlook on the world than I had just a year ago. Although at times the paperwork can bog you down a bit, I make it a point to go out into the field as much as possible to see these projects, and to be a part of it all. It’s a good feeling to know that you are a part of something positive, and it’s now a part of your job.

Andrew Conway, Indiana Department of Education

Evaluation

2011-01-24T12:13:00.000-08:00

In this age of accountability, as program directors and coordinators we know that Evaluation is a cornerstone of our continuing ability to prove our outcomes, maintain continuous improvement, secure broad-based support from all stakeholders and, ultimately, maintain stable levels of funding for our initiatives. The question is…how do we do this? Evaluation is difficult to implement, manage and accomplish and is most of all…very costly and time consuming. Typically, large amounts of both time and funding are required to form an evaluation process that has any sort of validity in the heavily-scrutinized education research field. This usually means hiring external evaluators and getting set to deal with logistically complex data management and retrieval procedures and with various levels of requirements as to securing access to the student numbers. This is simply the reality of meeting the “burden of proof” which to this day still hangs somewhat heavily over the service-learning field. We have made great gains in the directions of standardizing our practice based on indicators which should lead to resultant increases in student academic outcomes, but we still do not, as a field, have a mass of well-designed studies that show the beneficial outcomes as a result of high-quality practice. As a field and to be accepted as a viable school-based educational methodology we must grow to maturity together in this area. But how is this accomplished? It is no simple task and minimizing the effort required to implement professional evaluation can be equally counterproductive; improperly designed evaluation tools are more or less the evaluative equivalent to “a shot in the dark,” until proper design procedures are considered at the front-end, then there will be no verifiable result.

Javier Betancourt
FL&S Program Officer

In Florida we have made some strides in the area of evaluation, but we are by no means at a point where conclusive reporting procedures have been developed. Florida has structured its evaluation and reporting requirements as follows: since 1992, all sub-grantees have had to identify at least one need of participating students that would be addressed through the proposed service-learning activities. They are required to project a quantifiable impact that the service-learning activities will have on the identified need, and describe how that impact will be measured. The need can be academic (grades, test scores, etc.), behavioral (i.e., conduct or attendance), or related to skills acquisition or civic/social responsibility, as measured via teacher-designed or –identified observations, rubrics, grading systems, or surveys. Renewal sub-grantees also have to project an impact their activities will have on the community/ties they will serve, and describe how that impact will be measured.

From 2003-2006, student participants completed pre- and post-surveys focused on civic engagement. The surveys were derived from sample instruments provided by the Corporation for National and Community Service. No elementary-age survey was available, so program staff modified the middle school survey to be developmentally appropriate for students in grades 3-6. From 2006-2009, Florida Learn & Serve contracted with a professional evaluator to develop instruments to measure civic engagement and achievement motivation in grades 4-12. There were pre- and post-surveys for civic-engagement, and a post-survey for achievement/motivation. The surveys were developed, tested, evaluated, revised, re-tested, revised again, and validated using rigorous standards. Instruments were approved by an Institutional Review Board, and active consent was received for all participants, including parents of students under age 18.

In addition, sub-grantees must complete data tables at the end of their grant period that report on participating students’ attendance, conduct, and performance on the statewide exam. For comparison, the sub-grantees provide these same data for non-participating students in the same grades at their schools (see forms and instructions at http://learnandserve.hhp.ufl.edu/projects/evaluation/evaluation1011.html).

Participating school districts collect the data and consent forms. Once collected, the data, which contain no student-identifying information, are entered into databases from which reports may be generated. Since the 2009-2010 school year, sub-grantees have used these instruments and data forms. The goal of the surveys and data tables is to collect data that can be aggregated statewide; these data will complement the unique student impact data that each participating school is also collecting.

As the 2009-10 data have not yet been studied, it is not known what impacts the sub-grants have had. Previous final reports by sub-grantees have, in hundreds of individual cases, indicated positive academic, social, civic, or skills acquisition gains of participating students. But, for all the aforementioned reasons related to validity and reliability—data that are self-reported, from small samples, non-longitudinal, idiosyncratic, wholly quantitative or qualitative, involving small populations, etc.—the Florida results are not complete, comprehensive, replicable or of sufficient rigor to draw conclusions on the degree to which the treatment of service-learning was responsible for gains. Hence there is much room for growth to reach a level of sufficiency in evaluation.

In terms of what you want to measure, as a director you must ask yourself the question of whether you are hoping to get data on servers, the served, or both? We found it was a handful just to get good data on students who served. The goal of the Florida Learn & Serve program is to engage K-12 students in service-learning that is directly tied to the students’ curricula, grades, performance, and acquisition of related KSAs that the schools and teachers want the students to learn. Therefore, we’re primarily trying to measure the degree to which engagement in service learning leads to improvements and gains in these areas. Every project has unique and individualized needs and related goals. Some hope to improve performance in reading, math, science, social studies, or other core subjects (by having students apply those subjects via service). Others seek to modify and improve behavior. Others focus on the development of civic competencies or job/career skills through the service. These individual projects yield individual results that cannot be aggregated across the state, school district, schools, classrooms, or even (sometimes) from one student to another.

Because such data are so individualized (and we do not have the time, money, expertise, or staff to conduct n = 1 studies), we also use the aforementioned surveys focusing on civic engagement and achievement motivation and collect basic comparative data on participating vs. non-participating students related to attendance, grades, and conduct—see the above link. This is a realistic view of the state of evaluation in our state program hence it shows both strengths and weaknesses. At our stage of development as a methodology there really is no greater impact to be made than through validating the effectiveness of our model. Until we can prove quantitatively what we already know to be true qualitatively we will continue to be relegated to the periphery of the educational practice. Bu there is everything to be gained by meeting the “burden of proof of concept” that has been placed before us.

Joe Follman
FL&S Director

Linking Learning to Environmental Action

2011-01-21T05:59:00.000-08:00

“Service-learning’s pedagogical power lies in its ability to integrate academic content with hands-on learning, authentic problem solving, and community action to enhance students’ academic achievement and civic development.”

Our schools have been understandably preoccupied with student achievement in language arts and mathematics for several years. These subjects are at the foundation of learning. Included with reading and math, however, students need knowledge of science and history, cultures and languages, art, music, health and physical activity. Without a full understanding of the integration of all disciplines, humans cannot understand themselves in the context of our environment. Our pattern identification, reasoning, and systems understanding abilities require that we think carefully and act responsibly to safeguard the planet for future generations.

Most K-12 students today are aware of environmental issues. From the second grade through high school they have studied and can speak of climate change, rain forest loss, endangered plants and animals. Many of them discuss these issues at home with parents, grandparents, and siblings. But do they know where trash goes when it leaves their house, why we recycle, or how the runoff from our roofs and parking lots affects streams, rivers and the Coastal Bays? They struggle to understand the interdependency of natural systems or the complexity of adaptations that enable survival.

During the 2009-2010 academic year, CalServe (California Department of Education) funded twenty one watershed projects with the expectation that there would be a measurable benefit to the community. Each project was unique, recognizing local needs and student interest. Attention in the design of each project was given to the connections among subject matter proficiency, the age of the students, the characteristics of the communities in which the schools are located, and the benefits that would result to the communities and the state. Projects ranged from native xeriscopic plantings in the California desert to salt marsh restoration in Coastal Bays. Students were asked to study, plan, do, evaluate, reflect and report. In each instance high quality Service-Learning was the guideline and the goal. The projects did not only provided an opportunity for youth to understand the environment in which they live, they have also provided these youth a way of better understanding how their actions benefit their community. And, the projects provided the community with an active way to understand its youth.

A full report on the 2009-10 Community Benefits of Twenty-One Watershed Related Service-Learning Projects will be released this spring.

Michael Brugh, CalServe Program Director
CalServe Initiative
California Department of Education,
1430 N Street, Suite 6408
Sacramento, California 95814-5901
Ph. 916-319-0543
Fx. 916-323-6061
mbrugh@cde.ca.gov
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/sl

Success Story: Norwich Public Schools

2011-01-10T14:07:00.000-08:00

Kids In Action

During the ASPIRE Summer Service Academy, 60 Norwich middle school students participated in over 60 hours of service planning, implementation, and demonstration. Students were split up to work on three different projects for the duration of July 2010.

One project investigated the mission and needs of downtown Norwich social service agencies that provide for the city’s most impoverished individuals and families. This group investigated what the most pressing social issues are for some of Norwich’s residents and what they and others can do to improve the living conditions of others. The students decided that they wanted to learn how people in Norwich volunteer and recognize them for their actions through a video. They interviewed staff at St. Vincent de Paul’s Place, toured the facility, and helped serve a meal. Before the end of the program, they began to edit the footage that they had from their project and used their reflection time to start writing a poem dedicated to the people in Norwich that serve others in need. This project has continued during the school year.

The second group planned and developed a fruitful student and community garden at Teacher’s Memorial Middle School to provide fresh produce for families in need. Students designed the layout for raised beds and a patch for squash and pumpkins. They also built a fence, a gate, and concrete stepping stones to guide visitors through the garden and protect their work and harvest from animals and other unwanted visitors. About 50 pounds of vegetables were harvested and distributed among the project participants and patrons at St. Vincent de Paul’s Place. They concluded the 4 weeks by visiting St. Vincent de Paul’s Place with shovels, compost, seeds, and straw to rehabilitate 3 raised beds at the soup kitchen that had been left untended for a few seasons. The students planted a late season round of beets, cucumbers, beans, and spinach for the volunteers and patrons to tend and harvest.

The last group focused on the elders in their own families, investigating their family lineage and the topic of diversity in their own lives. They researched the cultural and ethnic diversity present in Norwich, CT and the origins of their own family. They interviewed their parents and grandparents to design a family tree that included symbols and objects representing the lives of their grandparents and great grandparents, many of whom originated in countries outside the United States. The group presented their work to their families and the other participants at the Summer Service Academy.

Submitted by Agnes Quinones, Connecticut

Getting Our Voices Heard: Increasing Service-Learning Awareness Nationally

2010-12-23T06:11:00.000-08:00

A key question for all of us in the Service-Learning field is how we can increase the visibility and national stature of service-learning as a viable educational methodology in an age of continuing federal cutbacks. We all know first-hand that service-learning works. We have seen the dramatic stories of fundamental change from students who have gone from at-risk, low-performing status to leadership and medium to high-performing status within the span of a single service-learning program. How do we get national attention for these dramatic stories?

The answer lies in awareness work. Our field has a tendency to shy away from the spotlight due to the inherent modesty of teachers who simply want to change the lives of students for the better and are not savvy about outreach to stakeholders such as school administrators, legislators, corporate sponsors and the general public. This is also due to the restrictions imposed on state-level coordinators on lobbying, and/or the limited amount of time and experience state-level coordinators have in this area. Further, it is also related to the fact that students do not vote, and students and teachers do not lobby. But to maintain or increase the strength of service-learning depends upon our ability to engage in this type of outreach. Without support from key decision-makers, especially legislators, there is no guarantee that service-learning support will be sustained now or in the future. It is critical that we make our voices heard now.

There are many ways to conduct outreach, ranging from focused campaigns conducted throughout the year to arranging direct visits with stakeholders to show dynamically how service-learning projects work. In Florida, we have had some success with an awareness and outreach approach based on an annual meeting where students and teachers visit the state capital to hold direct visits with their legislators. Now in its fourth year, this annual event has grown from 125 to 400 participants.

Student visits with legislators are not lobbying, as students focus on describing the service-learning efforts and do not mention specific legislation. The students are educating and providing information to legislators. Adhering to federal guidelines on lobbying does not mean legislative outreach efforts should not be conducted. Legislators need to be aware of the key issues which affect their constituents. Service-learning is a key methodology for addressing both academic needs for students and critical community needs. Legislators should be aware of Service-Learning as a strategy for fundamental change at the school level and at the community level. In addition, when students teach others about their service-learning efforts, they are both demonstrating what they have learned and also performing another level of service learning.

Our yearly awareness event, called the Raise Your Voice for Service-Learning Conference, is held at the state capital in Tallahassee and includes workshops (mostly presented by students), displays in the Capitol, student visits with legislators, a rally and press conference to celebrate Florida Service-Learning Month (April of each year), and recognize the new cadre of Florida Service-Learning Leader Schools. Nearly 400 people are planning to attend this year (to see the conference web link and flyer at Click here.). To underwrite the event, Florida Learn & Serve primarily uses returned funds from the previous grant year. Sub-grantees compete for amendments, following established program guidelines.

As part of the conference, students contact their legislators to make arrangements to meet with them both locally and when the students travel to Tallahassee. When/where sub-grantees are able to get legislators to visit their schools; long-lasting relationships can be developed between a school and its local legislator. There is nothing quite like a legislator seeing first-hand the dramatic advancements made by students and community impacts due to service-learning programs. Legislators are receptive to these stories. There is a chance that after such a visit, a legislator will maintain ties with the school and hold it up as a model to be replicated. Such relationships are exactly what our field needs nationally to foster the kind of long-term support for our practice that can eventually materialize as sustainable support through long-term funding.

The Florida Raise Your Voice Conference is held in March or April of each year, during the legislative session. It is also scheduled to avoid conflicts with spring break and state-level testing. The schedule, which is 24 hours from 1:00 p.m. on the first day until noon on the second day, is designed to reduce costs (most schools need only one night in a hotel) and limit the number of days of school that students will miss (usually two days).

Workshops, mostly student-led and focusing on student leadership, student voice, advocacy, working with media, and related topics, are held the first afternoon. For the past three years, a state legislator has participated and helped students prepare for presentations to legislators. Each year, FL&S staff secure a Florida Service-Learning Month proclamation from the Governor (please see the link below for the sample proclamation).
http://learnandserve.hhp.ufl.edu/resources/RYVSL/Proclomation%20Letter%20in%20Color.pdf

A sample agenda is below:

2010 RYVSL CONFERENCE AGENDA

Monday, April 25 (Conference Hotel, located withing walking distance of Capitol)

11 a.m.-1:00 p.m. Registration
1:00-1:45 p.m. Opening Plenary
2:00-3:15 p.m. Workshops I (8 choices)
3:30-4:45 p.m. Workshops II (8 choices)
4:45-5:00 p.m. Closing Plenary, instructions for next day
6:00-7:15 p.m. Service-Learning Leader School and State Farm Reception and Awards

Tuesday, April 26 (events at Florida Capitol)

8:00-8:45 a.m. Set up displays in Capitol
8:45-11 a.m. Students man displays, students and teachers visit legislators
11:15 a.m. Rally/press conference to recognize April as Service-Learning Month
11:45 a.m. End of Conference

Scheduling Visits with Legislators
Every group who comes to the RYVSL meeting plans to visit with one or more state Senators or Representatives on the morning of the second day (there is time for them to visit with multiple offices). At these visits, students educate their elected officials about service learning and their projects. Contact information for all members of the House and Senate members is provided by our staff as well as multiple resources to help them provide information about service-learning efforts to elected officials and the media: Click here for the media kit page. We encourage sub-grantee coordinators to have students take the lead, whenever possible, in communicating with legislators and related conference planning and logistics.

Lastly, it is important to emphasize that outreach and awareness are valid and important forms of service-learning. One of the key types of service-learning, and one which has strong documented research on impacts, is advocacy. By engaging with their legislators and other key stakeholders, students meet a real community need and can have improved academic outcomes, get career preparation, enhance social and speaking skills, and become civically engaged. Service-learning is a two-way street and by helping our legislators learn about our amazing work we help our students as well by allowing them become more involved, more proactive, more self-sufficient, and more knowledgeable citizens.

Helpful Resources

Download the FL&S Student Guide for Working with Legislators. Click Here.
See our page on Outreach and working with the Media.Click Here.

Submitted by Javier Betancourt, Florida Learn & Serve

Waiting for Superman

2010-12-16T12:34:00.000-08:00

Although I’ve yet to see the film Waiting for Superman, I have many thoughts about it. Several of my friends and colleagues working in education have seen the film or talked about it and there have been a number of responses, some good, and some bad. In my opinion, the movie falls somewhere in between.

When a film gets people talking about the state of education in our country, I think it’s a good thing. Whether the conversation is good or bad, I believe bringing attention to such an important issue brings us, as a nation, one step closer to talking about solutions. Although I personally believe that too many people spend too much time talking about the problems and not enough time discussing and planning viable, sustainable solutions, I also think it provides an opportunity to change the way people address this issue.

In the New York Times article “Waiting for Somebody” written by Gail Collins, David Guggenheim, the director of the movie, said he’s not offering an answer: “It’s really not “pro” or “anti” anything. It’s really: “Why can’t we have enough great schools?” I couldn’t agree with David more. Why can’t we have more great schools in the wealthiest country in the nation? Why can’t we put more money into education? Why can’t we get rid of poor teachers and why can’t we reward good teachers with higher pay and better treatment? Why should innocent children, born into poverty, not be offered the opportunity to be educated by a highly qualified teacher in a safe environment? Why do so many people seem to assume that because an innocent child is born into wealth that their life is so much better? Why do we focus so much attention on numbers and not enough on actual, factual stories at our schools? Why aren’t we doing a better job supporting education in this country?

There are so many questions that I do not know the answers to but wish could be discussed in a forum that truly brings attention to the issues we face in the U.S. education system. I wish that every single household in our country was talking about education every single day. I wish that more time was spent discussing solutions and real change could happen.

Every single person old or young enough to work towards change in this country should be thinking and talking about educational issues each and every day and should not let up until we have transformed U.S. education into a system that truly works. I am frustrated with the many initiatives, living in silos that aren’t, in my opinion, truly fixing the educational issues in our country. I know there are many of you out there who care as much as I do and am as frustrated as I am but we need to ask ourselves how we can do more. We can’t settle with I’m doing my part and the best I can as an individual. None of us alone can save the world but if we did a better job coming together as a nation, maybe, just maybe we could make a real difference for the entire country and not just the children and families lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. It isn’t good enough and our children deserve better!

Submitted by Stephanie Hahn, M. Ed.
Arizona Department of Education

Stranger to Friend – SEANet Transforms Service-Learning Collaboration.

2010-12-09T12:14:00.000-08:00

The “Stranger to Friend” transition is a phrase borrowed from Alan Peshkin’s study of Riverview and its high school (1991)

[i]. It provides a helpful framework for understanding diversity and perceptions of otherness, especially in education and in teacher professional development. At the multi-ethnic Riverview High School, Peshkin describes how “students [made] a passage [from the status of stranger] to the status of friend” (p.211). This is much like a passage among pre-service (and in-service) teachers in Service-Learning professional development.

SEANet’s Leadership Team is a working board enhancing and building the value and voice for academic service-learning throughout SEANet’s membership across the nation. SEANet is working for you and with you (friends versus strangers).

Through SEANets’ upgraded web page, regularly scheduled webinars (also archived), weekly blogs and special assignments, your service-learning colleagues communicate, add value, share an academic K-12 Service-Learning vision and press a key claim: without learning, service is less than half the point.

In 2010, your SEANet Leadership Team has worked with three main Activity priorities.

Activity 1 – “Build organizational capacity to sustain and grow SEANet as a national voice to advance high-quality academic service-learning.” Activities include developing capacity for potential investors in academic service-learning…

Activity 2 – “Build SEANet Executive Board capacity to better leverage the leadership within the SEANet membership.” Your colleagues are working for you and with you.

Activity 3 – “Provide a series of professional development opportunities for SEANet members to develop and enhance academic service-learning program development and sustainability knowledge and skills. “ This activity includes the following components:

Activity Goal #3.1 is “Provide leadership in developing a PK-20 system of professional development for pre- and in-service teachers.”

Stranger to Friend –-- Service-Learning Transforms Pre-Service Teacher Training.

A Modest Request: To those SEANet participants -- I am asking SEANet (you) to share (e-mail reply to this blog):

(1) your pre-service & in-service teacher professional development systems currently in place (plus your contact information) and

(2) your priority needs and questions.

· My commitment, as your current SEANet Secretary, is to share the information I receive with cluster leaders and with the SEANet Leadership Team. I’ll gather and forward your input, challenges and questions plus systems and approaches to pre-service and in-service teacher professional development and teacher T/TA.

· The SEANet Board can then review and include current practice, questions and needs in planning and implementing SEANet’s process for 2011.

A number of states effectively implement significant pre-service and in-service teacher professional development in Service-Learning. Most all states share some key challenges but the Board may not know your specifics. Please share your overview, challenges and plans by the end of January 2011.

A recent article, “From Stranger to Friend: The Effect of Service-Learning in Preservice Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Diverse Populations[ii]” portrays some elements of the need and important aspects of professional development that can help a teaching practice through Service-Learning.

Service learning teacher professional development can significantly influence participants’ view of cultures other than their own. Service learning affects pre-service teachers’ attitudes about working with students from diverse backgrounds.

SEANet’s core Professional Development and Training/Technical Assistance activities in 2010 will become even more crucial in 2011. There are many reasons for their increasing importance. Please stay (a friend) involved in SEANet. As an instructional practice, Service Learning can benefit from some “common core standards” and “new teacher induction” methods, plus integrated ways to disseminate best practice across the nation’s State Education Agencies.

SEANet, The State Education Network for Service Learning, has accomplished promising initial steps in these activity areas in 2010 and some positive announcements about plans and partnerships for 2011 will soon follow.

[i] Peshkin, A. (1991). The color of strangers – The color of friends: The play of ethnicity in school and community. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

[ii] Zeller, N., Griffith, R., Zhang, G., & Klenke, J. (2010). From stranger to friend: The effect of service learning on preservice teachers’ attitudes towards diverse populations. Journal of Language and Literacy Education [Online], 6(2), 34-50. Available http://www.coa.uga.edu/jolle/2010_2/Zeller_Stranger.pdf

Submitted by:

Pete Ready
Education Specialist
Office of Educational Improvement & Innovation
Oregon Department of Education
pete.ready@state.or.us

Teaching Academy - Service-Learning with a Career Focus

2010-11-30T07:37:00.000-08:00

Last November I started my position as Learn and Serve America Coordinator for the state of Illinois. I work at the Illinois State Board of Education in Springfield every morning overseeing the federal grant, but in the afternoons I travel ten minutes to Lanphier High School where I teach a service-learning elective for seniors who would like to pursue a career in education. We call it the Teaching Academy. This service-learning class is a great opportunity for students to volunteer daily in their community as they discover whether or not a teaching career is right for them.

The students meet in the high school classroom one hour each day, and during that time they cover topics such as classroom management, curriculum development, motivation, classroom arrangement, children’s literature, etc. The text used for much of the teaching methods portion of the class is Tools for Teaching by Fred Jones. The students do not have individual copies of the book, but they take notes as the teacher discusses some of the most important topics from the text.

In addition to the teaching methods instruction, the class provides the opportunity for students to take field trips to schools, historic sites, museums, and parks located within their community. The purpose of the trips is to let the students experience other schools, to give them ideas for field trips that they can plan for their future students, and to teach them the proper way to conduct field trips, followed by reflection. The Teaching Academy students have visited places such as the zoo, Lincoln Memorial Garden, the Early Childhood Learning Center, the alternative high school, the Vachel Lindsay Home, the University of Illinois at Springfield pre-service teaching class, and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. Last week’s field trip was to the theatre to see Waiting for Superman.

The students also welcome a variety of speakers to the classroom. Superintendents, principals, former teachers, student teachers, psychologists, professors, and teacher recruiters are just a few of the guests that have been invited to visit the academy. After reading A Child Called It, the students prepare questions that they have about child abuse and a teacher’s responsibility as a mandated reporter before the psychologist comes to discuss the questions with them. Another yearly guest is a former teacher who taught physical education until she was seventy-five years old. She has a unique perspective on the changes that took place in the world of education throughout her fifty-year career. All of the guests offer advice and experiences that can help the students as they decide on their future careers.

Service projects are an essential part of each year in the Teaching Academy. These opportunities involve the students in their community and teach them how to organize activities. The projects are based on community needs that present themselves at times throughout the year. During the Lincoln Bicentennial Celebration, the students participated in a Lincoln post-it-note project. An artist directed the students as they pasted 16,200 post-it-notes on two 7’ by 55’ grids; the images of the president were not clear until the banners were completed. Two years ago the students presented a play version of The Lorax by Dr. Seuss to elementary students who attended the Environmental Fair at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. Last year, Teaching Academy students sponsored a Morning of Poetry for district teachers and their children or grandchildren at the Vachel Lindsay Home. (Lindsay was the foremost poet in America in the 1920’s, and he is Springfield’s second most famous citizen). The future teachers performed Lindsay’s children’s poetry, including “The Little Turtle,” and then helped the young guests with a little turtle craft while they all snacked on turtle-shaped sugar cookies with green icing. In each of the three years of the Teaching Academy, the students have created colorful quote murals representing works they studied in the classroom: Freedom Writers’ Diary, The Lorax, and “The Little Turtle.”

Perhaps the most valuable Teaching Academy experience is the daily interaction that the high school students have with the students and teachers in elementary classrooms. The students leave the high school academy after sixth hour and go directly to the elementary classrooms for the last hour of the school day where they learn the real work of teaching. The academy students tutor individual students, read books and teach short lessons to the entire class, supervise recess, grade papers, organize folders, and perform the mundane tasks of sharpening pencils and photocopying papers. Their time at the elementary school is like a mini-student teaching experience through which the high school students learn what it is like to be a teacher, and the elementary teachers and students enjoy having the extra help in their classrooms.

Academic Learning, Community Service, Reflection, Career Planning--The Teaching Academy offers all of these service-learning elements…every day of the school year.

Submitted by:

Deborah T. Huffman

Learn & Serve America Coordinator

Illinois State Board of Education

Curriculum & Instruction

Building a Statewide Presence for Service-Learning

2010-11-23T15:45:00.000-08:00

Since I began working with the Learn and Serve America program in 1995, I’ve often pondered how we can best meet the dual need of both building capacity for and implementing quality service-learning. In Texas we’ve tried to address this with a variety of strategies, but I believe that none has more promise for expanding our reach than strategic partnerships.

We’ve had some good experience with partnerships, but we’re still wrestling with some key questions:

· What are the attributes of an effective, reciprocal partnership for service-learning?

· Would we benefit from a working definition of a partnership to help guide and inform our organizational relationships?

· To what degree are we willing to compromise on some aspects of service-learning quality in exchange for partnerships that provide us with greater reach and exposure?

· What resources are required to maintain and nurture these partnerships?

· To what extent should we sustain our partnerships, or should we let some run their course?

Partnerships often start from a need, and our case is no different. Starting about 2003 we realized that we needed additional support for our Summer Institute in Service-Learning and that we had a natural ally in State Farm Insurance, which was beginning to promote service-learning not just nationally but also in Texas. We were delighted to spread the word among our subgrantees about Project Ignition, and in return State Farm Texas happily supported our Summer Institute with several small grants. Several years later, well before the recent recession, we received an invitation from our State Farm contact to create a Texas version of Project Ignition for middle and high school students. The result was $240,000 for two years of funding that involved young people in 29 schools across the state in social action projects designed to improve the driving habits of teens.

Likewise, in late 2005, when we were writing our Learn and Serve America grant for the 2006-2009 cycle, we realized that we had to secure more matching funds and also determine a pressing and relevant community need that we use for our Needs and Activities performance measure. One idea led to another, and before long I was calling one of our service-learning colleagues at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) and pitching the idea of working together on the grant. We decided to focus on environmental stewardship as our common need. We would encourage our subgrantees to partner with TPWD on environmental service-learning projects, and they would promote service-learning through their networks as well.

The plan worked fairly well. Most, but not all, of our subgrantees involved at least some students in environmental service-learning projects. We developed and distributed service-learning resources to Project WILD facilitators around the state. And we secured some much-needed matching funds in the first year of our grant.

Four years later we received some unexpected dividends in the form of a $255,000 grant from Encana Oil and Gas, which the TPWD Foundation solicited on our behalf. This funding enabled us to create the Texas Healthy Habitats grant, which, now in its second year of funding, engages students in grades 5 through 12 in environmental service-learning activities designed to address one or more of the goals in the state’s Conservation Action Plan. With the help of this grant and our partnership with TPWD, we’ve been able to work with new subgrantees including not just public schools but private nonprofit schools and nonprofit organizations as well.

We’re starting to think beyond grants, however, as the primary focus of our partnerships. This past summer one of our program coordinators suggested that we explore ways to partner with the state office of FCCLA (Future Career and Community Leaders of America). After much discussion, we agreed to staff an exhibit at the state conference of the Family and Consumer Sciences Teachers Association of Texas (FCSTAT). Our staff worked with two teacher advisors for FCCLA to develop a one-page handout linking our LEADERS model of service-learning to the FCCLA planning process. These teachers also graciously agreed to manage our exhibit with help from one of our staff members, and the result was that we provided nearly 225 FCSTAT teachers with helpful materials and information on service-learning as a strategy for Family and Consumer Sciences classes as well as for FCCLA. We’re now exploring potential next steps for this partnership, which we hope will create another ally for service-learning in Texas.

I welcome your thoughts and hope you’ll share examples of your experiences with service-learning partnerships at the state level. Although I doubt that we’ll ever have enough Learn and Serve America funding to reach all our school districts, I’m convinced that strategic partnerships with other organizations can substantially increase our efforts to make service-learning a common experience for all students.

John Spence, Director

Service Learning Texas

A Statewide Initiative of the Texas Education Agency

and Region 14 Education Service Center

2499 South Capitol of Texas Highway., Suite A-107

Austin, TX 78746-7757

phone, (512) 420-0214 x 101

fax, (512)420-0224

john@servicelearningtexas.org