Schools incorporate service learning into instructional program

That’s a key message for school boards, say educators working to make community service a relevant educational tool -- and not just good work for its own sake. When done correctly, they say, schools can create what they call a powerful “service learning” experience.

“I would urge school board members to consider that service learning isn’t an ‘add-on’ program,” says Shelley H. Billig, a leading researcher of service learning programs. “This is a mainstream instructional strategy, and it needs to be supported as a mainstream strategy.”

That’s easier said than done. Despite the widespread growth of school programs that foster volunteerism and community service, only half of these programs actually linked their efforts to the curriculum in 1999, the most recent year that data is available from the National Center for Education Statistics.

That’s all the more unfortunate because, at an American Youth Policy Forum Nov. 4 in Washington, D.C., Billig shared research that showed service learning can contribute to student achievement. She found a “statistically significant impact on classroom learning” when service projects are linked to class goals and students are called upon to use academic skills as part of their work, to reflect upon the larger social issues behind their projects, and to evaluate and reflect upon their efforts.

“You need something that makes them dig more deeply into what they’ve learned,” Billig says. “When they see how it’s related to what they’re learning at school, not only do they do better on tests, but they also understand and value school more. That makes a huge difference.”

Where programs are falling short, Billig says, the academic disconnect is but one problem. Programs also are flawed because service projects are too brief and superficial, are supervised by teachers poorly trained in service learning, or lack an emotional connection to the civic or social issues that are the subject of the service work.

Nelda Brown, executive director of the State Education Agency K-12 Service-Learning Network (SEANet), says school boards can strengthen service learning programs by asking questions about the academic connection.

“If I were advising a local school board member, I’d say to look at your current goals and objectives in the school,” she says. “If the No Child Left Behind Act means academic standards are a priority, let’s explore how service learning can be used as a vehicle to achieve those objectives.”

Service learning programs in the Miami-Dade County school system certainly take that advice to heart. For example, Chris Kirchner, an English teacher at Turner Technical Arts High School in Miami, has students interview elderly Civil Rights activists -- but the work is designed to exercise academic skills so students meet high standards.

“Interviewing causes you to collect and analyze information, see similarities, see differences,” she says. “All of those skills are tested in our [state] proficiency tests.”

The Stafford County, Va., school system’s elective program requires students and teachers to address early on how their service project will mirror the state’s standards of learning, says Cynthia Lucero-Chavez, a community involvement specialist at the district.

One classroom project, for example, involved publishing an activity book about the county’s history for schools, tourist centers, and local government agencies.

“Our students have to list the standards of learning that they addressed from beginning to end with the project,” she says. “When it comes time to take [state tests], they understand what it means.”

All of this can be done at minimum cost -- mostly through good planning and partnerships with local community groups, Brown adds.