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Illinois School Board Journal
November/December 2002

Service connects learning to life

by Linda Dawson

Linda Dawson is IASB director of editorial services and Journal editor.

When she was younger, Tashona Marshall was like most students. She went to class. She studied the subjects her teachers presented. When she left the classroom, she volunteered in her community.

But Tashona never saw the connection between her lessons and her volunteering -- her learning and her life -- until, as a freshman at North Central College in Aurora, she tutored high school students one-on-one and became a mentor. This was her introduction to service learning.

"I knew what it meant to be a volunteer," she told a gathering of Illinois educators and service learning supporters in Bloomington, "but I didn't know how to make it a part of my learning."

As she tutored high school students, it was like a huge light bulb that illuminated her educational experience, allowing her to see how the pieces fit. At the same time she was helping students learn, she was learning patience and reflecting on how the whole person matters.

The experience was powerful enough to steer her toward a teaching career. Now, as a first-year middle school reading, math and social studies teacher in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, it's an experience she plans to share with her own classrooms.

Tashona's story is just one piece of anecdotal evidence to support what service learning advocates say continually: students learn better and work harder when they can see a practical application for what they're doing. It's the difference between passively sitting in a classroom, listening to a teacher, and actively being engaged in the learning process.

"It's important to talk about engagement," says Terry Pickeral, executive director of The Center for Learning & Citizenship. "(Teachers) do a lot of exposure, but often not any engagement."

Pickeral, whose center is part of the Educational Commission of the States, headquartered in Denver, Colorado, also attended that service learning session in Bloomington. The meeting, convened by Hazel Loucks, deputy governor for education and workforce, was designed to showcase service learning practices in Illinois and raise awareness of its benefits.

He encouraged those in attendance to think big, start small and to be courageous in their vision for service learning. "A lot of states talk about P-16-plus and stop there," Pickeral said. "You have people willing to spend time and effort on this."

"If it's going to flourish, we have to stop talking about it and live it," he said.

But even before educators can talk about it, they must understand what service learning is … and what it is not. And as talk grows into living programs, school board members must be prepared to listen, because they will need to set policies to allow that growth.

According to the report of a 2000 survey of educators and business leaders, "Service Learning in Illinois -- A P-16 Partnership," service learning "is an instructional strategy that blends community service with academic learning. Emphasis is placed on reflection, active student participation and connecting the curriculum to the real world."

The connections come from students being able to see critical links between the subject matter presented and the larger world around them. Engagement happens when they begin to see the value in learning.

When students are not engaged in their own learning process, the information they receive may be treated as trivial. While they may not voice the questions, they may think: Who would want to know that? Why should I have to know that? How will I ever use that?

They may be able to "parrot" information for a test at the end of the week, or maybe, with review, for an exam at the end of a semester. But once they're studying another subject, the lessons from the first subject may cease to exist for them, because those lessons have no relevance to the rest of what they are learning or doing.

Engaged learning, on the other hand, helps students see practical applications for the information they're given. Making use of the information in a way that helps other people reinforces the learning process.

Since the original service learning report was released in 2000, a P-16+ Service Learning Task Force has attempted to spread the word about the advantages of "engaging students" in learning. A follow-up survey shows the message is slowly gaining acceptance.

In the original March 2000 survey, 277 superintendents responded to a questionnaire faxed by Illinois Association of School Boards. Of those who responded, 193 (69 percent) said they were "strongly supportive" or "supportive" of service learning. Two years later, the follow-up survey elicited a 77 percent "strongly support/support" response from the 241 respondents.

The "no opinion/do not support" responses dropped slightly, from 22 percent to 20 percent. But the bigger drop was in the number of superintendents who simply did not answer the question. Non-responses were down from 22 (7 percent) to 6 (2 percent).

This would seem to indicate that more superintendents are becoming familiar with the term "service learning," in addition to finding more superintendents supportive of the concept. The total number of superintendents who responded to the survey was down overall from 277 to 241. While this may have been due to sending out the survey too close to the end of the school year, Jane Angelis, the driving force behind the P-16+ Service Learning Task Force and the one who requested both surveys, says the number of responses is "not that different" from the first survey.

The initial survey also sought to gauge support for service learning concepts among business and higher education leaders. Of the 30 business individuals surveyed, 100 percent said they were "strongly supportive/supportive" of service learning as a way to develop workforce skills and "relate education to the real world." Among deans of colleges of education, 17 of 19 respondents supported service learning and 15 reported service learning components in their courses. At the community college level, 25 of 30 respondents were "strongly supportive/supportive" and 20 also reported service learning in their courses.

The 2002 follow-up survey only polled superintendents, but it sought answers to more concrete questions about the programs being provided in preschool through grade 12.

The results would indicate that while administrators support the concept, the responsibility for service learning is being left primarily to individual teachers within their districts. The June 2002 survey found that teachers organize 56 percent of service learning/community service projects at the classroom level. Only 27 percent of Illinois districts that responded said they had a school coordinator for such projects. Just 11 percent reported a district-wide coordinator.

And while administrators show increased support, evidence of actual practice is still relatively low compared to the numbers for identified "community service" projects. Only 84 respondents (35 percent) labeled what's being done in their district as service learning, i.e. community service that is part of the curriculum. More than 60 percent, however, said they have community service projects as part of a club or after-school program, or as a mentoring program within the school.

Unfortunately, while all service learning involves some aspect of community service, not all community service is service learning.

In the September 2002 issue of Phi Delta Kappan, John I. Goodlad quoted the following letter to the editor from his local newspaper:

"Our son recently finished 90 hours of community service. The crime to fit this punishment? He just happens to be a graduating senior.

"We believe community service is a wonderful way for drunk drivers, juvenile delinquents -- any member of society who has cost the community pain, money, etc. -- to pay back a little of what they owe. Is it appropriate for productive, high-achieving high school students to be required to do more "punishment" than the average teenage burglar? In our opinion, any teenager who stays out of trouble is contributing to their community."

Service learning goes beyond the type of community service being required in this family's district. Service learning reinforces what is being learned in the classroom, and, in best practices, is tied to Illinois Learning Standards. The community service referenced above is part of a movement whose goal is to increase civic awareness in young people by tying a specific number of hours to a student's graduation requirement.

According to the 2002 service learning survey, of the 241 respondents, only 20 districts (8 percent) said they have a community service requirement for graduation. Of the remaining respondents, 144 (60 percent) answered "No;" 51 (21 percent) were elementary districts with no graduation requirements; and 26 (11 percent) did not list a response.

So if service learning is different than community service, what exactly does it look like?

Consider these service learning opportunities that have occurred in Illinois in the past year:

• Fourth graders at Scarlet Oak School in Arbor Park SD 145, Oak Forest, learned about "petitions" by creating their own petition to the Oak Forest Park District for a new skate park. They also wrote individual letters, which helped them understand the difference between a petition and a letter-writing campaign.
• South High School freshmen in a Plainfield CCSD 202 honors biology class slogged through a creek in the Baker Preserve to study water quality and draft a report on the impact a proposed wastewater treatment facility might have on the area.
• Niantic-Harristown CUSD 6 elementary students capped a yearlong study of the Civil War and patriotism by placing flags on the graves of veterans in a local cemetery.
• Science students at Elgin (U-46) High School learn about soil and stewardship by making presentations on the topics to younger students. Other classes learn about birth defects and genetics and participate in a March of Dimes walk.
• Students in Rockford SD 205 have created a wild bird sanctuary in a school courtyard and an environmental education program for Head Start students.
• A project at Sidney Elementary School, which is part of Tolono Community Unit School District 7, used math, language arts and social science skills found in the Illinois Learning Standards and related them to quilt making.
• With the help of a grant, students at Illinois Primary Center in Matteson designed and built a natural habitat for plants, birds and small animals. (See "Garden provides natural learning environment,".)

And Illinois elementary and high schools are not the only learning institutions adopting service learning programs. At Black Hawk Community College in Moline, an after-school literacy program helps elementary students feel more comfortable about going to middle school. A quilt project that researched the Underground Railroad in Stark and Henry counties brought together a wide variety of age groups and also resulted in production of a documentary.

These projects are examples of how service to the community can be connected to a student's learning experience. But just because a project is labeled as "service learning" doesn't make it so. Nor does the lack of a service learning designation mean engaged learning isn't taking place. What's becoming more evident is that districts that want to encourage service learning must put policies in place to do so, and they must encourage those developing the programs to link them to learning standards.

"Simply using service learning as an instructional strategy does not ensure that content standards will be met or that academic performance will improve," according to Delaine Eastin, California's state superintendent of public instruction. "A teacher must be explicit and intentional about the connections between the service and the curriculum and how the activities align with content standards."

In an April 2002 American School Board Journal article, "Students who serve," Eastin points out that connections to multiple standards may be easier for elementary teachers who work with students across a number of disciplines, rather than for middle and high school instructors who focus on a single subject. But, she says, it's not impossible to develop "rich, cross-curricular activities" even at the high school level.

At the state level in Illinois and under the direction of Hazel Loucks, teachers are being encouraged to find a way to connect what they're teaching to the real world. "We have challenged teachers to find a business that used the math they were teaching," Loucks said. At least one teacher said he couldn't.

"Then maybe you need to rethink what you're teaching," Loucks said.

The Bloomington meeting that Loucks convened came to the conclusion that teachers need to feel less threatened if they are to rethink what and how they teach to embrace the idea of service learning. To do that, they also must feel that their school districts support their efforts.

Fostering a supportive environment for service learning to occur is where school boards play a key role. But even if they can acknowledge a case to support service learning, board members may be concerned about the financial burden of implementing any new program. Is service learning costly? Not necessarily.

With slight adjustments, like adding reflection or sharing the project in some way with another segment of the community, some existing classroom projects may qualify as "service learning" experiences. Or possibly an existing community service project can be linked through curriculum to learning standards.

Whatever the adjustment, the board's role is to champion the cause by putting policies in place that support service learning initiatives in their district. According to a survey by the American Youth Policy Forum, "Without an on-site champion, even teachers passionate about service learning will find it difficult to sustain resources or the environment to bring service learning experiences to life."

Board policies related to service learning could fall under a larger policy umbrella of professional development, according to Anna Lovern, IASB director of policy services. Service learning also may be written into a district's strategic plan as part of its mission or beliefs statements, with language like: "Expand learning opportunities for all students beyond our current limitations of time, space and personnel."

Once such beliefs or policies are in place, she said, the board then can hold the superintendent, and through the superintendent the entire staff, responsible for seeing that those learning opportunities take place.

Carter Hendrickson, author of "Bringing Learning to Life Through Service Learning" (MSBA Journal, January/February 2002), offers these other relatively inexpensive ways for districts to support service learning:

• Offer service learning workshops during teacher orientation week or as an on-going staff development opportunity.
• Connect service learning to the district's staff development plan, the district's improvement plan or individual school improvement plans.
• Integrate service learning with the curriculum improvement plan.
• Hire or place a teacher on special assignment as a service learning coordinator.
• Set aside small amounts of the district's budget for service learning mini-grants.
• Create a district-wide service learning committee to provide support, pursue funding and organize workshops.

"School board members are key and vital members of any service learning team," according to Mary Walsh, board member in Rosemont ESD 78 and IASB board treasurer. With their connections to the community, board members provide a valuable link to uncovering possible projects.

As an example, she said, suppose a board member has a connection to a community organization that assists children recovering from major burns.

"The link may be a discussion point in the beginning," Walsh said, "but it could become a service learning project involving recovering students and students in a local school."

In addition to providing budget line items for professional development opportunities, she said, board members also "can support policies that enrich student and teacher class time through field trips to outreach areas."

Walsh, who has been actively involved in statewide service learning and life-long learning groups, feels the bottom line, however, is finding the time, space and support to celebrate what these programs can accomplish.

"Celebrate the children's accomplishments," she said. "Celebrate the learning experience and celebrate an awakening between all involved."

For more information on service learning, visit the Learning in Deed Web site at http://www.learningindeed.org/. For more on P-16 learning in Illinois, visit http://www.siu.eduoffices/iii. Or plan to attend the service learning panel at this year's IASB/IASA/IASBO annual conference in Chicago. "Making the Service Learning Connection" will be held at 1 p.m. Friday, November 22, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Columbus Rooms I/J. Panelists will include Mary Walsh; Cathy Bissoondial, an elementary teacher with McLean County Unit District 5 in Normal; and Greg Eaton, a teacher at Morris Community High School District 101. Moderator is Jane Angelis, director of the Intergenerational Initiative at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

References

Aschim, Jan; Saporiti, Tina; and Nonnemacher, Jennifer. "Using Service Learning to Achieve State Standards," 2002

Eastin, Delaine. "Students who serve," American School Board Journal, April 2002

Ferrell, Patrick. "Skate park petition helps pupils," Daily Southtown, April 24, 2002

"Finding Common Ground: Service Learning and Education Reform -- A Survey of 28 Leading School Reform Models," American Youth Policy Forum

Fox, Paige Fumo. "Teens get feet wet in development debate," Daily Southtown, May 31, 2002

Goodlad, John I. "Kudzu, Rabbits, and School Reform," Phi Delta Kappan, September 2002

Hendrickson, Carter. "Bringing Learning to Life Through Service Learning," Minnesota School Boards Association Journal, January/February 2002

Roche, Liza. "EHS one of only seven in state to earn service honor," The Courier News, April 22, 2002

"Service Learning in Illinois -- A P-16 Partnership," March 2002

Wells, Valerie. "Harristown students mark soldiers service with flags on graves," Herald & Review, May 2002