Untapped Resources: Engaging Students in Preparation, Response and Recovery PDF - There are two ways to serve students – help them when disaster strikes their community and empower them to help others in need. The purpose of this ECS Policy Brief is to emphasize the latter – involve and prepare students for civic engagement as a means to prepare for and respond to disasters, if or when disaster strikes. (Terry Pickeral, Tiffani Lennon and Maurice Elias, Education Commission of the States, July 2006)...

Civic Engagement and Service-Learning with Young Children: Intergenerational Peacemaking Projects MS Word PDF - Peace Games builds on a 10-week core curriculum that focuses on communication, cooperation, conflict resolution and engagement. Teaching teams help students plan and implement service-learning activities called "Peacemaker Projects." This paper outlines some of these projects – including projects designed to lessen instances of bullying and conflict – describes benefits of this approach for elementary school students and young adult volunteers and suggests some basic principles and guidelines for developing and implementing successful Peacemaker Projects. (Education Commission of the States, 2003)...

Service-Learning Trail Guide PDF - Service-learning can help teachers and administrators meet Colorado's academic standards. This toolkit provides a guide and includes examples, resources and evaluation tools. (Ravay Snow-Renner, Susan Vermeer, Kate Cumbo, Terry Pickeral and Jeffery Miller, Colorado Department of Education, and Education Commission of the States, December 2004)...

Senior and Culminating Projects PDF - This paper explores the challenges and benefits of combining service-learning with senior and culminating projects – multi-dimensional projects through which graduating high school seniors demonstrate their accumulated knowledge and skills. It provides examples of existing high-quality programs, and offers some questions for consideration by educational leaders and policymakers. (Jeffery Miller, Education Commission of the States, November 2004)...

Building Community Through Service-Learning: The Role of Community Partner PDF - This paper highlights effective strategies for service-learning partnerships, using “best-practice” examples to illustrate potential impact. The paper's focus is on school-based, as distinct from community-based, service-learning. A number of the strategic recommendations presented in this paper, however, especially those dealing with changes within the organization or agency itself, may be applicable to both situations....

Integrating Youth Voice in Service-Learning MS Word PDF - This issue paper examines the rationale for the implementation of youth voice in service-learning initiatives, examines challenges practitioners may face and offers strategies for success. It includes case studies profiling exemplary programs across the nation and perspectives from youth, school administrators, service-learning advocates and state policymakers, and it provides recommendations and resources for schools, organizations and policymakers interested in incorporating a strong and meaningful youth voice component within their field of work. (Education Commission of the States and Compact for Learning and Citizenship/Learning In Deed, 2001)...

Service-Learning: An Administrator's Tool for Improving Schools and Connecting With the Community MS Word - Examines why administrators support service-learning as a key element in school improvement, what questions they may need to address and how administrators can support and strengthen service-learning in their schools. (Sheldon Berman, Sheila Bailey, Randall Collins, Dale Kinsley and Elizabeth Holman, Compact for Learning and Citizenship, Education Commission of the States, May 2000)...

Promising Practice for K-16 - Project Connect: School-University Collaboration for Service-Learning MS Word - Partnership is a recurring theme in education these days: partnerships between schools and communities, between colleges and nonprofit organizations, between high schools and elementary schools, and between K-12 and higher education systems. This Issue Paper describes the authors’ experiences as a professor and teacher involved in Project Connect, an ongoing collaborative service-learning project between preservice teachers at Western Washington University and 8th-grade students at Fairhaven Middle School in the Bellingham (Washington) Public School District. Learn the rationale for the project, how the project worked and outcomes for each set of students. Also included are recommendations for helping you create similar collaborations.(Angela Hardwood and Callie Underhill, Compact for Learning and Citizenship, Education Commission of the States, April 1999)...

Designing Teacher Education Course Syllabi That Integrate Service-Learning MS Word - Service-learning (SL) is an experientially based pedagogy that is ideally suited to educating teachers. As a teaching methodology, SL attempts to involve learners in community service experiences that are meaningfully interrelated with particular learning goals. Service-learning enhances students by giving them opportunities to explore, study, acquire and apply skills as well as examine problems and issues in a reflective way. (Michael Rowls and Kevin J. Swick, 2000)...