Education & Civic Learning Fields Call for Expanded Service-Learning Opportunities
On June 21, Education Reform Now published Restoring Democracy Through Active Civic Learning, which includes service-learning as one of four key strategies and reinvesting in Learn and Serve America as one of 7 policy recommendations to strengthen civic learning.
Civic knowledge and participation remain unacceptably low in the United States. Half of Americans are unable to name the three branches of government. When it comes to engaging in civic activities, such as volunteering, donating to nonprofits, or joining a civic group, too many Americans choose to remain uninvolved. One might expect schools to take on greater responsibility to prepare America’s youth to become active citizens, but in actuality very few schools prioritize civic learning and opportunities.
Weak civic education from kindergarten through college contributes to uninformed citizens especially from underrepresented populations, thereby increasing the power of privileged individuals who already yield disproportionate influence in our political system. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Four Key Strategies
This paper examines four key strategies to improve the quality and amount of civic learning and engagement in America and offers recommendations for policymakers in each:
2. Service-Learning – An instructional methodology that makes intentional links between the academic curriculum and student community service work. Service-learning simultaneously benefits local communities and students by providing meaningful opportunities for the latter to apply what they learn to issues that matter to them. Compared to their peers, young adults who participate in K-12 service-learning are more likely to discuss politics or community issues and vote in an election year.
Policy Recommendations
Additionally, we also lay out our recommendations for several key policies that should be enacted at the federal, state, or local level to ensure voting-age adults are ready to carry out their civic responsibilities. They include:
5. Revise and reinvest Learn and Serve America;
6. Boost support for community service and civic engagement through the Federal Work Study program; and
7. Encourage institutions of higher education to partner with AmeriCorps and offer campus-brand service opportunities
The July 1 launch of the Partnership for American Democracy included a Civic Education pillar that features service-learning:
Every child growing up in America has quality civic education and service-learning, equipping them with the knowledge, skills, dispositions, and capacities to be engaged in our communities, country, and democracy.
In April, the Ready to Engage report demonstrated the need for increased federal investment (and for our call for 50% of funding to be granted to low-income communities) and specifically recommended the $250M annual appropriation for the Service-Learning Fund as a way to expand access to service-learning opportunities.
Key Findings:
Parents and teachers view SEL and service-learning as having a reciprocal, mutually reinforcing relationship.
- 63% of parents, 70% of educators believe service-learning is key to developing SEL skills.
Implementation of SEL and service-learning opportunities in schools continues to lag behind demand from parents and teachers.
- 79% of parents, 88% of teachers want their schools to offer more service-learning programs.
- 23% of parents, 16% of teachers say their school provides service-learning opportunities.
Troubling opportunity gaps for rural and low-income students exist, and the pandemic
has had a disparate impact.- 20% of teachers in urban schools reported a formal SL program; 11% of teachers in rural or small-town areas.
- 38% of parents with above average incomes stated their child’s school has a service-learning program, 19% percent of parents with below average income.
Expand access to service-learning opportunities
Both parents and teachers see benefits in students engaging in service-learning opportunities for academics, including the learning environment, and preparedness for work, life, and beyond, including community and civic engagement. Moreover, research shows service-learning increases student engagement in school and coursework, one of the major challenges to student learning reported by teachers. Still, both parents and teachers indicated that service-learning opportunities remain rare.
There are a variety of ways schools can make service-learning more accessible for students. Schools could employ SL coordinators that spearhead community outreach efforts who identify service-learning opportunities and cultivate school-community partnerships. Districts and schools can either hire a staff member or utilize VISTAs or AmeriCorps volunteers to fulfill the role and support service-learning efforts in schools.
State policymakers must do more to expand access to service-learning opportunities as well. According to the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE), as of the 2017-18 school year, 37 states and the District of Columbia required or encouraged districts to include community service education or service-learning programs (Blanco, 2019). Yet, survey findings show that these policies are not doing enough to create widespread accessibility in schools. To encourage service-learning, states should allow schools and districts to offer service-learning as an elective. One possible way to do this is to tie service-learning to work-based learning experiences associated with career and technical education program requirements. States can also allow districts to require community service for graduation, but it is important that these requirements be tied to classroom learning so that students may better understand the applicability of the subject matter, boosting school engagement. Reflecting on their service experience and how this relates to course material helps boost social and emotional learning by allowing students to understand how their service impacted them and their community.
The federal government can support states and schools in expanding SL opportunities by authorizing and appropriating a Service-Learning Fund through the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) to replace Learn and Serve America eliminated in 2011. CNCS would work to ensure all K–12 students have in-class, hands-on SL opportunities through grants for higher education SL programs, Summer of Service pilot programs for grade 6–12 students, and Semester of Service pilot programs for grade 9–12 students. Funding levels for the program should be an annual minimum of $250 million and be structured such that half of the funds support SL projects in economically disadvantaged communities (Service Learning, 2020).
The American Federation of Teachers’ Return, Recover, and Reimagine agenda includes a call to increase the emphasis on civics and project-based learning to nurture critical thinking and bring learning to life.
The first of seven themes in the Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy is Civic Participation, and is also included as a pedagogy principle.
This theme explores the relationship between self-government and civic participation, drawing on the discipline of history to explore how citizens’ active engagement has mattered for American society and on the discipline of civics to explore the principles, values, habits, and skills that support productive engagement in a healthy, resilient constitutional democracy. This theme focuses attention on the overarching goal of engaging young people as civic participants and preparing them to assume that role successfully.
Service-learning: This pedagogical approach is described as an example of project based learning (PBL), which includes service learning and action civics, in the Pedagogy Companion’s Principle 5 (“Practices of Constitutional Democracy and Student Agency”). In the Pedagogy Companion, community service and informed action are conceived as a result of rigorous inquiry, described in Principle 4.
The proposed Civics Secures Democracy Act includes “service learning and student civic projects linked to classroom learning” as an evidence-based practice eligible for funding.
And, of course, the original March 2020 report that led to the creation of the Coalition for Service-Learning, Inspired to Serve recommended a Service-Learning Fund with $250M in annual appropriations.
In the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service’s vision, every American will be exposed to service opportunities throughout their lifetime, beginning with young people experiencing robust civic education and service-learning during elementary, middle, and high school.
In their national listening sessions, the Commission heard again and again about the dire need for civic education and service-learning beginning in childhood. The Commission’s final report includes robust recommendations to support youth participation in meaningful and thoughtfully organized service facilitated by schools, community groups, and colleges. The Commission proposes a $200 million Civic Education Fund to be administered by the U.S. Department of Education for civic education, to train educators and develop curriculum.
The Commission also proposes a $250 million Service-Learning Fund that would be administered by AmeriCorps (Corporation for National and Community Service), to train educators and support Summer of Service and Semester of Service service-learning programs, organized locally.
