Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Should public schools be allowed to force students to perform community service?

Cynthetiq · 06-20-2007, 05:28 AM

Service Learning, that was the keyword I needed to find. I was having a hard time fining anything under Community Service, Volunteering, etc in the Public School environments.

I did find the NCES happened to do a study on the service learning. Below is the summary and here is the link to the full report.

Quote:

Service-Learning and Community Service in K-12 Public Schools

Summary of Key Findings
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U. S. Department of Education used the Fast Response Survey System (FRSS) to conduct the National Student Service-Learning and Community Service Survey in spring 1999. This is the first survey to provide reliable national estimates of the percentage of public elementary, middle, and high1 schools incorporating service-learning into their course curriculum, as well as providing the most recent data on school engagement in community service. The survey found that:

Sixty-four percent of all public schools, including 83 percent of public high schools, had students participating in community service activities recognized by and/ or arranged through the school;

Fifty-seven percent of all public schools organized community service activities for their students;

Thirty-two percent of all public schools organized service-learning as part of their curriculum, including nearly half of all high schools;

Schools with service-learning tended to have grade-wide service-learning, service-learning in individual courses that were not part of a broader grade or school-wide initiative, or discipline-wide service-learning programs;

Eighty-three percent of schools with service-learning offered some type of support to teachers interested in integrating service-learning into the curriculum, with most providing support for service-learning training or conferences outside of school; and

Most schools with service-learning cited strengthening relationships among students, the school, and the community as key reasons for practicing service-learning.

Background
Incorporating service-learning into K-12 schools is a growing area of interest to educators. Like community service, service-learning requires students to serve their communities. However, service-learning takes community service one step further by incorporating the service experiences of students directly into their school work. Service-learning has long been viewed as a possible means of improving education, with roots stretching back to late-19 th -and early 20 th -century. For example, John Dewey, an advocate of service-learning, believed that students would learn more effectively and become better citizens if they engaged in service to the community and had this service incorporated into their academic curriculum (Dewey, 1916). Though first suggested over a century ago, the incorporation of service-learning into the curriculum did not begin in earnest until the early 1970s, and it has only been in the last decade that extensive reform efforts have emerged.

Legislative reform over the past 10 years has set in motion a growing national emphasis on increasing students' involvement with their local communities and linking this service to academic study through service-learning. The National and Community Service Act of 1990, through the Serve America program, and the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993, through the Learn and Serve America program, provided support for service-learning activities in elementary and secondary schools (Corporation for National Service, 1999). In addition, through programs such as AmeriCorps, the federal government has offered opportunities to high school graduates, college students, and recent college graduates to serve local communities in exchange for stipends and payment of education loans or money toward future postsecondary education. Both Learn and Serve America and AmeriCorps are administered by the Corporation for National Service, a federal organization also created by the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993. Two previous studies, one looking at high schools in 1984 and the other looking at 6-12 grade students in 1996, provide tentative evidence that service-learning has become more pervasive since the early 1980s. Based on a study conducted in 1984, researchers reported that 27 percent of all high schools (public and private) in the United States offered some type of community service and 9 percent of all high schools offered service-learning, defined as curriculum-related service programs (Newmann and Rutter, 1985). The 1996 National Household Education Survey (NHES), conducted by NCES, found that 49 percent of all students in grades 6 -12 participated in community service (U. S. Department of Education, 1997). Of the students participating in community service, 56 percent reported that their community service was incorporated into the curriculum in some way.

The full study goes over definitions of community service and service learning.

Quote:

· Community service. For the purposes of this survey, student community service is defined as community service activities that are non-curriculum-based and are recognized by and/or arranged through
the school. The community service:
– May be mandatory or voluntary;
– Generally does not include explicit learning objectives or organized reflection or critical analysis activities; and
– May include activities that take place off of school grounds or may happen primarily within the school.

Community service activities may be carried out as school-wide events, separately organized school programs, or projects conducted by school-sponsored clubs (e.g., Girls/Boys Clubs, National Honor Society). Examples of service activities could include cleaning up a local park, visiting the elderly, or collecting and distributing food to those in need.

· Service-learning. For the purposes of this survey, service-learning is defined as curriculum-based community service that integrates classroom instruction with community service activities. The service must:
– Be organized in relation to an academic course or curriculum;
– Have clearly stated learning objectives;
– Address real community needs in a sustained manner over a period of time; and
– Assist students in drawing lessons from the service through regularly scheduled, organized reflection or
critical analysis activities, such as classroom discussions, presentations, or directed writing.

Example of service-learning: Students in a middle school science class studying the environment help preserve the natural habitat of animals living at a local lake. Through classroom studies, the students
learn about the environment. The students keep the area around the lake clean, post signs providing information to the public, and study soil and water composition as well as the impact of industrial development on wildlife. Throughout the project, students write about their experiences in journals and
participate in class discussions about the project and its effect on their lives and the local community.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ASU2003

Yes, it will teach them real world experience, and show them that volunteering is ok. They might even be able to put something on their resume.

You can also give the kids a choice between community service and writing 3 book reports 5 pages long about society in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.

Actually that was something that Singapore American School did as part of their winter break. It was MANDATORY to participate in Interim Semester which was a 3 week period in between semesters. Various activities were give as choices and each student had to pick one. Students on probation or disciplinary actions were not allowed to attend and had to do further classroom studies during that 3 week period. Listed below are some of the activities which ranged from just visits to foreign countries to service work like housebuilding in the Philippines to Lifeguarding in Australia.