Community Service-Learning and School-to-Career Initiatives: Case Studies of School, District and Community-Based Models
A Forum — September 12, 1997
In 1997, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) published Connecting Service-Learning and School-to-Career Initiatives based on the work of CCSSO's Service-Learning Project, directed by Barbara Gomez. The Service-Learning Project convened a series of meetings with school-to-career and service-learning experts to discuss where and how connections between the these two national strategies could be made. The Project also conducted a national study of 12 exemplary school and community-based models where service-learning and school-to-career programs are already connected and coordinated. The following examples from the CCSSO study demonstrate the various appporoaches school districts, schools and communities have taken to connect service-learning and school-to-careers.
Putnam Vocational Technical High School in Springfield, Massachusetts
Dr. Ann Southworth, Principal, Putnam Vocational Technical High School describes her school before service-learning and school-to-work activities began as a school in danger of losing accreditation, wrought with violence and gang activity, with low attendance (70 percent) and high drop out rates (25 percent). Now teachers and students at Putnam are actively engaged in a large number of service and school-to-career activities and the school is safe; non-violent; has students in the National Honors Society and Advanced Placement courses; has a 93 percent attendance rate and a 6 percent dropout rate; and has students engaged, learning more, working in teams, respecting themselves and wanting to stay in school.
Service projects include renovating an historic home and park as a youth conference and gang prevention center; tutoring elementary school children; brainstorming on violence-prevention efforts; and working cooperatively with a local hospital which provides nurses for its on-site health clinic. On the School-to-Career front, Putnam teachers work with private and public employers to develop thematic integrated curriculum and internships with great success. School-to-careers has moved teachers from saying "nobody will hire my kids," to "I can't fill jobs fast enough."
Face Tomorrow (Flambeau Area Community Education for Tomorrow)
FACE Tomorrow (Flambeau Area Community Education for Tomorrow) was created by community residents in a small, poor Northern Wisconsin community concerned with keeping talented young people in the community after high school. According to Chuck Erickson, Director of Community Education, Flambeau School District residents discussed their options and "consciously chose the strategy of community education." Through a series of community meetings with most parents, all students and all teachers, residents determined they could not depend on others for resources and needed to look at what they could provide for themselves. The consensus was that the community was most interested in applied, hands-on and community-connected learning strategies.
Students, teachers and community members have since created many service-learning and school-to-career projects, including: rehabilitation of a community theater; reclaiming the land around the Flambeau Mine; designing and building playgrounds; providing in-service instruction on the Internet and web-site design; creating micro-enterprises, such as wheel chair ramp construction; and lawn care for the elderly coupled with collecting community history. Overall the Flambeau community feels it has learned many lessons, including that "you can't tell the potential of individuals or communities simply by looking at them."
The Lancaster County Academy
The Lancaster County Academy is an alternative school for high school dropouts. To appeal to young people who often just want to do their work and "get it over with", classes are open-entry, open-exit with graduations held twice a year; instruction is individualized using TRAC/USA curriculum; and the Academy is open 12 hours/day, 4 days per week (less hours in the summer). However, standards are kept high, even students needing only two credits to earn a traditional high school diploma must take at least six credits at the Academy. Students must write out their short and long-term (five-year) goals. Many graduates go to four-year institutions following graduation.
Service-learning activities are part of the Academy experience and include: a study of the Chesapeake watershed involving sorting and classifying plant and animal life with assistance on scientific methods from experts in the field; training by IRS representatives to provide free tax services to low-income families; and a literacy corps. Career development activities include: visits by local employers to discuss careers and employment opportunities; a mock interview; a 40-hour job shadow experience; and learning about job rules, EEOC regulations, workplace safety, and union membership options. Diane Tyson, Program Director, Lancaster County Academy in Lancaster, Pennsylvania says "Students at the Academy are treated as though they are on the job. There is no homework because if you worked at McDonalds, they don't make you take home the Happy Meals."
Conclusion
An urban school in Springfield, Massachusetts, a rural school district in Wisconsin and an alternative school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania have all found benefits in including community service and service-learning as part of their curriculum. The use of service projects has reduced absentees, dropouts and violence in Springfield, created a belief in the potential of all young people and increased community cohesion in Flambeau County and in Lancaster, service activities are often the work-experience activities, supplemented by employer visits, interviews and job shadows.