Connecting Academic Standards with Service-Learning:
Solving Community Problems and Developing Active Citizenship in Philadelphia

A Forum — December 17, 1999

Under the direction of Superintendent David Hornbeck, the Philadelphia public school system has begun to integrate academic service-learning projects into its requirements for promotion and graduation. By the year 2002, all of Philadelphia’s public school students will have to complete service-learning projects in grades 4, 8, and 12. Through these projects, students solve real world problems in their communities as they learn crucial academic lessons. Teachers and administrators in Philadelphia who have already undertaken service-learning projects have found that the projects inspire students by revealing the practical applications and tangible benefits of education.

Panel participants include: Kenny Holdsman, Director of Service-Learning for Philadelphia schools; Edison Friere, a Learn and Serve Master Teacher; Giovanni Maranie, a community partner and Catholic Social Services administrator; Alex Sulaiman, a recent graduate of Edison High School and a service-learning veteran; and Thien Le, a student at Olney High School currently involved in service-learning.

From an administrative position, Kenny Holdsman provides a broad overview of the Philadelphia service-learning initiative. The first major innovation that Philadelphia has made is to assess service-learning programs by the academic projects that students complete rather than simply tallying the hours of student service logged. To pass muster in the Philadelphia system, service-learning projects must have the "Six A’s":

• Authentic community need
• Active research and investigation
• Academic rigor
• Adult experts
• Applied problem solving
• Assessment (ongoing and final)

With these high standards, Holdsman claims that the Philadelphia service-learning programs have succeeded in raising academic achievement, fostering responsible citizenship, and preparing students for careers. As with school-to-career programs, community partners (business people, activists, religious leaders, and others) play an integral role in the success of service-learning projects. These community partners work in concert with teachers to impart academic lessons to the students as they render important services in their communities. The Philadelphia school system has already trained 1200 teachers to co-lead service-learning projects with community partners, and according to Holdsman, they plan to train 6000 more in the next four years.

As a teacher, Edison Friere beams as he talks about the Urban Tech project, a service-learning initiative at Philadelphia’s Olney and Edison High Schools, where 90% of the students are minorities and the majority of kids come from low-income families. Friere’s Technology and Science class at Edison set out to bridge the "digital divide" that hinders minority access to computer technology. With help from computer science majors from the University of Pennsylvania, Edison High School students set up a computer lab at a local middle school with refurbished and recycled computers. With guidance from Friere, the Edison students learn about NT administration and web design, and they tutor middle school students, helping them to become computer literate. Several Urban Tech students even traveled to Friere’s home country of Ecuador to set up the first internet-connected lab in the Ecuador public school system.

Student veterans of Philadelphia’s service-learning programs sing the praises of these innovative initiatives. Thien Le immigrated from Vietnam seven years ago with her family. When she found out that other Olney High School students were creating a computer club, she signed on. Le and her peers joined with the Urban Tech students at Edison High School to revive Olney’s computers with new hardware and software. The mantra of Urban Tech is to gain knowledge and through service, "pass it on." Le says that after teaching younger students what she has learned about computers, she feels that she has truly "accomplished something tremendous."

Half of the 259 schools in the Philadelphia system currently assign service-learning projects. Nearly 75 more have expressed interest or have plans to implement similar initiatives within the next year. While teachers and students rave about these programs, there is little quantitative evaluation data on whether they foster academic success for participants and graduates. But the tangible legacies of computer labs and countless other service projects provide concrete evidence that these programs make a difference in Philadelphia schools and communities. As a service-learning community partner who works for Catholic Social Services in the city, Giovanni Maranie has watched students and teachers learn together over the last few years. "Service learning may not be the answer, but it is a powerful vehicle," Maranie notes, for engaging students in learning and solving real problems in their communities.

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