Service Learning in State Legislation (Part II):
South Carolina's Efforts to Integrate Service-Learning into Schools and Communities

A Forum — July 28, 2000

"Service-learning is a teaching method that combines meaningful service to the community with curriculum-based learning."

This forum was the second in a series of forums on state policy and service-learning (see brief of June 23, 2000, Service-Learning in State Legislation: A State-Wide Citizenship Effort, with John Benson, Superintendent, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, and Terry Pickeral, Project Director, Compact for Learning and Citizenship, Education Commission of the States) and included three panelists from South Carolina who spoke about that state’s experience with service-learning integration in public schools and college and university schools of education.

According to Executive Director Kathy Gibson Carter, Commission on National and Community Service, South Carolina State Department of Education, if one attempts to match the education and human service needs of communities with the available people, financial and facility resources, we can begin to solve problems. This is what service-learning does. Whereas students have long participated in community service, through service-learning they can apply lessons and skills from the classroom to solve problems and address real needs in their communities. Because it is a teaching methodology, service-learning is a tool for actively engaging students in the learning process. Service-learning is a way of providing the academic connection between skills and knowledge taught in the classroom and service in the community. Finally, schools are communities with attendant problems that service-learning activities can be used to address. For these reasons, students are also encouraged to implement service-learning in schools.

Carter described the impact of a service-learning project on a small rural county in the state where the county government was trying to convince households to connect to the county’s water system. As a school-to-work activity, students in science classes investigated why citizens should invest in and use the water system. They tested water from local wells, rivers and even hog farms (the local industry). The quality of the water from hog farms that were connected to the county’s water system was found to be better than water used in many homes. The published results of this study led to improved confidence in the local treated water supply, expanded community use, and in time, produced better health outcomes for the county. Carter observed that through service-learning, teachers are able to engage all students (even their greatest discipline challenges) in the learning process. Through service-learning, each student can have something to offer.

Carter described three pivotal pieces of education legislation in South Carolina--the 1993 Early Childhood and Development Assistance Act, the 1994 School-to-Work Transition Act, and the 1998 Education Accountability Act--emphasizing how service-learning has been codified within each. The result—service-learning is a part of each school’s strategic planning document; a recognized work place learning opportunity for students, (especially in rural communities lacking a large employer base), along with apprenticeships, shadowing, mentoring and internship opportunities; a component of civic responsibility; and aligned with a range of education efforts, such as safe and healthy schools, initiatives to support the achievement of African American students, and intergenerational literacy.

The chief state school officer Inez Tenenbaum has appointed a state policy council to promote service-learning statewide and to identify supporting policies. Service-learning ambassadors—teachers, students, principals and superintendents—are prepared and sent into classrooms and schools statewide to extend the capacity of training conducted by the state education office. The youth ambassadors have become the most powerful voice for helping students and teachers understand the value of service-learning.

According to Carter, on-going staff development for teachers will continue to be a critical challenge. Needed are policies at the federal and state levels that support hands-on, inquiry-based learning. In addition to providing in-service training opportunities for teachers and the service-learning ambassadors, the state education agency has helped to infuse service-learning strategies in the curricula of many schools of education.

University of South Carolina teacher educator Janet Mason described how service-learning has become a part of the undergraduate curriculum. She stressed that teachers must be prepared to engage all learners. As a past teacher and middle school vice principal, she found service-learning to be one of the best tools for engaging the "reluctant learner." She requires her undergraduate students to complete service-learning activities in community agencies and alternative learning settings. There, students are forced to develop and explore their own humanity, learn what it means to be multi-cultural, develop self-esteem and face up to their own values. As part of certification, the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards requires evidence of how teachers connect to community and parents. Through service-learning, Mason’s students master a powerful methodology of engaging all learners, overcome any reluctance or fear they might have had about the relationship between teaching and community engagement, and learn to appreciate its importance to their effectiveness as a professional.

Jamaal Young, a former youth service-learning ambassador and a sophomore at Georgetown University, stressed that "the service part" is merely a tool to attain "the learning part," and that students must be intrinsically and actively involved in all aspects of the activity. He described the following elements of successful service-learning:

1. A planning phase in which skills that need to be learned are identified along with activities that need those skills.
2. Selection of a project that is meaningful to the student, i.e., student driven.
3. An evaluation of what was learned.
4. A celebration of what was accomplished.
5. Learning through reflection on what was done.

During the question and answer session, forum participants related concerns about the pressures on teachers to have students evidence mastery of challenging content material and the outward dichotomy between achieving standards and implementing service-learning strategies. Mason stressed that it is possible to have service-learning activities that are perfectly aligned with and reinforcing of content standards. Also, the secondary benefits of service-learning include: increased school attendance and lower dropout rates, decreased discipline referrals, and character building (though not documented). According to Carter, research on the impacts of service learning is good, but because policymakers are overly focused on standardized tests, few are focussing on the evidence for enhancing student learning and success.

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