A Look at Service-Learning in South Carolina

An American Youth Policy Forum Field Trip — December 4-5, 2000

Introduction and Purpose of the Visit

"Service-Learning is a method of teaching and learning that combines academic work with service to the community. Students learn by doing through a clear application of skills and knowledge while helping to meet the needs in the school or greater community." Definition of service-learning as used by the South Carolina State Department of Education

"The quality of instruction that students receive through service-learning can only enhance our efforts to improve education overall in South Carolina." –Governor Jim Hodges

"I am an advocate of national service and learning, and I consider community service a critical component to a proper education." –State Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum

"Over sixty percent of South Carolina’s schools use service-learning as a teaching methodology for meeting community needs while improving academic skills and learning habits of good citizenship." – Learn and Serve America

The purpose of this field trip was to visit two high schools that have fully integrated service into their curriculum to give students meaningful opportunities to give back to their communities while improving their academic skills. Field trip participants met with state leaders who support service-learning as a way to improve the school experience for youth and faculty. Both schools visited have been selected as National Service-Learning Leader Schools, a competitive national award from the Corporation for National Service. The focus of the field trip was to expose policymakers to:

• creative partnerships between schools and the community,
• links between school-to-work and service-learning,
• service-learning leadership among faculty and student body, and
• school programs that create more culturally sensitive youth by connecting students to the community through service-learning or character education.

Policymakers also learned how service-learning is being supported by state and local policy, and by associations that influence state and local policy.

Strong State Leadership

Through the leadership of State Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum, her predecessor Barbara Nielsen, and Governor Jim Hodges, South Carolina’s schools are committed to raising the quality of education through comprehensive and sustained reform efforts. Ms. Tenenbaum’s priorities include raising academic standards through accountability, making sure every child starts school ready to learn, improving the quality of the State’s principals and teachers, ensuring that schools are safe and healthy places for learning, and increasing the support of parents and communities in public schools. In 1999, South Carolina was one of five states recognized for outstanding leadership in service-learning and was awarded $400,000 by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation through their Learning In Deed initiative to "expand service-learning in schools and strengthen related policies across the state." The W. K. Kellogg Learning In Deed Initiative PRAISE Grant (Plan for Reaching and Articulating Institutionalization of Service Experiences), is used by the State to pair selected school districts with institutions of higher learning. The State is using the grant, in part, to build helpful partnerships among Pre-K through higher education institutions, and to enhance the professional development for teachers in both pre-service and in-service. (College students go into elementary, middle and pre-school programs to tutor or assist professional teachers with various projects in areas of literacy, agriculture, the environment, health and safety.)

The State Superintendent’s aim is to identify practices and policies that are most effective at fostering service-learning. She has appointed a state policy commission to promote service-learning statewide and to identify supporting policies. Service-learning ambassadors—teachers, students, principals and superintendents—are trained and sent into classrooms and schools statewide to extend the capacity of training conducted by the state education office. The Youth Consultants Program has led student ambassadors in schools throughout the State to become a powerful voice for helping students and teachers understand the value of service-learning.

Through the State’s Learn and Serve grant program, educators were provided opportunities to learn about "Best Practices," and funds were provided to 39 school districts to implement service-learning, allowing 50,996 students to participate in meaningful service activities. The state developed a brochure, postcard, bi-monthly mailing and a service-learning curriculum manual for the special needs population to promote the service-learning concept.

According to Pat Kinsey, policy coordinator for the South Carolina School Boards Association (SCSBA), the association is very proud to have passed, as part of their 2001 New Resolution, a section on service-learning that encourages the legislature to fund and support service-learning in order to prepare students for responsible citizenship, and intellectual, psychological and moral development. Kinsey hopes to see service-learning mentioned in national, state and local policies and feels it would be helpful to have it woven into other policies concerning character education, curriculum, and community relations.

Robert Scarborough, SCASA executive director, and the co-chairmen of the SCASA Schools of Promise Steering Committee shared materials describing an America’s Promise initiative called Schools of Promise. Scarborough said that the SCASA chose to support this initiative as a way to meet the challenges of the State’s 1998 Educational Accountability Act, which stresses higher expectations and academic success for every student. The Schools of Promise initiative strives to help schools and communities reach their accountability goals while developing "supportive families, culture, good health, and ongoing attention to the development of the whole child." According to Scarborough, "Service-learning fits well as a methodology for covering at least two of the five components of a School of Promise: prepare—a marketable skill through effective education, and serve—an opportunity to give back through community service." About fifty percent of South Carolina’s schools have taken the Schools of Promise pledge.

Service-Learning History runs deep in South Carolina

A strong weave of state and national legislation is greatly responsible for South Carolina’s depth of experience and leadership in service-learning. The State’s Community Education Act of 1976 brought community education into the limelight and placed it under the jurisdiction of the South Carolina Department of Education. The Act encouraged school districts and human service agencies to establish community education to meet the needs of citizens of all ages and community levels. This placed pressure on school boards across the state to establish local policy and develop guidelines for community education. In 1990, elected State Superintendent of Education Barbara Nielsen supported the establishment of an Office of Community Education, which linked programs essential to the development of community education. Soon after the establishment of this office, a group of 100 practitioners, agency leaders and business leaders developed a statewide strategic plan that was quickly adopted. The plan’s two guiding principles were: "1) community education provides opportunities to respond to local citizens’ needs, interests, and concerns through active partnerships, and 2) community schools with integrated services can improve the quality of education they provide." The South Carolina Department of Education actively encouraged inter-agency collaboration and sought to identify successful community education models across the state. On a national level, in 1992-93, South Carolina sought out and received funds from the National and Community Service Act to establish service-learning through a program called Learn and Serve America, a federal grants program administered by the Corporation for National Service. South Carolina became a leader state in that national initiative.

Three other pieces of state legislation have had great influence over the development and integration of service-learning in the state. In 1993, the Early Childhood Development and Academic Assistance Act mandated that local school districts submit their strategic plans for education reform and include new approaches to student learning for all students, including those at-risk. As a result, it was interpreted by the State Department of Education that service-learning would be an acceptable methodology and this touched off an outreach by the Office of Community Education to offer service-learning technical assistance to local school districts to help them meet the demands of the Act. In 1994, the South Carolina legislature established a state School-to-Work Transition Act and included service-learning as a way to equip students with relevant academic skills, marketable skills, and to establish career exploration and workplace experience. This linkage strengthened the use of service-learning as a primary and integrated component, rather than a perceived add-on activity. Also in 1994, a Governor’s initiative called "Families First" provided further support for community education. It stated that the government’s role is to "develop partnerships at the state and local levels with the business community, the religious community, the private, non-profit and voluntary sectors, civic and local governmental entities and community schools to address the needs of children and families in South Carolina."

As a result of the compounded focus of various state legislation and strong leadership, service-learning is part of each school’s strategic planning document. It is aligned with a range of education and workplace learning efforts such as initiatives to support the achievement of African American students, cross generational literacy, and workplace learning opportunities for students in apprenticeships, job shadowing, mentoring and internships. Service-learning is also recognized as a component of civic responsibility.

Kathy Gibson Carter, executive director, and Karen Horne, director of Policy and Evaluations, Commission on National and Community Service, South Carolina Department of Education shared stories of their efforts to get service-learning into schools statewide and to encourage local business and community partnerships. Both Carter and Horne have presented at Lion’s Clubs across the state. Lion’s Clubs focus on service and are a natural ally. Through this effort and partnership, Lion’s Club members raised $300,000 and these funds were used by the State to provide materials and for service-learning presenters and their transportation across the state. As a result of this public-private partnership, 1,000 teachers have been able to attend service-learning workshops throughout the state. "We saw service-learning as a work-based option," says Carter. All 1,100 schools had to come up with a school plan. Thirty-two percent of service-learning school districts place service-learning in their district strategic plans. Thirty-four percent of schools put service-learning in their school renewal plan. "We’ve taken the capacity building funds received by Learn and Serve, from the Corporation for National Service, and put them into building knowledge and support for service-learning in the state," said Carter.

Richland School District II, Columbia, South Carolina

Policymakers visited with Richland School District II leaders and their award winning Spring Valley High School, located in the suburbs of Columbia. The district’s School Board Members understand service-learning’s benefits and have been working to institutionalize service-learning in all of the district’s schools since 1996. From 1996 to 1998 the district gave funds to schools to institutionalize and build capacity for service-learning. In 1998, Richland II achieved Service-Learning Leader District status and received funding through the South Carolina Learn and Serve grant program to foster the development of service-learning as an instructional methodology, build capacity to strengthen and sustain service-learning in schools, and provide training opportunities for teachers in service-learning methodology. The Service-Learning Leader District goals include:

• ensuring full participation of all educational units in the district,
• infusing service-learning as a teaching strategy in core curricula and in district-wide technology and school-to-work initiatives,
• establishing service-learning as a community-wide program promoting good citizenship and character formation, and
• instituting service-learning as a community-wide program promoting good citizenship and character formation.

In 1999-2000, the district coordinated its Learn and Serve and AmeriCorps programs and funding. During the same year, Richland II schools became Schools of Promise, based on the national initiative, America’s Promise, which includes service-learning compatible guidelines. Through Schools of Promise, the district received funding to further their service-learning efforts. Currently, the district is working to deepen its connection to the University of South Carolina College of Education, which promotes service-learning in teacher education as a teaching strategy. Two hundred of the district’s teachers have already participated in service-learning workshops. Recently, Richland II has been awarded a three year, Learn and Serve sponsored CHESP (community, higher education, school partnerships) mini-grant. The mini-grant makes it possible for "students from kindergarten through college to meet community needs while improving their skills and learning the habits of good citizenship."

Spring Valley High School

Service-learning started at Spring Valley in 1993 with a core group of four faculty members led by Beverly Hiott, the school’s service-learning coordinator who at that time was a social studies teacher and drop-out prevention program coordinator. The team of faculty members embraced key concepts of service-learning, then reached out and received a grant from the National Society for Experiential Education (NSEE). The grant provided funds to pay for leave time to attend training workshops and a national conference where a two-year action plan for a service-learning program was written. The group expanded into a task force of committed faculty members, students and community members. A transition point came when the assistant principal of curriculum, who had forwarded the NSEE grant application to Hiott, moved onto a neighboring high school as the new principal, and the position of assistant principal of curriculum at the school was filled by one of the core members of the service-learning task force. The new assistant principal smoothed the way for the creation of a service-learning coordinator and took the service-learning plan to other administrative decision-makers. "The value of having a key administrator on your side cannot be overemphasized," says Hiott.

At Spring Valley, service-learning is broad based, reaching across many disciplines. Faculty engage students in a variety of projects such as drug prevention education; mentoring and tutoring students of all ages, including those with special needs; assisting the elderly; charitable fundraising drives; and dealing with community environmental concerns. The level of curricular integration varies. While some teachers link service to their classroom objectives or units of study, others such as the family life education teacher have students do an individual service-learning project as they study values and decision making, or, for example, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Many of the school’s educators in core areas such as English, math and science are involved to some extent and work service-learning projects into their curriculum instruction, or support a school-wide service-learning project through academic instruction. While some teachers include service loosely throughout their instruction, others tie service more strongly to their class objective, including service in every aspect of their teaching and assessment. Students can be found in some classes researching topics related to their service-learning project, documenting their service activities, discussing the project with other students, educators or community members, and developing tools designed to assist with the project. Teachers who are new to service-learning are encouraged to "start simply" or "simply start."

According to Hiott, four out of five students are involved in the various service-learning projects that happen in the school throughout the year. Service is a common thread throughout the school’s academic curriculum. Hiott believes that by placing students into the community with a purpose, the school is "extending students’ education, helping them to develop a level of emotional maturity required for a person to become a lifelong learner with both the mental and social skills necessary for success." The school offers classes in peer leadership and community service leadership, psychology, social studies as well as core curriculum classes that help students with their service-learning projects.

The school offers a peer leadership course called Youth Consultants. Youth Consultants are students who have actively sought to help coordinate and run the service-learning program at Spring Valley, under the watchful eye of the school’s service-learning coordinator. These students are leaders in school-wide, service-learning projects and encourage other students to get involved. Three former youth consultants wrote and published a handbook for future Youth Consultants called, Route to Success—A Leader School’s Youth Consulting Program. The manual offers students in other high schools tips on building a team, selecting a team, a nomination and selection process, application and scoring sheet, interviewing tips, writing acceptance and non-acceptance letters, handling building a team infrastructure of committees, holding retreats, procedure for youth consultant removal, handling travel costs, and steps in goal setting. Skills learned within the leadership course are transferable and used in the workforce.

Strategies or delivery models for service-learning at Spring Valley come in a variety of venues. Teachers and students may become involved in periodic service opportunities such as "Arriba Corazones," Spanish for "lifting hearts." This is an annual effort started by Spring Valley student in 1996 to collect household items, school supplies, books and other items from local businesses to give to underprivileged Hispanic families in the local community. Students have an opportunity to engage in service experiences related to coursework such as internships as business education student assistants, helping in the district office, other schools, homes for the elderly and other areas as long as the activity relates back to relevant coursework. In some elective courses, service is a required or optional component. It is important to note that service-learning enthusiasts prefer the use of service-learning as a teaching methodology rather than an add-on activity.

The visiting policymakers arrived to see students deeply involved in a school-wide service-learning project. Since 1984, Spring Valley High School students have been involved in a student-led, academically-based, service-learning project called Winter Days that begins before Thanksgiving and lasts through the holidays. Students strive to involve parents, community members and businesses in the school’s largest, annual fundraising event to help a community family shelter by providing food for the holidays and gifts for the children. In the planning and execution of this project, students survey the needs of local non-profits who need help, set goals, and begin the coordination of the community event. Each year, a different beneficiary is chosen.

Spring Valley students serve as chairmen for various activities that make up the Winter Days project. They organize a canned food and clothing drive, collaborate with the United States Marine Corps Reserve’s Toys for Tots drive, and collect pennies from neighborhoods within the community and donations from businesses in order to supply every child in the shelter with $50 for the holidays. Competition throughout the school challenges classes of students to bring in the greatest amount of pennies for the fundraising drive. Under the guidance of Hiott, students form a public relations committee to hand out fliers in the community, announcing the fundraising campaign and the benefits it will bring to children in the shelter. Local businesses, associations and students from feeder schools are approached for their assistance in the fundraising efforts.

By participating in this service-learning project, students gain a number of applied-learning skills that increase their knowledge and experience in: leadership, event planning, learning to delegate and work in committees, organizing and staffing tasks, creating a database to keep track of the total of goods collected, learning to talk with adults in the community, and time management. At the end of the project students have mastered these skills and have produced a research paper. "Why is it important that this is done in school?" asked on of the visitors. The event provides unity within the school, said one student present. "This gets people excited in something more than football," said Beverly Hiott.

The impact of the project can be witnessed at a celebration assembly where mounds of toys and canned food are decoratively displayed around a two-story holiday tree. At this culminating event, students present a check for the funds raised to Children’s Garden. A successful and rewarding project like this, both for its academic and civic value to the students and for the social good will that it produces in the community, does not happen without support from the school administration. The message from Beverley Hiott is that you will need allies in administration to move service-learning into the mainstream of a school.

Policymakers asked students a few questions before the end of the visit. "What did you learn from this project?" "I learned about migrants in our community," said one student. "What are some of the other skills you’ve learned with service-learning?" The students replied: "Life skills, learn to be a leader and a follower, public speaking skills, control bossiness in a group, time management, and team work." "Do you think the 4x4 block scheduling helps service-learning?" A student replied, "Block scheduling allows you to get a lot of stuff done." "What are some of the things you are going to take with you after you graduate?" A student replied, "After the Youth Consultant [class], things started to come together for me." "So, if service-learning is so good, why aren’t more students doing it?" "Not many students know about it," replied one student. "Maybe if it was required as part of the curriculum, more students would find out about it," said another student. "A lot of students at school are impacted by service-learning; they may not know about service-learning, but they are impacted or involved in it."

Examples of service-learning lesson plan outlines are provided by the South Carolina State Department of Education. Teachers are reminded that the examples serve only to give guidance and ideas. The lesson plans are classified in three areas. Direct service—activities or lessons that require personal contact with people in need, such as working with senior citizens in intergenerational projects, or reading to younger students. This kind of service-learning activity allows students to directly apply academic skills acquired in the classroom to help someone in need. With direct service, students see an immediate impact. Indirect service is easier for schools to organize because it involves students as resources behind the scenes to solve problems rather than working directly with an individual or individuals who need service. This would include collecting food or toys for disadvantaged families, landscaping a community park, or trying to fix local environmental problems. Students in indirect service use the academic skills they have learned in the classroom to solve problems. They also develop teamwork and organizational skills. Advocacy activities allow students to lend their voice and talent to help correct problems in the local community. Here students learn to research facts and persuasively present their concerns and ideas for solutions. Some longer term service-learning lessons or activities combine direct, indirect and advocacy styles.

The service-learning example lesson plans are divided up into sections according to academic focus such as English, science, mathematics, health and various electives in industrial sciences, law, sociology, etc. Many lessons are integrated across the curriculum. Four stages are included in each service-learning lesson: preparation, service, reflection, and celebration. Preparation lays the groundwork for the unit of study and identifies a need in the community that is of interest to the students. The state believes it is important for the student to be involved in the creation of the service-learning lesson to ensure that they are engaged and have an active interest in the activity. Also, there must be a bonafide need in the community for the service to be provided. As the lesson winds down, reflection is used to allow students to think critically about their participation and to gauge the success of their efforts. Celebration is the last component in the lesson plan, and it is used to mark the end of the lesson or activity and to encourage students to do more service activities in the future. A celebration activity can be something as simple as a pizza party in the classroom with invited guests, or a more formal banquet dinner and recognition ceremony.

An example of a short, direct, service-learning lesson plan is below. The lesson is focused in the area of science and health for middle school students. The topic is Alzheimer’s disease.

STUDENT GOALS:
The student will learn about Alzheimer’s disease, learn about the nervous system and the brain and diseases that affect them, understand the needs of caregivers as well as patients, and participate in a Memory Walk.

RECOURCES NEEDED:
A local United Way day care facility; materials on Alzheimer’s retirement centers; available films/videos from the Alzheimer’s Association.

PREPARATION FOR SERVICE ACTIVITY:
Teachers will discuss aging and related diseases and will read the children’s book Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, by Mem Fox. Any students who have grandparents with Alzheimer’s disease may share their perceptions with the class. Students will have training in basic health/safety precautions.

SERVICE ACTIVITY:
The students will visit a local day care facility and spend time with the clients. The students may volunteer to help a local family with Alzheimer’s disease. Students might develop their own memory box.

REFLECTION:
Students will discuss what they have learned about families with Alzheimer’s disease. They will prepare skits and explain the disease with younger students.

CELEBRATION:
Students will bring a special treat to an Alzheimer’s patient at the local adult day care facility. They will set a goal of money to be raised for the Alzheimer’s Association. They may also ask a local newspaper to write a story on their work, with pictures of students with the patients or at the Memory Walk.

(Source: Serving to Learn Generation-2-Generation: Intergenerational Service Learning Across the Curriculum, South Carolina Department of Education, Columbia, South Carolina, 2000)

Some of the state’s sample lesson plans connect academic studies to the workforce. In an "Office System’s" lesson plan, students learn about services provided by the community’s Office on Aging, the process of aging and nutrition for the elderly, how to conduct a computer seminar for the elderly and develop character, leadership, and communication skills. In a "Physical Science" service lesson, students learn to calculate the "mechanical advantage of inclined planes (ramps), construct a handicapped ramp at a local building or senior center, and interact with retired volunteers."

Wren High School

Policymakers traveled west across the state to visit another National Service-Learning Leader School. Wren High School is located in Anderson School District I, two hours from Columbia in a rural part of the state. The school boasts the fifth highest SAT scores in the state. As part of the visit, policymakers walked across the road to visit the Wren Middle School, a feeder school to Wren High School and also a National Service-Learning Leader School.

In 1995, Wren High School began engaging their students in the community around them, encouraging them to assume a greater civic role. This was precipitated by challenging times for the school-- the rapid influx of a Hispanic population into their homogenous community, and the death of 17 of Wren’s students in nine years due to auto accidents. Under the leadership of former principal Jimmy Johnson, service-learning became the methodology used not only to deal with these challenges, but to fulfill the school’s mission: "… to provide educational experiences that will prepare our youth for the twenty-first century. We strive to develop our students’ potential for life-long learning and productive participation in a democratic society. Our ultimate goal is to enable students to compete in a global, technologically advanced workplace."

The school integrated service-learning into the daily curriculum, established service-learning within every academic department, and made it a priority in the school’s vision statement. Service-learning activities were noticed throughout the community and as a result, became part of the Anderson District I Strategic Plan and Board Policies. The District documented two "Interim Goals" for Wren High School’s Strategic Plan that highlight service-learning: "Increase number of students involved in service-learning, shadowing and apprentice programs" and "There will be a 20% increase in the number of students participating in service-learning projects" In the District Renewal Plan, four sections included language on service-learning:

• Orient all staff to integrated service-learning instruction (Site-based staff development).
• Orient students to service-learning through appropriate classroom presentations.
• Generate and circulate a list of developmentally appropriate service-learning activities.
• Publicize service-learning activities through appropriate media.

Service-learning has been used at Wren to help students learn about the immediate world around them and to be of service to others. To deal with the tragedy of student deaths due to auto accidents, and drinking and driving, Wren faculty and students mobilized a group called SCARD, Students Concerned About Reckless Driving, to organize interesting service-learning experiences that engage fellow students and make a lasting impression. They invited officers from state and local law-enforcement agencies to share their time and stories with students. Officers gave demonstrations on proper braking techniques and DUI-related traffic stops. A crash-simulator called "The Convincer" was provided to allow students to experience the impact of a five-mile-per-hour collision. The school’s resource officer gave three one-hour sessions for 750 students that covered topics such as speeding, running stop signs and red lights, consequences of driving under the influence, and general traffic safety. Also, students participated in an eerie "Ghost-out Day" where one student "died" every five minutes to symbolize the number of people killed each day by drunk drivers. As students played the role of "ghost" they could not talk to classmates, sit in their desks in class, or eat lunch with their friends. At the end of the day an assembly recognized the "ghosts" and a billboard was unveiled in the memory of students lost to drunk or reckless driving.

To adapt to a wave of Hispanic immigration into the community, students in Spanish II classes provided tutoring in English for Hispanic children in the elementary and middle schools in the district. Other examples of service-learning include: teacher cadets and child development class students tutoring students in kindergarten through fifth grade, and Environmental Science classes where students have engaged in inspiring recycling and highway cleanup efforts community-wide. Students who participate in service-learning projects or activities have experience under their belts and stories to share as they consider future careers.

Service-learning began as an after-school program in 1994 when it was first introduced through character education at Wren, and as usual with new programs, those introducing it discovered some resistance and negativity from outside the school. Slowly, more community resources opened their doors to students. In the fourth year, use of service-learning evolved from after-school programs to in-school projects, and then towards a methodology of teaching the curriculum. To help more teachers understand service-learning and to promote it in the classroom, Wren offers a course each semester to educators to help them learn how to tie service-learning to the curriculum. Currently, service-learning is deeply integrated throughout the school and has strong ties to the school’s career academy/career cluster programs.

Wren High School has led the district in the development of policy that allows all students to participate in and benefit from service learning. Wren’s service-learning focus began with only 18 students in 1994, and has grown to 475 students and 34 teachers and administrators who plan and engage in service learning projects. Students now combine community service and service-learning in over 16 different community organizations and have established a community advisory committee. Wren is another example of leadership at the faculty level supporting service-learning and moving it from a peripheral community service activity to a school-wide teaching methodology.

The career clusters at Wren are separated into four areas: Arts and Humanities, Business and Information Services, Engineering and Technologies, and Health and Human Services. They serve to provide a focus, a sense of purpose and a personal plan for each student. The personal plan involves students, parents, counselors and teachers in the process. The culmination of a student’s experience through a career cluster is graduation and a Certificate of Mastery in their chosen career area. All ninth grade students enroll in a course entitled "Freshman Focus" that provides a transitional tool for students as they move from middle school to high school; a process for career exploration; study skills, time management, planning and organization; and computer skills in keyboarding and software management. As students enter their senior year, they begin to prepare for the Senior Demonstration Project. The purpose of the project is to give seniors an opportunity to focus on a topic of their choice, an area of study within their career cluster and demonstrate the knowledge they have gained or achieved during their high school career.

Connections with Higher Education

Spring Valley High School and Wren High School co-produced a promotion video called "Youth Consultants: Putting It All Together" which offers practical advice on how young people can make learning and teaching more meaningful through service-learning. The purpose of the video is for experienced youth consultants, who advocate for service-learning as an engaging teaching methodology, to share what it means to be a youth consultant, encouraging students and teachers to consider the program. The National Dropout Prevention Center, located at Clemson University, produced the video with funding from the Corporation for National Service. The video was sent to state departments of education in all 50 states, and other service learning leaders throughout the country. Students from Spring Valley High School, who participated in the project's early filming, are also featured in the video. A book by the same name, written by Wren Middle School students, was also published and distributed.

University of South Carolina

Janet Mason, AmeriCorps director and professor of service-learning, University of South Carolina (USC) uses service-learning as a way of engaging even the most "reluctant learner." Dr. Mason is a former teacher and middle school vice principal is a service-learning enthusiast. "Service is the rent you pay for your time on earth," she explained. When Mason began incorporating service-learning at the university level, for teacher education students, she felt that it was important to look at the entire faculty and engage all levels of learners. Service-learning is not just for middle and high school students. Education students at USC must do 25 hours of service-learning to graduate. Students are dispatched to over 40 organizations, including homeless shelters. They produce an end-of-year project to explain their experience with service-learning. According to Mason, students say, "This has been the most life changing class I’ve had." The service-learning experience is designed to get teachers to reach out to the community and get real world experience. Mason designed the service-learning teacher education program to prepare students to pass the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards exam, saying that it requires evidence of how teachers connect to the community and parents. Dr. Mason believes service-learning helps her 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. Mason also believes that it is feasible and important to link content standards to a service-learning activity. "Eight hundred teachers went up for the National Board Certification from South Carolina. South Carolina teachers passed at 51 percent. The national average to pass was 45%," said Mason.

Dr. Mason brought a former USC student to share her experiences with the visiting policymakers. Nancy McBride, a third grade music teacher and the first music teacher from South Carolina to become National Board Certified, teaches severely handicapped children as well as children without handicaps. As a result of her experience with Dr. Mason, McBride has developed the Bee Friend Club for her music students. She couples non-disabled children with disabled children to help build friendships between the two groups. She has linked the state standards to her lesson plans.

Clemson University

Clemson University’s School of Education professors Bea Bailey and Carol Rutherford described Clemson’s connection with Wren High School. "We want Wren High School to be our partner because they are already well known for service-learning." The Clemson School of Education is building a professional development program for K-12 teachers and works with 120 high school pre-service teachers per year. Currently, the program offers a course on service-learning called Integrating Service Learning into Curriculum, providing "opportunities for certified teachers to build competence in service-learning through personal participation in service and in reflection." Students develop a plan to integrate service-learning activities into the curriculum of their school and/or district. Wren is where they send their best and brightest students to study more on how service-learning is carried out in the field. Bailey points out that at Clemson, service-learning is taught as a teaching methodology, connected to the curriculum, not a creative add-on. To acquire credentials, students will have to show evidence of a year of well thought out, service-learning lesson plans.

Conclusions

The overall reaction of field trip participants to service-learning and how it works throughout the state was positive. One participant felt that the student and teachers from both high schools were extremely enthusiastic and well informed about service-learning. Another felt, "The intimate interaction with a variety of people directly involved in service-learning was rewarding since it allowed me to gain a true insight into the topic."

After visiting with students and the lead service-learning instructor at Spring Valley High School, most participants experienced an "a-ha" moment. Before this visit, many participants had a fuzzy idea of what service-learning is and how it can simultaneously be a rigorous teaching method and a tool for fostering civic engagement and community service. One participant lost skepticism for service-learning based on this school visit.

Accessibility to service-learning opportunities was viewed as important. "It was great to see a program that was/is available to ALL students." This is more easily achieved if service-learning is used as a methodology by teachers throughout the school, rather than as a separate class for a few students. Integration and institutionalization of service-learning is important, and leadership and policy play a key supporting role.

Meeting with state and local leaders involved in institutionalizing service-learning throughout the state was helpful to understanding the overall commitment to the initiative and provided a greater appreciation for supportive teamwork of policy leaders. One participant felt "… it was rewarding to hear from a range of policymakers about how they have institutionalized service-learning throughout the state – in high school and elementary schools and legislation and regulation, a true model of system change." Another participant’s feedback reported: "Outstanding personnel with a deep commitment to and understanding of service-learning. State personnel were truly experts in the field of service-learning and understood not only a theoretical basis, but could explain it [service-learning] in practical [use]." "Showed a connectivity and buy-in by top policymakers throughout the state on service-learning," wrote one participant. "The expression of the thinking of the policymakers and administrators helped to understand the intent and purpose of the initiative in South Carolina." "Very informative and a good overview for the programs we were going to visit. This was a good prerequisite for what was to come. All the speakers were knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the direction of the program."

Clear and concise explanations of service-learning by students helped field trip participants understand the concept of service-learning: "… the kids are awesome and inspiring. You feel like the future is safe in their hands and they helped me ‘get’ service-learning. The teachers there seemed to have the right blend of hands on and off." One participant explained that it was important to listen to the students and hear their stories about "this approach to education." "The opportunity of service-learning to prepare students academically and for the world of work seems enormous," wrote one participant, and another wrote that, "Seeing the kids excited about helping others and hearing what they’ve learned from it," was important to their view of service-learning.

Contact Information

Kathy Gibson Carter, Ed.D.
Executive Director
Commission on National and Community Service
State Department of Education
1500 Hampton Street, Suite 250-B
Columbia, SC 29201
803-253-7634, 803-376-5357 fax
kgibson@sdc.state.sc.us

Beverly Hiott
Service-Learning Coordinator
Spring Valley High School
120 Sparkleberry Lane
Columbia, SC 29229
803-699-3500, 803-699-3608 fax
bhiott@svh.richland2.org

Larry Clark, Principal
Erin Darnell, Service-Learning Coordinator
Wren High School
905 Wren School Road
Piedmont, SC 29673
864-850-5900, 864-850-5929 fax
tigerfootball@aol.com

Janet Mason
Professor
University of South Carolina
College of Education, 023 Wardlaw
Columbia, South Carolina 29208
jmason@gwm.sc.edu
www.sc.edu

Bea Bailey, Professor
Carol Rutherford, Professor
School of Education
Clemson University
Clemson, SC 29634
864-656-3311
www.hehd.clemson.edu

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