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Evaluation Of The Nebraska Community Development Block Grant Administration Certification Program, Center For Public Affairs Research (Cpar)

Publications

The Nebraska Community Development Block Grant Administration Certification Program, in its fourth year of operation, certifies individuals who administer local grants received from the Nebraska Department of Economic Development (DED). Funds are provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Included in the certification program, managed by the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), are annual certification workshops, recertification workshops, and advanced training modules that are part of the recertification process.

UNO and DED decided in 1998 to undertake a comprehensive evaluation of the certification program. UNO contracted with the Institute for Social and Economic Development (ISED) and …

When Will I Ever Use This Stuff Anyway?, Suzanne S. Austin, Charlotte L. Berceli

Higher Education

As instructors of an intermediate-algebra course at a large urban community college, we decided to use a service-learning project to help students understand and appreciate the mathematics that they were studying. This outcome transcended the classroom and best motivated mathematics students by helping them realize how important the subject is to their futures (Jenrette 1994).

If All Youth Served: Empowering Youth To Build Community Through Service, Lenore M. Parker

School K-12

This document contains: List of Tables; Acknowledgements; A Vision Statement; Research Findings; Liability Issues and Engaging Young People as Volunteers; Supervising Young People as Volunteers; and Appendix A: Publications About Engaging Young People as Volunteers.

Connecting The Learning: 4-H Extension And Graduation Standards, Tamie Bremseth, Jan Hively, Jim Mitchell

Project Summaries

The 1998 Minnesota Graduation Rule defines what students should master during their school years. Going beyond paper-and-pencil tests, the rule requires students to demonstrate what they can do as well as what they know. As the rule has been developed, teachers and school districts have been scrambling to adjust their programs to address the individualized learning requirements that emphasize experiential, project-based learning.

The Impact Of Integrating A Structured Ethical Reflection Program Into High School Service-Learning Experiences On Students' Socio-Moral Development (Executive Summary: Final Report), Ins

Project Summaries

This evaluation reports the effects on students' socio-moral development of the implementation of a program that integrates training in ethical decision making skills and service-learning programs. Because the program blends the development of ethical reasoning with service learning experiences for students, it represents a new direction for both service-learning and moral/ ethical/ character education.

Intergenerational Studies In Higher Education: An Initial Survey (1999), Sally Newman, Anita Johnson

Intergenerational

During the last decade, intergenerational studies has begun to attract an increasing number of academics in a variety of academic fields. Similarly, students in increasing numbers are contacting departments in higher education, including intergenerational units such as Generations Together to inquire about courses and training opportunities. Additionally, human service professionals are demonstrating interest in acquiring the knowledge and competencies necessary to effectively administer intergenerational programs as well as earn academic credit for these new professional skills. Evidence of their interest is the number of online inquiries regarding intergenerational training and educational opportunities.

Building The Service-Learning Pyramid, Campus Compact

Higher Education

Through a $3 million dollar grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts, Campus Compact will undertake an extensive effort to increase young people's involvement in civic and community life. This work will also focus on increasing higher education's commitment to its civic responsibilities.

Working Paper, Russell Garth, Robert L. Sigmon

Higher Education

To educate students for a lifetime of contribution to society, colleges and universities accept an enormous challenge. Toward this end, they help students pursue a broad range of goals-prepare for careers, acquire a sense of civic responsibility; gain self-awareness, and learn how to learn.

The University As Citizen: Institutional Identity And Social Responsibility, William M. Sullivan

Higher Education

To act responsibly, we must know who we are. If higher education today is uncertain about its social responsibilities, as seems manifestly the case, then this suggests that the American academy is unsure about its institutional identity. For organizations as for individuals, responsibility follows from relationships. But relationships grow out of our purposes even as how we relate to others helps to shape our aims. Vital and successful institutions stand out by their ability to maintain their direction and sense of meaning even amid significant shifts in the social landscape. Indeed, they can aid in providing direction for other institutions, …

Novice Teachers' Experiences Of Community Service-Learning, Rahima C. Wade, Jeffrey B. Anderson, Donald B. Yarbrough, Terry Pickeral, Joseph B. Erickson, Thomas Kromer

Higher Education

This study focuses on beginning teachers' experiences with a currently popular curriculum strategy in the US: community service-learning. To determine the personal and contextual factors influencing novice teachers' experiences, we surveyed over 300 early career teachers and interviewed 30 of the larger sample. The study provides evidence that some beginning teachers are willing to implement strategies they learned in their teacher education programs, and can do so successfully, in spite of being busy and unsupported. Results indicate that specific preparation features and school characteristics may play a large role in whether novice teachers implement service-learning activities in their classrooms.

Presidents’ Declaration On The Civic Responsibility Of Higher Education, Campus Compact

Higher Education

As presidents of colleges and universities, both private and public, large and small, two-year and four-year, we challenge higher education to re-examine its public purposes and its commitments to the democratic ideal.We also challenge higher education to become engaged, through actions and teaching, with its communities.We have a fundamental task to renew our role as agents of our democracy. This task is both urgent and long-term. There is growing evidence of disengagement of many Americans from the communal life of our society in general, and from the responsibilities of democracy in particular.We share a special concern about the disengagement of …

Designing Collaborations Between Community Based Organizations And Schools To Produce Curriculum Models For Service- Learning Programs (Richardson Nature Center), Richardson Nature Center

Guides

Richardson Nature Center, located in Bloomington, Minnesota, is part of the Hennepin Parks System. Richardson Nature Center is working in collaboration with local fourth and fifth grade classrooms to teach environmental education in a variety of ways. Students in these classrooms learn about the environment through classroom lessons and experiences at Richardson. Teachers and Richardson naturalists team teach the lessons. The main goal of this program is to impart knowledge, awareness and positive values about the environment to students. Another goal is to familiarize students with Richardson Nature Center, in hopes that they will visit the center after having an …

Long-Term Effects Of Volunteerism During The Undergraduate Years, Alexander W. Astin, Linda J. Sax, Juan Avalos

Higher Education

A growing number of colleges and universities in the United States have become actively engaged in encouraging their undergraduate students to participate in some form of volunteer service (Cohen & Kinsey, 1994; Levine, 1994; Markus, Howard, & King, 1993; O'Brien, 1993). Further, service is increasingly being incorporated into the curriculums of major and general education courses (Cohen & Kinsey, 1994; Levine, 1994). While relatively few colleges include service learning or volunteer service as a curricular requirement, the number is growing and such a requirement has become an increasingly frequent topic of debate (Markus, Howard, & King, 1993). That the top …

Recent Dissertations On Service And Service-Learning Topics, Robert D. Shumer, Ann Treacy, Madeleine S. Hengel, Lily O'Donnell

Bibliographies

Rumor has it that there is very little research on service and service-leaming. A brief literature review of dissertations from 1990 onward revealed that over 110 studies have been completed on service and related topics. So much for the rumor!

Our intent in performing this literature review is to identify academic studies that have been completed in the past several years on issues related to service-learning. Covering a variety of interest areas and related topics, the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse is initially interested in identifying studies that add to the knowledge base on service-learning. The collection of titles, authors, and abstract …

The Effects Of "Mandatory Volunteerism" On Intentions To Volunteer, Arthur A. Stukas, Mark Snyder, E. Gil Clary

Special Topics, General

With the widespread emergence of required community-service programs comes a new opportunity to examine the effects of requirements on future behavioral intentions. To investigate the consequences of such “mandatory volunteerism” programs, we followed students who were required to volunteer in order to graduate from college. Results demonstrated that stronger perceptions of external control eliminated an otherwise positive relation between prior volunteer experience and future intentions to volunteer. A second study experimentally compared mandates and choices to serve and included a premeasured assessment of whether students felt external control was necessary to get them to volunteer. After being required or choosing …

Service-Learning: An Education Strategy For Preventing School Violence, Carol Kinsley

Special Topics, General

Recent headlines provide ample testimony of dramatic, heart-stopping incidents of youth violence - at every socioeconomic level, in every age group, and across rural, suburban and urban areas. What were once seen as isolated outbursts have multiplied in such a way that they no longer can be thought of as random incidents.

Many factors underlie violent behavior in schools. Easy access to guns, violent movies and video games, poor and even destructive parenting, social upheaval in schools, minority status and, not least, violence in the home arc all potential "enablers" of violent behavior on the part of students. But these …

Service-Learning And School Curriculum, Amy Yip Ah-May

Special Topics, General

Service-Learning extends the learning process from the classroom to the community, which becomes a supplementary resource to facilitate teaching and learning. This paper uses fragments of reflections to illustrate how Service-Learning course participants learn through the community-service projects and how they feel about their experiences as project leaders. The literature used provides a rich source of data about the meaning of Service-Learning and empirical evidences of the educational effects of learning through serving others. This paper argues that the Hong Kong school curriculum is examination driven and focused on the academic. There is a neglect in the social, moral and …

Increasing Service-Learning's Impact On Middle School Students, Peter C. Scales

Special Topics, General

The use of service-learning in middle and high schools has expanded in the 1990s (Scales & Koppelman 1997), but the gap between what is being done in schools and what research tells us about the impact of service-learning is uncomfortably large. Service-learning advocates are convinced of its profound impact on young people, both personally and socially. The quantitative research consistently shows positive effects, but the quality of the research has not been consistently high, the effects observed vary from study to study, and positive academic effects are the least commonly documented. The scarcity of data on academic impact may be …

A Study Of The Effects Of Participation In The Helper Model Of Service Learning In Early Adolescence, Center For Advanced Study In Education (Case)

Special Topics, General

The Service Learning Impact Study is a multifaceted multi-year study funded by the William T. Grant Foundation to examine the impact of the Helper Model of service learning. This research is exploring whether and how participation by middle school students contributes to the development of academic or school-related skills, enhances psychosocial abilities, and leads to the acquisition of skills for the school to work transition.

The goals of this project are to:
• examine the impact of participating during early adolescence in service learning (Helper Program)
• identify how impact is related to program characteristics and the types of service …

Religion, Community Service, And Identity In American Youth, James Youniss, Jefrey A. Mclellan, Miranda Yates

Special Topics, General

The role of religion in identity development has, for many years, been a relatively neglected topic In psychology. To demonstrate the importance of religion to the formation of identity, this paper presents evidence connecting community service and religiousness in American youth. Data are reviewed that show youth are heavily involved in volunteer service; many youth view religion as important and those who do so are more likely to do service than youth who do not believe that religion Is important in their lives; involvement in church-sponsored service makes it more likely that youth will adopt the religious rationale in which …

Teacher Education Curricula, National Service-Learning Clearinghouse

Syllabi

These are course descriptions and/or syllabi from teacher education and education-related classes in various colleges and universities. Courses and schools include: Human Growth and Development at Hampton University; Growth and Development (school not listed), Social Justice and Diversity Education (school not listed), Education in a Democratic Society at Ball State University; Service Leadership at Seattle University; Principles of Education at New England College; Theory and Practice in Service Learning Pedagogy (school not listed); Methods and Materials in Reading Service Learning Strand at Providence College; Elementary Social Studies at University of Iowa; Teaching in Secondary Schools at Hampton University; Social Studies …

The Dialogue Guide, Sandy Heierbacher

Diversity

Developed in 1999 for National Service programs interested in fostering understanding, respect and teamwork among their diverse participants. The Dialogue guide is designed to help National Service leaders engage their members in meaningful dialogues on race.

Designing Collaborations Between Community Based Organizations And Schools To Produce Curriculum Models For Service- Learning Programs (Cambridge-Isanti High School), Cambridge-Isanti High School

Guides

This curriculum is designed to give students the opportunity to experience and discover the arts. It is a collaborative service-learning project between the local artistic community and a ninth grade English/Social Studies class poetry unit at Cambridge-Isanti High School.

Service-Learning In Out-Of-School Programs, Saren Lossli

Guides

This resource contains: Needs/Interests/Resources Assessment; Memory Exercise; What kinds of "learning" opportunities can "servicelearning" offer in out-of-school time programs?; What is service-learning? What is the difference between "service" and "service-learning"?; Why is service-learning important?; Benefits of Service-Learning; Eight Keys to Effective Project Planning; Sample Project Ideas; and Brainstorming Activity.

I Support National Service! A Guide To Promote Reauthorization Of The National And Community Service Trust Act, Youth Service America

Guides

The purpose of the national service reauthorization proposals is to extend longstanding national service legislation -- the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1990 and the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973. The extension authorizes support for programs that encourage Americans to engage in full- time or part-time service in their communities in order to meet unmet needs in the areas of education, public safety, the environment, and other human needs such as health and housing.

Starting Or Expanding An Out-Of-School Program: Five Steps To Starting Something New, National Institute On Out-Of-School Time

Guides

Step 1: Perceive the Need; Step II: Connect with Others; Step Ill: Conduct a Needs Assessment; Step IV: Utilize Information Gathered to Design a Program or Component; and Step V: Formulate an Action Plan.

Creating A Balanced Program, National Institute On Out-Of-School Time

Guides

This resource contains: Assessment of needs/interests in the room; Introduction to the Agenda; Defining Aspects of a Quality Program; Defining "Program" and "Components"; Designing an Appropriate Environment; Designing Appropriate Routines/Schedules; Ideas for Themes; Integrating Service-Learning; Keys and Summary; Program Design Tools; and Resource list.

Be Part Of The Equation: A User's Guide On Arts In Community Service, Sam Quan Krueger

Guides

In making art or doing community service, there are common elements such as examining a subject and its context; responding and taking action because of that examination; and involving others in the same experience of examining and responding. Of course, there are differences, as well. Not all artistic endeavors intend for obvious community benefits, nor do all community service activities include artistic qualities or pursuits. However, for those who are working in the overlapping areas between art and community service, there is a need to learn more. The AC3=∞ (IN SHORT, AC3) PROJECT attempts to address this need.

Faculty Handbook For Service Learning, Commuter Affairs And Community Service

Guides

No abstract provided.

Designing Collaborations Between Community Based Organizations And Schools .To Produce Curriculum Models For Service-Learning Programs (Abraham Lincoln High School), Abraham Lincoln High School

Guides

Abraham Lincoln High School (formally The High School for New Americans) and the Institute for Education and Advocacy used this project as a community awareness and outreach program. The project was created to help immigrant and refugee students introduce themselves to their new community, to foster self-reflection and self-expression in the students, to bring the different academic departments together in a hands-on project, and to help in the healing process of the students in overcoming their recent transition and often traumatic experiences.