Sociology Commons^™

Midlands Institute For Non-Profit Management: Building A Solid Foundation, Center For Public Affairs Research (Cpar)

Publications

Agenda and material from the Midlands Institute for Non-Profit Management - Building a Solid Foundation Conference, July 8-10, 1996.

Effects Of Participatory Learning Programs In Middle And High School Civic Education, Simon Kim, B. Sue Parks, Marvin Beckerman

School K-12

Introduction of participatory learning program in school civic education increases student awareness and improves communication skills through active participation in community services. Citizen Education Clearing House (CECH) programs which include the election, the Missouri state government, and the metropolitan issues program, enable students to improve their basic knowledge of election procedures and awareness of youth violence. A study of students from different racial and academic backgrounds who participated in these programs, reveals that participation leads to better civic education.

Project Northland: Outcomes Of A Communitywide Alcohol Use Prevention Program During Early Adolescence, Cheryl L. Peny, Carolyn L. Williams, Sara Veblen-Mortenson, Traci L. Toomey, Kelli A. Komro, Pamela S. Astine, Paul G. Mcgovern, John R. Finnegan, Jean L. Forster, Alexander C. Wagenaar, Mark Wolfson

Project Summaries

Adolescent drinking and other drug use remain major public health problems in this country, despite some encouraging declines in the prevalence of use.^1-7 Alcohol use among adolescents is widespread (e.g., 88% of 12th graders reported any lifetime use in 1992), even though drinking is illegal for essentially all high school students.³ Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for adolescents,⁸ with one third to one half of such crashes involving alcohol.⁹ Furthermore, early onset of alcohol and tobacco use is a risk factor for progression to more serious forms of drug use.¹⁰

Helping Younger Students: A Cross-Age Tutorial Program, Sandra Harris

Project Summaries

The faculty in Castle Hills Baptist School, with an age-diverse population-225 high school students, 125 middle school students, and 350 elementary students-in three adjoining buildings, became interested in starting a cross-age tutorial program. After reviewing the literature, the faculty recognized the need for careful planning (Rosenshine and Furst 1969); high intensity instruction (Cohen, Kulik, and Kulik 1982); and a structured program ( Graesser and Person 1994). Believing that cross-age tutoring could benefit teachers, younger children, and older students, teachers looked to tutoring to further academic growth and increase interest in academic subjects (Fitz-Gibbon 1977; Yacc and Cannon 1991; Cochran 1993; …

Community Service Throughout A School System, Anne Bishop

Service Learning, General

Teachers crave moments when student interest is high, questions flow freely, and learning is vivid enough to be retained. One such moment occurred when an elementary student in an environmental service project with wetlands volunteers said, "I learned that there are different types of wetlands and ours is a freshwater wetland that we are helping to stay fresh." These moments happen more often when students actively engage in experiences that involve helping others than during lecture, pencil and paper exercises, or assigned reading. Combined, service and learning become uniquely powerful (Kendall 1990). Facts learned in the classroom become a springboard …

Communal Participatory Action Research As A Strategy For Improving Universities And The Social Sciences: Penn's Work With The West Philadelphia Improvement Corps As A Case Study, Lee Benson, Ira Harkavy, John Puckett

Higher Education

As the 20th century closes, a key question is: What can the social sciences do to help solve the problems of our society and world? The authors identify the principal causes of the crisis in the university and the social sciences to be intellectual fragmentation and a structural contradiction that is built into the American research university. They then propose a radical reorientation of American universities toward helping solve real-world problems-particularly those in a university's local community. The authors suggest that such an orientation can be achieved through communal participatory action research projects designed to help change society. This research …

In The National Interest: Community College And Their Community Service Are Vital To Democracy, Hugh Baily

Higher Education

Let me get right to the point and give you a sense of why the Corporation for National Service sees Community Colleges as such critical partners in our effort. Your students across the country have been engaged in community service for many years. Indeed, during the past decade we have seen a resurgence of grassroots activity that helped catapult the issue of service onto the national agenda. Now we are asking institutions of higher education and their students to continue their leadership and involvement.

Reflection Activities For The College Classroom, Julie A. Hatcher, Robert G. Bringle

Evaluation/Reflection

As educators committed to strengthening the integration of service into academic study, we have provided this booklet of reflection activities as our first attempt to consolidate the collective wisdom on reflection activities that can be used in college classrooms.

Summary Of Major Findings: Learn And Serve America, Higher Education, Maryann Jacobi Gray, Elizabeth Henegan Ondaatje, Sandra Geschwind, Abby Robyn, Stephen P. Klein

Project Summaries

This report provides an overview of results from the first year evaluation of Learn and Serve America, Higher Education (LSAHE), an initiative of the Corporation for National Service (CNS). The evaluation assessed the impacts of LSAHE on communities, students, and institutions in fiscal year 1995.

Working At Learning, Education Week

Special Topics, General

School-to-work, community service, and service-learning programs teach students to learn by doing. But are schools the right place for them?

In India / A Bold Experiment In Teaching Values, Carolyn Cottom

International Service Learning & Community Engagement

A religiously diverse school has proven that teachers can instill both personal and social virtues and a desire to excel, and that academic excellence flows from character development.

School-To-Work And Service-Learning, The National School-To-Work Learning And Information Center

School K-12

School-to-work systems show young people how their classroom experiences relate to their work and to their lives, typically through internships, apprenticeships, or other work-based learning experiences. Other methods of positive youth development, such as service-learning, can also provide opportunities for the real world application of classroom-developed skills. As a work-based learning component in a school-to-work system, service-learning extends learning beyond the classroom into real world contexts where young people acquire not only basic math, science, English, and communication skills, but also broader problem-solving and decision-making skills. However, instead of focusing primarily on occupational skills sought by employers, service-learning addresses community …

Youth Development/Youth Service Status Report, Minnesota Children

School K-12

During the 1994-1995 school year, over 80% of Minnesota's school districts chose to participate in Youth Development/Youth Service that has been an integral part of Community Education since 1987. Out of the 365 operating school districts in Minnesota, 290 districts applied for and received the $1.00 per capita authorized by the Minnesota State Legislature to "implement a Youth Development Plan approved by the (local) school board and to provide a youth service program."

Evaluation Of Learn And Serve America, Higher Education: First Year Report, Volume I, Maryann Jacobi Gray, Sandra Geschwind, Elizabeth Henegan Ondaatje, Abby Robyn, Stephen P. Klein, Linda J. Sax, Alexander W. Astin, Helen S. Astin, Tessa Kaganoff, Kathy Rosenblatt

Evaluation/Reflection

This report presents evaluation results for the first year of the Learn and Serve America, Higher Education (LSAHE) initiative, sponsored by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNS). It addresses impacts of LSAHE on communities, higher education institutions, and service providers.

Combining Service And Learning On Campus And In The Community, Barry Checkoway

Service Learning, General

Student workshops are valuable resources for combining service and learning. The challenge, Mr. Checkoway points out, is to recognize their limitations, integrate them with other courses in the curriculum, and find ways to improve their quality.

Citizenship, Community Service, And University--Based Community Schools, Marie K. Bogle, Ira Harkavy

Higher Education

In the October 6, 1995 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, Alexander W. Astin discussed why "student interest and engagement in politics are at an all time low." Astin's explanation placed responsibility squarely (and in our judgement appropriately) at the feet of the American university. Despite their traditionally professed mission to promote good citizenship, universities have devoted few resources to that mission and performed it badly. Why has this occurred? Astin's answer was simple and direct- higher education has

Service Learning: Why Community Colleges?, Lynn Barnett

Higher Education

More than any other segment of American higher education, community colleges play a unique role in their own communities. The AACC is sponsoring several community-building and service learning projects at community college campuses across the nation.

Integrating Service Into A Multicultural Writing Curriculum, Robert Franco

Diversity

In 1986, the American Association of Community Colleges brought together nineteen distinguished leaders in higher education to produce Building Communities: A Vision For a New Century. Their mission statement focused on excessive fragmentation, cultural separation, and racial tension in local communities ·across America. It emphasized that many neighborhoods and families had lost their cohesiveness and that an atomistic individualism was on the rise (Commission on the Future of Community Colleges, 1988).

Reflections On Evaluation Of Service-Learning Programs, Maryann Jacobi Gray

Evaluation/Reflection

Somewhere between a thorn in the side and a bloom on the rose of service-learning is evaluation. Whatever one's personal attitude toward evaluation, pressures to demonstrate effectiveness are increasing for practitioners and proponents of service-learning at the postsecondary level. This article describes the factors driving interest in assessing program outcomes and reviews some of the challenges facing evaluators of service-learning programs. Although this discussion focuses on the higher education environment, many of the principles examined are also applicable to high school and middle school programs.

Linking Learning And Service: Lessons From Service Learning Programs In Pennsylvania, Carl I. Fertman

Service Learning, General

Service is part of most schools. School staff and students participate in car washes, bake sales, dances, read-a-thons, and SK races to raise money for national and local groups and community-based organizations. Other students and teachers provide thousands of hours of more direct service, working at hospitals, providing support services at the Special Olympics, cleaning parks, assisting at shelters and food banks, providing tutoring services, running hotlines, and visiting the elderly. Young people and their teachers can also be found speaking at public hearings, serving on policy boards, and visiting elected officials to talk about the needs of the community.

Swat Team Formed To Lead Service Learning, Lexington Community College

Project Summaries

Lexington CC's SWAT team is poised to lead the community in "learning through service." SWAT-the Service Work and Training Team-is made up of 10 LCC students who represent each division. Team members. who act as service providers and college ambassadors, are, from left (front row), Chanda Barlow, Terra Greer, Sean Corbin, Yevette Relford; (back row) Hendrick Floyd, Greg Williams, Rod Givens, Chris Cofher and Misty Sullivan. Charlene Walker, center, coordinator of the SWAT team, said the group will assist the college with recruiting and with · the Leadership Education Odyssey (LEO) project. They are available for projects at area hospitals, …

Proceedings From The Service Learning Summit - September 9-10, 1995, Dale A. Blythe, Candyce Kroenke

Conference Proceedings

There is great promise and significant challenges to sustaining and expanding service learning--both as a method of teaching and a method of educational reform. While the practitioners that use service learning are convinced of its benefits to youth, it has been difficult to substantiate claimed outcomes, particularly those related to academic achievement. There are problems in the depth of practice, the depth of research, and the expectations for outcomes.

The purpose of the Summit was to get people together to share, from their own perspectives, their expectations of service learning, its impact, and what they think is needed to make …

Implementing Service Learning In Higher Education, Robert G. Bringle, Julie A. Hatcher

Higher Education

In a recent article, "Creating the New American College," Ernest Boyer challenges higher education to reconsider its mission to be that of educating students for a life as responsible citizens, rather than educating students solely for a career. By doing so, the "New American College" will take pride in connecting theory to practice in order to meet challenging social problems, particularly those faced by universities in urban settings. As Ira Harkavey of the University of Pennsylvania Center for Community Partnerships has noted, "Universities cannot afford to remain shores of affluence, self-importance and horticultural beauty at the edge of island seas …

Developing Graduate Educational Technology Programs From A Service Learning Platform, John Lebaron, Dorothy Burke, Christine Maloof

Higher Education

The graduate College of Education at the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML), is in the second year of a service centered model for graduate coursework in educational technology. The two courses Technology and Learning Environments (T&LE, 1994), and Technology and Schools of the Future (T&SF, 1995) had previously been offered as "traditional" academic offerings. In cooperation with the Lawrence Public Schools, one of the poorest districts in the nation, these courses were modified as "service learning" experiences. A more detailed account of the first year of this project (LeBaron and Scribner-MacLean, 1995) is available on request to the authors. This …

"Community Mathematical Services: Service Learning Coursebook In Mathematics, Benjamin S. Winchester

Special Topics, General

The Mathematics Discipline of the University of Minnesota, Morris has moved into the forefront of its academic excellence with the addition of a service learning component in its curriculum. Three professors, Dr. Jon Anderson, Dr. Peh Ng and Dr. Engin Sungur recently received SEAMS (Science, Engineering, Architecture, Mathematics and Computer Science) Mini Grants from Minnesota Campus Compact in 1996. These grants challenge the faculty to find innovative ways to address community/environmental hazards and concerns while enhancing students academic and civic understanding.

Service Learning Coursebook • Ill Mathematics, Benjamin Winchester

Guides

The Mathematics Discipline of the University of Minnesota, Morris has moved into the forefront of its academic excellence with the addition of a service learning component in its curriculum. Three professors, Dr. Jon Anderson, Dr. Peh Ng and Dr. Engin Sungur recently received SEAMS (Science, Engineering, Architecture, Mathematics and Computer Science) Mini Grants from Minnesota Campus Compact in 1996. These grants challenge the faculty to find innovative ways to address community/environmental hazards and concerns while enhancing students academic and civic understanding.

Maryland Service Exchange Directory, Governor's Commission On Service

Partnerships/Community

On behalf of the Maryland Governor's Commission on Service, I am pleased to present the second edition of the Maryland Service Exchange Directory. The Governor's Commission on Service created the Maryland Service Exchange to provide cost-free, program development, technical assistance and training to Maryland's national and community service programs, non-profit and community-based organizations, schools and colleges. At the same time, the Exchange offers a new, innovative opportunity through which Marylanders can volunteer to serve our communities.

Investigating Urban Community Needs: Service Learning From A Social Justice Perspective, Carol Wiechman Maybach

Service Learning, General

Homelessness, poverty, substance abuse, hunger, teen pregnancy, youth violence, and marginalization of the disabled are but a few of the complex social issues that continue to plague urban America. They are also issues that attract the attention of student service providers involved in service-learning programs across the country (Education Commission of the States, 1994). However, few of the higher education service-learning courses focus on the investigation of the needs of the individuals included in these groups in the urban community, and even fewer build service--learning projects around a model that is accountable for the results of the service experience on …

Omaha Area Gambling Survey December 1995, Center For Public Affairs Research (Cpar)

Publications

The purpose of the 1995 survey was to establish baseline information on area residents' attitudes toward and participation in gambling. Our intention is to conduct at least one follow-up survey to measure changes in attitudes and gambling participation among area residents. To facilitate the establishment of a "panel" for future surveys, participants were asked if they would be willing to be interviewed again.

A Developmental Perspective On Community Service In Adolescence, Miranda Yates, James Youniss

School K-12

A substantial number of U.S. adolescents currently participate in community service and there is increased national interest in service programs. This article assesses the assumption of developmental benefits to service participants by critically reviewing 44 empirical studies. It offers a theoretical framework for understanding the findings by connecting them to identity development and delineating three pertinent concepts: agency, social relatedness, and moral-political awareness. These concepts are applied to studies that investigate: ( 1) the characteristics and motivations of participants, ( 2) the effects of service, and ( 3) the process of service. The findings support the conclusion that service activities …