Sociology Commons^™

A Proposal For The Michigan K-12 Service-Learning Center, The Michigan Partnership For New Education

Special Topics, General

The Michigan Partnership for New Education, in collaboration with Michigan State University's College of Education and with several partner universities, proposes to establish a K-12 Service Learning Center, headquartered at Michigan State. The Center would:

1. promote the principles and practices of service-learning in the schools in Michigan generally, through a series of activities ranging from building networks and holding conferences to training teachers, shaping policy and coordinating existing efforts. Such activities would, where possible, be collaborative efforts with other service-learning initiatives in the state. In e this regard, the Center would be a catalyst, switchboard, cheerleader and organizer, tying …

Mandated Service And Moral Learning, Robert K. Fullinwider

Special Topics, General

Recently the Maryland State Board of Education added a new condition for getting a high school diploma: students must perform 75 hours of "service." The activities that count as "service" will be determined by individual districts, and may include everything from tutoring younger students and visiting nursing home residents to working with nonprofit community organizations. The new requirement builds on an already existing voluntary student service program supported by the Maryland Student Service Alliance, a public-private partnership. Although some municipal school systems in the U.S. impose similar requirements, the Maryland school board is the first to adopt a statewide policy.

Designing Computer-Based Writing Tools For Community Action, David Fleming

Special Topics, General

Most word and information processing systems arc designed for either large institutions or individual users. Institutions, of course, have benefitted greatly from emerging technologies. These users cover the spectrum of our economic, political, social, and cultural life: large corporations, banks, insurance companies, government agencies, schools, universities, armed services, hospitals, the media. Individual users have been more recent beneficiaries of technological advances, and the computer has begun to make inroads into the way people interact with one another, manage their affairs, and entertain themselves.

Administering Maturity: The Emergence Of Youth Service As A Rite Of Passage To Adult Citizenship, Timothy Dolan

School K-12

Over the course of the 1980s, a literature describing a new lost generation in America has caught the popular imagination, fueled to no small extent by the anxiety of aging baby-boomers over their offspring's fate. One manifestation of particular interest at the policy level has been a growing sentiment by opinion leaders in favor of establishing youth service as both a pragmatic remedy for meeting social needs, and as a rite of passage to bona-fide citizenship status.

National And Community Service: Challenges And Opportunities For People With Disabilities To Volunteer In America, Glen F. White

Disabilities

The recently implemented National and Community Service Act of 1990 calls for Americans of all race, age, ability, and economic status to return to service in their community. To help facilitate this call to service, the National Commission on Community Service has allocated approximately 70 million dollars in grants. The Act focuses on the involvement of youth, including those who are economically disadvantaged and with disabilities. This paper discusses the challenges and opportunities faced by community service program planners and disability organizations, in their efforts to integrate volunteers with disabilities in service to the community. The paper concludes with a …

The Case For Participatory Evaluation, J. Bradley Cousins, Lorna M. Earl

Evaluation/Reflection

Participatory evaluation is presented as an extension of the stakeholder-based model with a focus on enhancing evaluation utilization through primary users’ increased depth and range of participation in the applied research process. The approach is briefly described and then justified from theoretical and empirical bases. The literature on organizational learning provides theoretical support for participatory evaluation stemming primarily from the view that knowledge is socially constructed and cognitive systems and memories are developed and shared by organization members. Twenty-six recent empirical studies were found to support an organizational learning justification of the model. Studies were classified into one of six …

Voluntary Action On The College Campus - From Theory To Practice, Debra Floerchinger

Higher Education

President and Mrs. Bush committed his administration to the promotion of volunteer service in the President's Inaugural Address in January l989. The "Points of Light Initiative" was announced in June 1989 to advance volunteerism and community service on the national level. This initiative created a foundation to promote these ideals.

Differences Among Community Service Volunteers, Extracurricular Volunteers, And Nonvolunteers On The College Campus, R. Thomas Fitch

Higher Education

Students involved in volunteer community service activities display different demographic characteristics and inte1personal values than do other students.

Promoting Youth Development: Strengthening The Role Of Youth Service And Community Organizations, Karen J. Pittman

School K-12

Concern about youth problems is escalating. The volume of task forces, reports, initiatives, coalitions and media specials confirm that there is broad agreement that too many youth are "at risk."

Phi Delta Kappan - Special Section On Youth Service, Joe Nathan, James Kielsmeier

Special Topics, General

This Special Section on Youth Service features: The Sleeping Giant of School Reform; School-Based Community Service: What We Know from Research and Theory; Project Service Leadership: School Service Projects In Washington State; Gadugi: A Model of Service-Learning for Native American Communities; Citizenship, Service, and School Reform in Pennsylvania; Community Service Learning And School Improvement in Springfield, Massachusetts; Community Service and Civic Education; SerVermont: The Little Initiative That Could; and National Service and Education for Citizenship.

Community Service And Civic Education, Harry C. Boyte

Civic Engagement

Community service, widely touted as the cure for young people's political apathy, in fact teaches little about the arts of participation in public life. To reengage students in public affairs requires redefining politics to include, in addition to electoral activity, ongoing citizen involvement in solving public problems. It requires a conceptual framework that distinguishes between public life and private life. And it calls for a pedagogical strategy that puts the design and ownership of problem-solving projects into the hands of young people.

Community Service Learning And School Improvement In Springfield, Massachusetts, Virginia Anderson, Carol Kinsley, Peter Negroni, Carolyn Price

Service Learning, General

Calls for changes in the education system continually issue forth from various segments of society. Each outpouring of public concern challenges educators to address the needs of young people and to achieve school renewal. The current literature on school reform advocates an agenda of improvement efforts aimed at creating effective, caring schools that will provide active learning opportunities for students. develop learning communities, expand learning into the community. foster collegiality among staff members, and enable teachers to become "orchestra conductors" in the classroom rather than lecturers. But educators ask, "How can all of this be achieved?"

Turning On Youth To Politics; Beyond Community Service, Harry C. Boyte

Civic Engagement

Studies by the Times Mirror Center ("The Age of Indifference") and others purport to reveal that today's teenagers and young adults view politics with nearly universal hatred and express apathy toward public affairs generally. A little more probing uncovers a more complex set of attitudes. Allan Moyle's film Pump Up the Volume, based in part on workshops with teenagers in New York, reveals a generation not so much apathetic as disgusted with adult hypocrisy, furious at adults' apparent inaction on mounting social problems, cynical about 1960s-style protest and uncertain about what else there is to do. But it is clear …

Moving Beyond Apathy To Environmental Action, John Fallis

Special Topics, General

It's so nice here compared to Toronto. The air is fresh and the water is so clear. You people don't have any problems.

The city is such a polluted mess. I'd like to help out but I don't know where to start, plus, it seems hopeless!

These are comments of frustrated, environmentally aware high school students who have participated in residential school programs at the Boyne River outdoor and environmental education centre. During their stay of up to a week, their lives have been enriched through a range of outdoor, hands-on, learning experiences. They may have gained a new perspective …

A Mandate For Liberty: Requiring Education-Based Community Service, Benjamin R. Barber

Special Topics, General

The extraordinary rise in American interest in community service has inspired widespread participation by the nation's young in service programs. It has also provoked a profound and telling debate about the relationship of service to voluntarism on the one hand, and to civic education and citizenship on the other. Two complementary approaches to service have emerged that are mutually supportive but also in a certain tension with one another. The first aims at attracting young volunteers, particularly students, out of the classroom and into service projects as part of a strategy designed to strengthen altruism, philanthropy, individualism, and self-reliance. The …

Making A Case For Collaborative Problem Solving, Christopher T. Gates

Partnerships/Community

As the number and diversity of actors expecting to be part of any community decision increase, so must the process for making those decisions become more open and accessible. Bringing diverse/layers together- finding common ground, defining share interests - is a process of self-realization whereby all community members can discover that they have the talent and ideas necessary to improve community life for themselves and their neighbors.

Involving Older Volunteers, In Public Schools, Kristen J. Amundson

Intergenerational

Each day, 5,000 Americans celebrate their sixty-fifth birthday. As this age group becomes larger, it will also become more powerful. As voters, seniors make up the most conscientious of the voting group in our society.

Researching Student Community Service: An Opportunity To Promote Reflection?, Cecil D. Bradfield, R. Ann Myers

Service Learning, General

In recent years there has been a growing interest in student community service. It is suggested that the students of the 1980's and 90's are returning to an ethic of community service. Organizations have developed to promote service from both the student and the academic perspectives. The Campus Outreach Opportunity League (COOL) is a student movement promoting community service. Campus Compact represents the academic administration interest in promoting student community service with presidents of institutions forming the membership in the organization. A third organization, the National Society of Internships and Experiential Education (NSIEE), includes student community service as a form …

The Role Of Service-Learning In Today's College Curriculum, Dwight E. Giles

Higher Education

When I am given a topic or question to address I find that playing with the topic produces intellectual stimulation, helps to develop a clearer focus for my thoughts, and provides a respectable form of procrastination. This topic has been no exception in providing all three of the above; I'd like to begin by suggesting some ways we might play with the topic together over the next few minutes.

Community Service And Critical Thinking: An Exploratory Analysis Of Collegiate Influences, Eric L. Dey

Higher Education

Interest in encouraging undergraduates to become involved in community service has grown rapidly over the past several years. In addition to the formation of groups such as the Campus Compact, this interest can be seen in the curricula of numerous colleges which have instituted community services requirements for graduation. Interest in critical thinking has increased as well, with widespread agreement among educators that critical thinking should be an important, if not central, goal of education. Although critical thinking has long been valued by educators at all (Siegel, 1980), the importance placed upon the development of critical thinking has recently been …

Student Involvement In Community Service: Institutional Commitment And The Campus Compact, Alexander W. Astin

Higher Education

Although interest in involving students in community service has been growing rapidly among higher education institutions, there has so far been little systematic study of who the volunteers are and of which institutional practices actually encourage student participation in community service. The study reported here presents some provocative new findings concerning factors that contribute to student participation in, and institutional commitment to community service. The data on which the study is based were recently collected in connection with a large-scale national study of undergraduate education that we have been conducting with support from grants by the Exxon Education Foundation and …

The Next Literacy: Educating Young Americans For Work And Citizenship, David Fleming

Civic Engagement

The emerging global economy presents the American workforce with many challenges. As national economic borders disintegrate and U.S. manufacturing jobs disappear, more and more opportunities are opening up in "complex services" (insurance, engineering, law, finance, computer programming, advertising) and "person-to-person service" (re- . tail, education, health care). Many of these new jobs offer high-skill, high-wage work; unfortunately, the majority of American workers lack the education and training for them. What those workers·are left with are an increasing number of low-skill, low-wage, nonunion jobs. One feature of this economy, then, is a growing split between the few who are benefiting from …

"...Something Shining, Like Gold--But Better." The National Indian Youth Leadership Model: A Manual For Program Leaders, Mcclellan Hall

Tribal Nations Documents

A lot of people are talking about education these days, including President Bush,who recently launched his America 2000 plan here in St. Paul. It hasn't been like this for many years, certainly not during the 1980s when the issue of young people dropping out, pushed out, or bored out was almost invisible on the national agenda.For McClellan Hall, however, concern for how children learn-especially Indian children, has been a lifelong mission. As national interest focuses on education, it is essential that credible voices such as McClellan's, voices which neither claim nor seek a national limelight, be heard amid the current …

Do Faculty Connect School To Work? Evidence From Community Colleges, Dominic J, Brewer, Maryann Jacobi Gray

Higher Education

Despite an emphasis in recent policy on connecting school to work, relatively little is known about how these connections are made and what they look like. In this article, we explore the relationship between community college faculty and their local labor markets.We use a unique national survey that provides the first systematic data from a large number of faculty on this issue, supplemented by case studies. We show that faculty engage in a range of relatively low-level connecting activities; stronger connections are rare. Faculty receive minimal institutional support for such efforts. There are several important barriers to improving linkages related …

The Volunteer Potential Of First-Time Entering Students: Interest Areas And Incentives, Victoria J. Balenger, William E. Sedlacek

Higher Education

First time entering students at a large, eastern university were given a survey assessing their interest In various campus volunteer opportunities. The relationship between incentives and volunteer interest was also studied. The findings suggested that, generally, students did not differentiate between "serving as a volunteer," "earning course credit as a volunteer," and "earning a monetary award as a volunteer." Overall, students were most interested in volunteering for the homecoming committee and the campus recruitment organization, and least interested in volunteering for the counseling center and the health center. Specific volunteer interests are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical …

Using Law-Related Education As An Intervention With "High-Risk" Youth, Drake Buzzell

Special Topics, General

During these times of scarce resources, policymakers are increasingly devoting more attention to areas where they feel they can make the greatest impact. Many local and state policy discussions are focusing on the relationship of "high-risk" youth, crime, and drug abuse Policymakers as well as social service program directors are particularly interested in the factors contributing to the likelihood that a young person will abuse alcohol or other drugs, and engage in delinquent behavior. We have known for some time that there is a significant correlation between these two behaviors. What is perhaps ironic is that we are back to …

Preliminary Review Of Research In Service Learning, James Krug, Richard J. Kraft

Special Topics, General

The following cursory review is taken from the Literature Review on Service Learning conducted by Mr. James Krug (1991) at the University of Colorado. Mr. Krug's research has been on the effects of service learning on four groups of high school young people: at-risk youth in a special program, student assistants (primarily minority) within the school, nature guides, and tutors at a primary school. Preliminary results indicate that, while all the experimental groups gained on measures of potency, activity involvement in the community, self-concept and other factors, the statistically significant growth at the .01 and .05 levels was found almost …

A Study Of The Impact Of Educational Reform On At-Risk Students In Texas, Texas Education Agency

School K-12

This report was prepared by the Texas Education Agency's Division of Program Evaluation in an effort to provide preliminary information about the impact of educational reform on at-risk students in Texas.

National Youth Service: A Democratic Institution For The 21st Century, National Service Secretariat

Conference Proceedings

Proceedings from a conference to explore issues in moving toward a new institution for national youth service are presented in this booklet. Chapter 1 presents a historical overview of youth participation in the United States, focusing on trends in the labor market, schooling, incarceration, and social problems. The assertion is made that due to population and technological influences on labor supply and demand, schools no longer effectively socialize or control youth. Therefore, the development of alternative institutions, such as a diverse and voluntary national youth service,must be considered. Chapter 2 defines a national youth service as the manifestation of mutual …

Reflection: At The Heart Of Experiential Learning, Robert D. Shumer

Evaluation/Reflection

Life is nothing but a series bf experiences. Many experiences pass us by, quickly forgotten. Others make an impact, for some reason, and we remember them well. How we deal with our experiences measures how much we can learn from them: whether we think or reflect on what has happened determines if an experience will be lasting and rewarding or simply slip into oblivion.