International Center Board of Directors Dear Service ... - Conference.ie

and lack of knowledge and ability on the part of beginning
teachers who use service-learning to build a support system
for educational reform.
What can be done to enhance the use of service-learning
in teacher education?
Panelists offered numerous suggestions for improving
the status of service-learning in teacher education. One
approach to organizing these ideas is to arrange them as: 1)
top down; 2) bottom up; 3) outside in; and 4) inside out.
Top down strategies
The National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher
Education (NCATE) has established standards that teacher
education programs must meet in order to receive national
accreditation, and in some states, to be accredited by the
state to prepare and recommend teacher candidates for state
licensure. As a result, these standards play an extremely
powerful role in shaping the curriculum of teacher
education programs. Very recently, NCATE has for the first
time incorporated service-learning into Standard Three,
which relates to field experiences and clinical practice.
This revision of the standard has the potential to encourage
many teacher educators to “feel safe” that using servicelearning
is an approach that will be viewed favorably by
NCATE and state accreditors. Service-learning advocates
need to continue to advocate for the inclusion of servicelearning
in additional NCATE standards—especially,
Standard One, which relates to “Candidate knowledge,
skills, and professional dispositions” and Standard Four
which focuses on “Diversity.”
Another top-down strategy involves the establishment
of statewide task forces including students, parents,
researchers, teacher educators, representatives of K-12
education, and nonprofit organizations and businesses
experienced with service-learning to develop a
comprehensive statewide plan for implementing servicelearning
that includes a strong teacher education
component. This group should advocate for K-12 schools
and teacher education programs to address a broad range of
student learning needs ranging from academic achievement
to civic responsibility, personal and social development,
career exploration, and appreciation of community and
diversity. Highlighting the civic mission of schooling will
help bring service-learning to the forefront as a method to
develop strong democratic citizens.
This advocacy group also needs to focus on convincing
policy makers to employ multiple measures to determine
the success of students, teachers, or schools. Informal
teacher assessments, portfolios, and community impact
measures should be used in tandem with standardized tests
to determine the effectiveness of our education.
Bottom up strategies
Students and their parents in K-12 schools who have
experienced the benefits of service-learning need to
advocate for its use with local school boards and school
administrators. Teacher candidates who recognize the
potential of service-learning should be vocal about their
expectations for service-learning experiences and training
in the use of service-learning as a pedagogy when they
select a teacher preparation program. K-12 administrators
and teachers should expect new hires to come with
knowledge and experience with service-learning.
Higher education institutions that prepare administrators
for K-12 schools need to be sure their graduates understand
what service-learning is, how it can benefit all students and
communities, and what they need to do as administrators
to facilitate successful service-learning at the building and
district level.
Teacher educators and those who conduct research
on teacher education can support service-learning by
conducting studies that demonstrate the impacts of
service-learning participation on K-12 students, teacher
candidates, and communities. Research is also needed to
help determine the best methods to implement servicelearning
in teacher education, and how to institutionalize it
to ensure its sustainability in a teacher education program.
Outside in strategies
Teacher education is a complex undertaking that involves
numerous stakeholders, including K-12 schools, teachers,
administrators, districts, institutions of higher education
that have teacher preparation programs, state departments
of education, national accreditation agencies, national
professional organizations, and the U.S. Department
of Education, among others. Service-learning is also
complex and involves a wide variety of stakeholders.
To make changes in both these areas is going to require
systems thinking that will necessitate bringing together
representatives of all the groups listed above. The
Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS)
must work in close collaboration with the U.S. Department
of Education (USDoE), NCATE, AACTE, and other
organizations to develop the will and specific plans to
support the integration of service-learning into teacher
preparation programs. In the past, service-learning has been
seen by too many educators as a “nice” add-on activity that
might do good but was a distraction from the real work of
schools. This understanding and attitude must be changed
at all levels, ranging from the CNCS and USDoE to local
elementary schools and colleges of education.
One way to begin this process is to establish an Office of
Service-Learning or Community-Engaged Learning in
the USDoE. Another approach is to revive the CHESP
grants—funds from the CNCS that required K-12,
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