MAKE IT LAST FOREVER: THE ... - National Service Resource Center

service-learning attained its proper place among the numerous educational reform strategies that have been sweeping the nation for the
past 30 years.
During the past decade in particular, with more and more educators gaining multiple years of experience in utilizing the
approach, it is widely believed by most experts in the field that the quality of service-learning projects is steadily improving. In
addition, many initiatives have been consistently funded, some for 6 years (or more).
Given its increasing acceptance within American schools, and the continuing recognition of leader schools by the Corporation
for National Service, it is important to look at the strategies that educators have used - at the school, district, and state levels - to try to
make service-learning a permanent pedagogical approach. For should the day arrive when federal funding for service-learning
disappears, those who have infused service-learning into the normal practice of teaching and learning will not miss a beat, and might
continue to utilize the strategy in perpetuity.
But institutionalizing any practice, in teaching or other areas, does not often happen easily or quickly. The intertia of systems
is great, and the process of facilitating reform is often slow. Nevertheless, many schools, districts, and states have indeed had success
in incorporating service-learning into their system. The question is, “How did they do it?”. More specifically, given the general sense
that the struggle still exists, “How are they doing it?” might be a more appropriate question.
Educators have taken diverse, and often very creative, approaches. Some of the unique strategies, as well as the more common
successful ones, deserve to be highlighted for the purpose of possible replication. Anyone who has an interest in advocating for the
continued expansion and acceptance of service-learning will need to understand the complexity of creating change in the educational
system and how many ways there are to facilitate this change. This research elucidates that some strategies are clearly more
successful and leveraged than others, though this is not to say that there is a blueprint approach to service-learning institutionalization.
The unique circumstances of every state, district, and school must obviously be taken into account when considering the use of any
strategy for change. Nevertheless, the study aims to provide change agents with the resources they need to make service-learning a
permanent part of education.
Research Methodology
This study is the result of a 10-month National Service Fellowship funded by the Corporation for National Service. The
process of assembling the findings herein consisted of the following components:
(1) Selection of 20 states and over 80 districts and schools to participate in the study;
(2) Examination of prior research and commentary on institutionalization in general and how it has been linked to
service-learning and educational reform;
(3) Analysis of service-learning’s connections to existing educational reform organizations and programs;
(4) Assessment of the service-learning infrastructure in participating states;
(5) Interviews with providers, conducted from October1999-May 2000, that included:
a. Analysis of the impact of Learn and Serve funding on institutionalization
b. Examination of strategies used to institutionalize service-learning
c. Exploration of the linkages between service-learning and other initiatives
d. Assessment of links to curricula and educational standards
e. Assessment of the service-learning policies, structures, decision-making processes, leadership, collaboration,
and continuous improvement measures used to infuse service-learning into the educational system
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