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

kind of systemic change they wish to see. Nevertheless, knowledge is power, and with an understanding of the change factors, people
will have a greater capacity to influence the system in order to foster service-learning infusion.
The fact that only 50% of the participants recommended to participate in this study ultimately turned out to be models of
institutionalization is encouraging, in that there are now models to learn from in most every state; yet it is unfortunate that there are so
few models, and such slow progress in the sustainability movement. The field has much work ahead of it to make service-learning
completely accepted as a pedagogy, and this serves as a call to national experts and organizations in the field to concentrate on
supporting the strategic planning process and many of the institutionalization strategies prioritized in this study. Institutionalization
does not happen without concerted effort, and most practitioners are far too busy teaching to be addressing the educational system.
This work provides a way for people to contact one another to discuss the various approaches; perhaps this will facilitate the
replication of successful approaches throughout the country.
Research Methodology
This research consisted of interviews with state, district, school, and non-profit personnel involved with the coordination of
service-learning at their educational level. All participants are or were funded by Learn and Serve, either as a subgrantee of the state or
of a national direct program. Over 100 in-depth interviews were conducted from November, 1999 through May, 2000 with state
Learn and Serve coordinators, district superintendents and curriculum directors, school principals, teachers, other service-learning
coordinators, technical assistance providers, consultants and researchers. Of these 100 interviews, over 80 were conducted with
schools and school districts.
Study participants were selected from all five Learn and Serve regional clusters to reflect the diversity of the nation, in that
they represent:
• a cross-section of service-learning experience and capacity;
• rural and urban circumstances;
• small and large schools and districts;
• populaces of different cultural backgrounds;
• states with supplemental financial support and with only Learn and Serve funding;
• National Leader Schools and novice practitioners;
• Learning In Deed initiative participants and finalists and states which did not apply for the initiative
Information was collected about their approaches to policy, training and technical assistance, youth leadership, peer mentoring,
curricular integration and links to standards, resources, organizational dynamic, partnerships. These evolved into categories within
which specific strategies fit. The information from each interview was collected using a standardized form, which facilitated future
synthesis of results in each topic area. A master list was developed which linked each school, district and state to the categories of
institutionalization strategies used successfully at that particular level.
Participants were also asked to comment on which areas they found to be most important to their process and their success.
From these subjective viewpoints, the strategy categories were prioritized into three levels: Essential, Important, and Supportive.
These distinctions are subtle, because all the categories are useful, but some do seem to have a deeper and/or broader impact than the
others. A diagram illustrating these category levels was developed, and each category was also distinguished according to how it helps
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