Administrative Leadership for Service-Learning

Administrators have a key role to play in supporting service-learning in schools. One way we can help is to share specific examples of ways that principals and superintendents can create the conditions for service-learning to take hold and flourish.

Here are a few examples that I’ve gathered with input from colleagues around the country and that were included in Empowerment Through Leadership: Quadrant D Practices, a recent publication of the International Center for Leadership in Education. Please post your examples by commenting on this blog so we can continue to add to the list!

• Integrate service-learning into the NCLB school site plan. At Rocklin Elementary School in Rocklin, California, for example, the school site plan includes service-learning as an instructional strategy for improving test results in mathematics and language arts and for supporting students who are below grade level through extended day activities and clubs.
• Require a service-learning project as an activity for a professional learning community (PLC). Administrators for Maine’s Mount Desert Island High School supported English Language Arts and Social Studies teachers as they collaborated for a year to create a new Global Literacy course, that includes service-learning, as a requirement for all 9th graders.
• Incorporate service-learning into partnerships with nonprofits, agencies, and businesses to provide opportunities for students to serve. At Quest High School in Humble, Texas, such partnerships take learning into the community by allowing all students weekly service opportunities at local agencies and nonprofits.
• Make service-learning a part of the district or campus professional development plan. This might involve bringing in a trainer from the Service-Learning Providers Network (www.slprovidersnetwork.org), having a lead teacher present to others, or structuring time for service-learning strategies in other workshops.
• Invite key teachers to participate in service-learning professional development. At Ryland Heights Elementary School in Northern Kentucky, principal Cathy Barwell purposefully invited a few master teachers to a workshop in service-learning. As she notes, “What began as a few excited teachers engaging their classes in service learning projects turned into a staff that has had 100% student and teacher participation in service learning activities for the last four years.”
• Incorporate service-learning into culminating projects. At Ridgefield High School in Ridgefield, Washington, students must complete a 30-hour project to graduate, write a 10-page paper, and submit logs and reflective writing in a service project portfolio.
• Leverage resources to help teachers learn with and from each other. At Amundsen High School in Chicago, Illinois, teachers in the small learning community received support to create a service-learning website that helped them integrate service-learning into their curriculum.
• Recognize principals, teachers, and students for their accomplishments with service-learning. In San Diego Unified School District, students who participate in service learning projects/activities are also eligible to receive service learning recognition on their report cards.
• Purchase practical resources for teachers such as The Complete Guide to Service-Learning by Cathryn Berger Kaye, which provides a wealth of tools to engage students in civic responsibility, academic curriculum, and social action and includes a blueprint for getting started with service-learning.
• Report regularly to the school board on service-learning. Greendale Schools in Greendale, Wisconsin, provides an annual report to the board on service-learning, character education, and civic engagement that summarizes progress on goals and objectives and highlights service-learning projects.
• Hire teachers with a service orientation and require new teachers to be trained in service-learning. In Hudson Public Schools in Hudson, Massachusetts, Community Service-Learning (CSL) Induction of new faculty is provided each August by the superintendent, CSL Committee Chair, CSL Director, teachers, and students who describe the methodology of service-learning and provide concrete examples.
• Distribute information sheets and pamphlets on service-learning from the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (www.servicelearning.org) to teachers, parents, and community partners.
• Develop board policies or resolutions on service-learning. In the Elk Grove Unified School District in Elk Grove, California, board policy 6142.4 (b) “encourages each student to participate in at least one age-appropriate service-learning activity at each grade span” and “encourages staff and students to collaborate with local public and nonprofit agencies in order to develop service-learning activities.”
• Create a budget line item for service-learning and identify allowable sources of funding such as Learn and Serve America, Title I, Title II, Title III, Title IV – Part B, IDEA, etc.
• Align service-learning with district goals. For example, Round Rock Independent School District, in Round Rock, Texas, is using service-learning as a strategy for the district’s dropout prevention initiative.
• Encourage positive school climates with safe and nurturing learning environments for all students through programs such as Project UNIFY, an initiative of Special Olympics funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

Submitted By: John Spence, Service-Learning Texas