The Service-Learning Impact on Teacher Quality

A unique opportunity lies before us. Over the next few years, the United States is expected to lose more than a million teachers due to retirement. At the same time, our current system of teacher preparation and ongoing professional development is woefully inadequate to the task of preparing teachers to deliver 21st century skills in a global economy.

To be successful, the new teachers will need plenty of preparation, including both education in content and instruction and ongoing professional development to hone their skills. They will need to continue learning as new research on effectiveness comes to light. Our democracy needs to both attract and retain more people in teaching professions, especially those who are drawn to the science and the art of teaching. Providing a process for more teachers to learn how to successfully use service-learning can transform the teaching profession, our classrooms, and our communities.

Principals report that service-learning has a positive impact on teacher satisfaction, school climate, academic achievement, and school engagement. Teachers who use service-learning are significantly more likely to use high quality teaching strategies like cooperative learning, participate in projects integrating technology and requiring data collection, use primary resources, and make meaningful connections to the community (Billig, Jesse and Root, 2005).

The Need:

• A review of research (Furco, 2007) indicates that high quality service-learning, because of its utilization of effective, experiential learning strategies, can enhance academic outcomes in such content areas as reading, writing, mathematics, and science. A variety of studies have shown evidence of a range of achievement-related benefits from service-learning, including improved attendance, higher grade point averages, enhanced preparation for the workforce, enhanced awareness and understanding of social issues, greater motivation for learning, and heightened engagement in prosocial behaviors.

• Schools in high poverty areas are less likely to employ service-learning as a teaching strategy, yet research has shown this is a particularly effective pedagogy for use in such schools. Fewer schools serving lower-income communities offer service-learning programs (29 percent versus 36 percent), even though principals at lower-income schools place a higher value on the benefits of service-learning projects (National Youth Leadership Council, 2004).

• In Philadelphia, low socio-economic status students in service-learning classes gained more on math and science standardized tests than their nonparticipating peers. Similar results occurred in Michigan and Texas when service-learning was of high quality (Billig, 2008).

• Service-Learning can significantly reduce the achievement gap between affluent and low-income students. Low-income students who participated in service opportunities and had lengthier participation in service-learning had better school attendance and grades than low-income students who did not participate. (Scales, Roehlkepartain, Neal, Kielsmeier, & Benson, 2006).

• Scales & Roehlkepartain report evidence that service-learning may have particular educational benefits for low-income students and schools. Involvement in service appears to contribute to lessening the achievement gap, with low-income students who serve doing better academically than students who do not serve.

• A review of data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS) suggested that:
o Civic engagement activities raised the odds of graduation and improved high school students’ progress in reading, math, science and history.
o Students who participated in service-learning activities in high school were 22 percentage points more likely to graduate from college than those who did not participate.
o Students who participated in service-learning scored 6.7 percent higher in reading achievement and 5.9 percent higher in science achievement than those who did not participate in service-learning.
o Service-learning makes good teachers.

• Research demonstrates that successful teachers are those who are adequately prepared to use instructional strategies that challenge students to use higher order thinking skills, engage students in solving complex problems, probe for deeper learning, and seek opportunities for students to transfer knowledge from one context to another (Rosenshine & Furst, 1973; Darling-Hammond, Wise, & Pease, 1983; Good & Brophy, 1986; National Research Council, 1999).

• Less well-prepared teachers are less able to manage active, inquiry-oriented classrooms and more likely to resort to easier to manage strategies that rely on passive tasks and workbook activities (Carter & Doyle, 1978; Cooper & Sherk, 1989).

• Active pedagogies and inquiry-based instruction are the very methodologies that develop the 21st century skills our students need to succeed in their communities and workplace. Service-learning effectively addresses these 21st century skills, while also engaging students in their communities and meeting one of the essential, and neglected, functions of schooling: preparing students for active and effective citizenship.

• Service-learning studies have shown a large impact when done well. This pedagogy works because students are more likely to be engaged when their work is challenging, when they have some autonomy, and when they are given meaningful tasks to perform (National Research Council, 2003).

• Teachers that use service-learning in the classroom as a type of positive teaching strategy achieve better results in a variety of academic and behavioral categories than those who don’t (Billig, S. H., Root, S., & Jesse, D. (2005). The relationship between quality indicators of service-learning and student outcomes: Testing professional wisdom. In S. Root, J. Callahan, & S. H. Billig (Eds.), Advances in service-learning research: Vol. 5. Improving service-learning practice: Research on models to enhance impacts (pp. 97–115).

• Yet, according to the Corporation for National and Community Service, of the approximately 53.3 million youth in the US, only 24% of K-12 students have engaged in any kind of service-learning experience, a decline from 32% in 1999.


When teachers and administrators work in a thriving educational system, performance improves, retention is greater, and continuous improvement is evident at every level. Service-learning has been shown to have a significantly positive impact on teacher attitudes, student engagement, and overall school climate. Students’ academic performance, civic engagement, and social-emotional functioning will improve when teachers are equipped with the skills they need to incorporate service-learning as an effective pedagogy. Schools will become vibrant centers of learning which radiate a positive, safe, and caring environment within which all students thrive. Teachers will be more effective, challenged, and energized within their chosen profession. And most importantly, students will emerge from our schools better prepared for success in college and the workplace, skilled in 21st century skills, which will increase their competencies as global citizens who contribute meaningfully to the global economy.

~ Submitted by Teri Dary, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction