Loebsack Introduces Legislation That Brings New Hope For Academic Service-Learning

Congressman Dave Loebsack today introduced legislation that will help students apply the knowledge and skills gained in the classroom to real world experiences by incorporating academic service-learning to teach curriculum. The Engaging Students Through Service-Learning Act aims to connect the classroom to the community by establishing a national center to expand opportunities for students to incorporate skills that are critical to success in the 21st century economy, such as critical thinking, problem solving and collaboration by engaging students in applying knowledge and skills learned in the classroom to solve problems in the community. The bill would also help teachers to provide students with this hands-on education.

Academic service-learning is key to addressing the most difficult problems our schools face, such as widespread lack of engagement, a widening achievement gap, soaring dropout rates, and rampant bullying. It has been found to promote behavioral and dispositional factors that mediate students’ educational success such as greater motivation for school, engagement in learning tasks, building of self-efficacy and self-esteem, and propensity to engage in pro-social behaviors. Service-learning just happens to be one of the strategies that captures the types of practices that will help our schools become more effective. Consider the following data points:

1. Students learn best when they are actively engaged in meaningful and challenging learning experiences that encourage higher order skills development, critical thinking, and problem solving;

2. Students invest themselves in learning when the educational experiences have personal meaning to students and are connected to authentic, real issues in their everyday lives;

3. Among the 33% of all students who drop out of high school each year, 69% state that they leave school because they find classroom learning uninteresting and the classroom curriculum unrelated to their real lives;

4. Research demonstrates that effective 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;

5. The key elements of effective teaching and learning include active learning, authentic experiences, opportunities for peer collaboration, student leadership and empowerment, democratic classrooms that promote positive, safe, and caring school climate, inclusive environments that address the needs of all learners, and cognitively challenging academic activities.

At its best, academic service-learning is not a standalone pedagogy. Rather, it is incorporated into the very fabric of how we "do" education, and more importantly, it is experienced as a universal strategy that benefits all students. The Engaging Students Through Service-Learning Act is an important step in achieving that vision.

Teri Dary Co-Chair NCASL