Sustaining Service-Learning in K-12 Schools

Source: RMC Research Corporation, September 2006

Introduction

Teachers in many schools have adopted service-learning as a practice for teaching something of value—be it content knowledge and skills, personal responsibility and efficacy, civic responsibility and citizenship, and/or information about potential career pathways. Research and experience have shown that teachers who use service-learning as a strategy tend to embrace it passionately, believing that it is a powerful teaching methodology that motivates students to become engaged in activities and school work and provides an experiential base upon which learning can readily occur.

How can service-learning be sustained in an educational environment that stresses accountability and evidence-based practice? The research suggests some answers. This short monograph will provide a summary of some of the research on sustainability more generally and on service-learning sustainability specifically. Readers who wish to have more information are urged to go to the specific sources that are cited.

A brief review of the sustainability literature

Sustainability is defined as the ability to maintain or increase program efforts by building constituencies; creating strong, enduring partnerships; generating and leveraging resources; and identifying and securing funding sources that are available over time.

Miles (1983) explored institutionalization of educational practices contrasting sites that had sustained or had dropped innovative practices. He concluded, "Whether or not a program becomes a durable part of the curriculum depends on teacher mastery and commitment and administrative action, as well as other factors" (p. 14). Miles identified 20 variables that allowed organizations to foster the innovation. In early stages, adoption of an innovative process started with administrative pressure, support, and assistance to new practitioners. Increased user effort led to greater commitment and technical mastery, both of which were associated with sustainability.

The model also specified an alternative path to sustainability where the administration mandated use of the innovation. This also led to increased adoption of the innovation and greater sustainability. Finally, administrators could take direct action to bring about a change in policy, altering the environment to allow for the innovation, encourage it, or require it. However, as Schneider, Brief, and Guzzo (1996) demonstrated, there is no sustained change unless there is an altered culture, psychology, or "feel" of the organization to its member (p. 7). The many changes in policy and practice accumulate to change the psychology of the organization.

Elmore (1996) suggested four factors necessary for sustainability to occur: strong norms for practice, such as those reflected in content and performance standards created by professional associations; cultures or policies that focus intrinsic motivation to engage in challenging practice; intentional strategies that allow reproduction of successes; and professional development processes that foster learning of new practices and promote incentive systems that support the learning (pp. 18–24).

Senge (1999) showed that efforts to sustain an innovative practice must address three challenges: fear and anxiety of those in the environment, the gap between the innovation's intended outcomes and the organization's typical ways of measuring results, and the tendency for change to escalate into a perceived threat. Candor and openness on the part of the innovators, evidence of success especially if the evidence is collected and disseminated by credible individuals who are not the innovators, and welcoming new practitioners help to alleviate the challenges in the initial phases. Schein (1999) also discussed the need to create a psychological "safety net" so that individuals can discuss their concerns openly. Senge (1999) pointed out that innovators often feel unappreciated and misunderstood and create a sense of "enemies" sometimes even if none exist. He showed that strategies such as mentoring, dialogue groups, communication without jargon, and connecting people through a common sense of mission help mitigate these challenges.

If the challenges are overcome, then the innovation leads to other challenges, such as leadership, large-scale diffusion, and reinvention of the organization itself. Meeting the challenges of this next phase involves either finding a way to have the innovation support the current system or forming alliances with key leaders who have the authority to redesign current structures or policies. Strategies suggested by Senge (1999, pp. 372-374) include making the leader's priorities part of the innovation, articulating the case for change in terms of observable results, or engaging in cross training and partnering with others who have not adopted the innovation.

Finally, at the stage when the innovation starts to yield tangible results, diffusing the practice becomes the challenge. The school or district readiness and capacity for change are critical factors at this stage. Communication is particularly important for this final stage: dialogue must occur at all levels, not just between administrators and innovators. Best practice and lessons learned must be captured and professional development and support systems must be easily accessed. The final stage, if successful, results in a change in organizational climate, strong leadership, and an infrastructure for support.

Light (1998) points to similar factors that influence sustainability, particularly concentrating on factors in the external environment, such as support for the innovation and degree to which there is "turbulence" in the external environment; factors in the internal environment, such as the hierarchical structure, demographics and diversity of the population in the organization, and internal "turbulence," such as high staff turnover; leadership including the leader's vision, temperament, durability, and innovation skills; and internal management systems.

Finally, no literature review would be complete without mentioning the seminal work of Rogers (1995). Rogers articulated the stages of change, and pointed out that an innovation is most likely to be sustained when there is awareness of the innovation and its positive consequences, when there are sufficient resources to sustain the change, and when the organization is able to reach a new equilibrium in which the change becomes normative.

References

Specific studies on K-12 service-learning sustainability

The W.K. Kellogg retrospective

In a study of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation service-learning grantees who received their grants from 1990-1999, RMC Research (Billig & Klute, 2002) collected data on impact and lessons learned. Statements on sustainability lessons shared by the grantees and quoted directly from the report included:

• Participants recognized that it took different skills and messages to envision and stimulate the adoption and implementation of service-learning than to sustain service-learning. Unlike earlier phases of adoption and implementation, sustainability necessitated fundraising; development of more permanent structures, such as the formulation of policy, support networks, forums for sharing; and increasingly advanced professional development. Many of these tasks required different skill sets than those possessed by the original visioning team and leaders. During the institutionalization phase, fundraising had to be separated from project direction. It was too hard to do both well, and when leaders tried to do both, neither fundraising nor project direction was as effective as when the leaders focused on one or the other.
• Retrospective participants noted the need to cultivate long-term community partnerships if institutionalization was to be achieved. Retrospective respondents said that for institutionalization to occur, they needed to carve out meaningful roles in the service-learning projects for community partners. Leaders often found multiple ways for partners to work together to maintain momentum and engender long-term commitment.
• Retrospective respondents learned that leaders needed to start working on sustainability at the beginning of a project. Respondents believed that leaders should build a marketing plan, media campaign, and business plan early in the life of the service-learning project if institutionalization was a goal. Grantees also said that institutionalization was more likely when service-learning leaders spread the word about their long-term growth plan and engendered early support among partners and potential funders. Retrospective respondents advised service-learning practitioners to attract both social capital and venture capital during the early stages of their projects.
• Institutionalization was more likely when projects found funding for a permanent staff position. According to Retrospective participants, a permanent staff position helped to institutionalize their projects. Dedicated staff, in turn, helped to keep a project on the radar screen within larger organizations.
• Retrospective respondents believed that institutionalization was more likely when the service-learning project had tangible, positive results and when it engaged in continuous improvement. For most respondents, institutionalizing service-learning meant that participation in service-learning projects had to show positive impacts on teachers and students. Project staff should track results and steadfastly work on improvement, in essence helping the project become a learning organization. Project staff should address any areas of weakness immediately by involving all stakeholders in formulating and implementing a plan for improvement.
• Service-learning was more likely to be institutionalized when service-learning practice was directly connected to educational reform. The influence of educational reform was found not only on service-learning adoption decisions, as indicated previously, but also on institutionalization of service-learning. Retrospective participants noted that the focus of educational reform changed several times during the last decade. In order to become institutionalized, service-learning practitioners had to pay attention to these reforms. Service-learning had to be seen as a key strategy for reaching valued outcomes.
• Institutionalization was more likely when support from leaders and Advisory Boards was maintained. Retrospective participants found that maintaining strong relationships with leaders and Advisory Boards, including Boards of Education was critical to sustaining service-learning. Communicating regularly, providing leaders and board members with frequent updates of progress, and inviting potential stakeholders to visit and/or become a part of the service-learning project helped to institutionalize the practice of service-learning.

For more information and/or a summary of the entire report, go to www.wkkf.org.

Learning In Deed initiative

In their publication, Learning That Lasts: How Service-Learning Can Become an Integral Part of Schools, States, and Communities (2002), the Education Commission of the States documented lessons learned from their Learning In Deed policy and practice demonstration sites. Guidance is provided with regard to leadership; curriculum, instruction, and assessment; professional development; administrative policy and support; and community involvement.

ECS advises that institutionalization is most likely to occur when there is explicit endorsement of service-learning as a "powerful strategy to implement the district's vision statement" and discusses the power of written policies and annual action plans to support the strategy. Leaders should connect service-learning with other school reforms in the district and provide opportunities for networking for leaders to remain actively engaged.

With regard to curriculum, instruction, and assessment, ECS discusses the fact that service-learning can be used as a performance assessment used to meet grade-level benchmarks and urges alignment of service-learning activities to standards. Teachers should be used as facilitators or coaches to help students connect projects to standards and become actively engaged in their learning.

Teachers are also urged to recruit and mentor their peers. Districts are advised to provide time during the school day for teachers to meet and to establish dialogue groups about teaching and learning based on data. In addition, districts should give teachers easy access to professional development and resources and create job descriptions and teacher evaluation tools that encourage teachers to use service-learning as an instructional strategy.

Finally, ECS counsels districts to give students opportunities to work with community experts and integrate volunteers into the classroom as coaches and learners.

For additional information about this resource, go to www.ecs.org.

The study of New Hampshire Learn and Serve, 1997-1999

A study of the New Hampshire Learn and Serve program grantees from 1997-1999 yielded a number of results regarding sustainability as shown by Billig (2002) in Service-Learning: Essence of the Pedagogy . In the chapter entitled, "Adoption, Implementation, and Sustainability of K-12 Service-Learning," Billig documented the stories of 11 New Hampshire sites where service-learning was linked to educational reform.

Results indicated that sites were most likely to be sustained when there was a critical mass of support, continued resources, compatibility with teaching and learning philosophy, visibility of the projects, and tangible evidence of success. Billig concluded that the following factors were most critical for service-learning to be sustained.

Strong leadership that stimulates the development of a shared vision, motivates action and allegiance to the purpose of the project, engenders a sense of community within the project, and provides continuity and growth through development and implementation of systematic succession plans;

Sufficient infrastructure and organizational development that simultaneously stresses human interdependence and autonomy, information and two-way communication systems; strong human and fiscal management; feedback loops for identifying and understanding needs and ways to improve continuously; professional development; enduring partnerships that feature mutual high regard and reciprocity; mechanisms for problem solving; and strategies for organizational development, professional growth, and recognition of benefit;

Incentives to draw people to the system and encourage them to remain in the system (as appropriate), generally through a combination of the positive interdependence, creation of social potency ("I can make a difference"), self-efficacy and organizational efficacy, the ability to see the results, feelings of satisfaction, and demonstrated records of success;

Visibility so that individuals can learn about the project, understand its purpose and benefits, and support efforts;

Development of a culture with language, symbols, rituals, and other indicators of membership;

Evidence of success that is sufficiently documented and valid, and is provided by credible outside sources; and

Sufficient funds , generally from multiple sources.

Institutionalizing service-learning: Preliminary findings form a study of Learn and Serve America

Melchior and Bailis (2002, October) made a presentation on this topic at the Second Annual International Service-Learning Research Conference, Nashville, TN.

This study was designed to examine the degree to which Learn and Serve America programs encourage the growth of service-learning in grantee institutions and their partners; the degree to which service-learning is sustained; and the kinds of strategies that are most successful in nurturing growth and sustainability in schools, community-based organizations, and institutions of higher education.

The study employed mail and telephone surveys of a stratified random sample of grantees. The sample included 198 school-based programs, 15 tribal programs, 109 higher education sites, and 70 community-based programs. A total of 222 surveys were returned. No consistent bias was found in the non-respondents.

Results indicated that 75% of the grant recipients were still conducting service-learning in their programs. Over 80% had multiple policy and institutional supports in place for service-learning to continue. About half of the sites reported growth in service-learning practice over time. Sustainability was related to prior existence of service-learning, size of initial grant, funding mechanism, continuing support from the Learn and Serve program, and number of grants. Higher education institutions were most likely to sustain service-learning with a 87% sustainability rate; community-based organizations were least likely to sustain it with a 52% sustainability rate. Only 34% were still receiving Learn and Serve funds.

For more information on the study, contact Alan Melchior, Brandeis University, Melchior@brandeis.edu.

Report on institutionalization to the Corporation for National Service

In his study entitled "Make It Last Forever: The Institutionalization of Service Learning in America," Kramer (2000) examined 80 schools and districts that had made substantial progress towards institutionalizing service-learning. The schools and districts represented a group that was highly diverse in terms of geographic location, cultural background, rural and urban circumstances, levels of state support for service-learning, and experiences and capacities.

He posed three basic questions in his research: What strategies have the states, districts, and schools used to institutionalize service-learning? What combinations of approaches seem to work most effectively towards this end? How can educators and decision makers facilitate the process of institutionalization?

The research involved more than 100 in-depth interviews with state, district, school, and nonprofit personnel engaged with the coordination of service-learning at their educational level. All participants were funded by Learn and Serve, either as a subgrantee of a state or a national direct program. The research resulted in a matrix showing 24 categories of institutionalization and 261 specific strategies used by schools, districts, and states.

The study found that the infusion of service-learning into the educational system was a formal and organized process, and the components of that process could be identified and ranked. While there was no blueprint for institutionalization, there were ways to prioritize areas of focus in relation to how each strategy leveraged change within the system. The research illustrated the fundamental importance of developing a planning process which included key stakeholders in assessing the status of each institutionalization category and developing action steps to create tangible results.

In response to the findings of the study, Kramer developed several tools for assessing and designing a process of service-learning institutionalization. These included a rubric of each category of strategies and what it might look like at each phase of institutionalization; a description of the institutionalization design process, including principles of effective design and recommendations for supporting each type of strategy; and illustrations of how categories supported the functions and were supported by other categories.

For more information on the study, contact Michael Kramer at mkramer1@aloha.net. A full copy of the report is available through the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, www.servicelearning.org.

CalServe initiative

A statewide service-learning initiative was examined in the study Service-Learning in California : A Profile of the CalServe Service-Learning Partnerships (1997-2000) by Ammon, Furco, Chi, and Middaugh (2003). The data was gathered from local evaluation reports, interview data from partnership coordinators, teachers, administrators, and community members at seven intensive evaluation sites, and researcher site visit field notes.

In the chapter entitled "Sustaining and Institutionalizing Service-Learning," the authors reported characteristics of programs that were both effective and ineffective in sustaining efforts. They found that few partnerships had a clear and compelling vision of what service-learning efforts would look like in the future. The lack of vision resulted in a scarcity of long-term funding and an inability to move beyond current activities and articulate plans for sustainability. To strengthen sites' ability to create a long-term vision for service-learning efforts, it was recommended that district income support key program personnel and core program elements, sites be given examples of successfully sustained partnerships, and that the development of a strategic plan for sustainability be part of the CalServe grants process.

The study suggested that sites needed to expand not only the quantity of their efforts but the quality as well. Most sites were focused on quantity issues (e.g., the goal of involving every student in at least one service-learning activity at each grade span). The authors stated that for efforts to be sustained over time, greater attention needed to be paid to the quality of service-learning efforts.

The study found that three features were typical of sustained partnerships:

1. Continuity of key personnel;
2. Connection of service-learning to other significant educational efforts; and
3. Focus on social issues that were relevant and important in their communities.

Key recommendations of the study were for districts to provide a financial match to support key positions and activities as part of the granting process; for sites to utilize teachers experienced in service-learning to train new teachers; and for grant monies to be used to develop formal districtwide strategic plans for sustaining and institutionalizing service-learning.

For more information, contact Andrew Furco, University of California at Berkeley , afurco@berkeley.edu.

References

© 2006 Learn and Serve America's National Service-Learning Clearinghouse.
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