Make It Last Forever: The Institutionalization of Service Learning in America

This study clarifies that infusing service-learning into the educational system is a formal and organized process, the components of which can be identified, ranked, and supported. The 24 institutionalization categories in the report demonstrate the complexity of facilitating systemic change; the identification of 261 specific strategies used by schools, districts, and states suggest that an infinite number of combinations of approaches are possible. This diversity of approaches indicates that while there is no blueprint for service-learning institutionalizations, there are ways to prioritize areas of focus according to how each strategy leverages change within the system.