Investment Prospectus: Strengthening Education and Democracy through Service-Learning, (An)

The Service-Learning Leaders Circle, a newly organized consortium of service-learning organizations, is mobilizing educational, policy, youth development, philanthropic, and corporate leaders to take service-learning into the mainstream of American public education, in both school and out-of-school settings. Taking the long view, this work will be directed towards institutionalizing service-learning so that it is an essential element of every American student's educational experience. The Service-Learning Leaders Circle is committed to ensuring that service-learning will be embraced by policymakers and leaders as central to schooling, by teachers as an essential pedagogy, by the community as deep collaboration with schools, by parents as a powerful support for student learning, by funders as purposeful and fundamental investments, and by other educating institutions (youth and after school programs, for instance) as a core part of every young person's education. This document highlights the history of service-learning, practice standards, scholarly journals, professional education venues, research agendas, leadership networks, national conferences, and current challenges, and presents a collective action plan for making service-learning an integral part of the educational system.