Serving Together: Higher Education Partnerships Supporting K-12 Service-Learning

The National Service-Learning Partnership and Campus Compact undertook a joint study to learn more about how institutions of higher education can advance the use and quality of service-learning in K-12 schools. This study examined what proportion of Campus Compact college and university members support K-12 service-learning; why and how they initiate partnerships with teachers, schools, or districts; how they recruit and support faculty and students for this work; and how they integrate and publicize their efforts. The study began by adding a question to the Campus Compact annual survey of 2003 and continued with a survey fielded in spring 2004. The research findings provide important new information about developing effective strategies for starting, strengthening, spreading, and sustaining partnerships that expand the breadth and depth of service-learning. This information should enlarge our understanding of how the involvement of students in higher education institutions can be elicited and structured in order to support service-learning in elementary, middle, and high schools as well as strengthen college students' service-learning experiences. This study provides a preliminary picture of why and how some campuses organize partnerships supporting K-12 students' service-learning. (authors)