This is one in a trio of articles that provide tried-and-tested, actionable advice for community partnerships in school. This article focuses on Service Learning. You should also check out the other articles, on internship and externship.
Community partnerships are born when a school or classroom connects with a local organization to provide meaningful, engaging, and relevant experiences for students that also serve the needs of the organization. Community partnerships are not simply or necessarily about jobs and careers—rather, they are characterized by relationships and learning opportunities: students engage with community members to do real, meaningful work.
Community partnerships offer both school and community stakeholders something valuable. Students gain real-life experience and develop opportunities for personal reflection that emphasize the relevance of academic learning while ensuring civic engagement that is focused on strengthening the community. Moreover, “research indicates that workplace learning enhances student achievement, preparation for college, attendance, and attitude, finding that students who participate in [community partnerships] are more likely to get better grades, stay in school, go directly to college, and approach life and work with a positive attitude” (National, 1999). Meanwhile, community partners gain an opportunity to introduce their work to students, increase student excitement about that work, observe student engagement and growth in the work, and mentor students who will potentially work in these professions upon their high school or college graduation.
The goal of any school-to-community program is for benefits to be reciprocal. Students gain experience, insight, confidence, and opportunities to reflect on their learning and work; the community partner, meanwhile, gains a valuable contributing member of their organization. One National Employer Leadership Council study shows that employer benefits include “reduced recruitment costs, reduced training and supervision, reduced turnover, increased retention rates, higher productivity of students and high productivity and promotion rates of school-to-work program graduates who eventually are hired compared with those of other newly hired workers” (National, 1999). Matthew’s junior internship experience offers an example of how this symbiotic relationship plays out. The student learned to transfer his skills from the classroom to the workplace, while the graphic design firm discovered an asset in someone who could produce real work for their clients.
In a community partnership, the community becomes an extension of the classroom. The New Urban High School: A Practitioner’s Guide explains community partnerships as experiences that “change the context for teaching and learning…situat[ing] students in the adult world of work and learning, confronting them with unpredictable situations, new perspectives that cut across subject matters, and invaluable lessons in dealing with people in the world.”
While community partnerships can take several forms, this article focuses on one in particular: service learning.
Service Learning
This teaching and learning strategy links meaningful community service to the curriculum (e.g., Biology, Engineering, Writing) while ensuring students’ civic engagement focuses on strengthening the community (Corporation, 2011). Its duration may vary (one day, one week, one month), and it can be immersive or episodic.
Service learning programs start best when they start small. As Emily Pilloton, Executive Director of Project H Design and author of Design Revolution, puts it, “Kids are engaged any time they can identify with the thing on a personal level.” While projects can involve the whole school, those undertaken by individual classes or even distinct grades of students make for stronger experiences. Smaller groups help students focus on establishing an intimate relationship with the community partner and developing it over the period of work.
Service learning projects require schools to have specific individuals with whom community partners can interface; community partners need at least one key point of contact. These contacts are critical for scheduling visits, establishing the flow of work, and fielding questions or concerns that arise before, during, or after the experience. This also helps spread capacity for future programs—a single point of contact who is intimately familiar with the school community can bridge and build future relationships.
Stories of Service: The HTHCV Tiny Homes ProjectClassrooms reimagined: that’s the idea at the heart of service learning projects, including one that took place in Chula Vista, California. For one year, ninth graders at High Tech High Chula Vista (HTHCV) became architects. They partnered with Space4Art, a local organization that seeks to create thriving centers where artists can live, work, and interact with each other and their community. The students’ goal was to design and ultimately build three “tiny homes” for local artists. Classroom desks became drafting tables. Students’ learning space became a vacant lot where they spent their day interfacing with the community, their clients, and each other. Students poured over art created by their clients, read and studied where each came from, and considered what inspired them. Students put this knowledge to use creating homes that reflected their clients’ needs and lifestyles. Instead of tests and quizzes, assessments took the form of blueprints and client feedback. The Tiny Homes Project encompassed three aspects of strong community partnerships. First, students recognized a need in their community. Teachers engaged their students in conversations about what was essential to the targeted community and how students could make a real impact. As one ninth grader said, “This project is bigger than us. It’s about making affordable, quality housing to keep artists in our city.” Second, the project required students to deeply connect with members of the community. As a result, students realized that this was more than a school project; they were creating real living spaces for real people. To achieve a deep understanding of their clients and appreciation of their needs, students conducted in-depth interviews with the artists. These yielded specific stories that helped students design blueprints for unique living spaces that met each artist’s individual needs. Finally, students took ownership over the project and developed skills that extend beyond the school environment. The project began at HTHCV and was originally slated to last one school year, but has since been expanded—for both the original students and the school. Students involved in the first phase of design and building have continued to work to secure funding for future building opportunities and to grow their community partnerships. Some have made this community the focal point of future projects; others chose it as the subject for their 11th grade internships and 12th grade externships. The community partnership blossomed to include work for other HTHCV students on other opportunities, like a community park. |
Teachers and schools interested in integrating a service learning component into their curriculum need to first identify which community needs can be met through student project work, and how. Students are a part of this initial conversation; this gets them immediately engaged and fosters their ownership over a community connection. Students can engage from the outset by brainstorming possible community partners, target populations, or high-profile needs.
Once needs are identified, students help articulate and design the plan to serve the community, and are fully involved in executing it. This is not a hollow activity that will be shelved once assessed or graded. According to Rob Riordan,“Internships and other forms of community work emphasize the opportunities to make authentic contributions to the community.” These contributions include creating needed products or services for community partners. One example comes from High Tech High teacher David Berggren’s class, where students worked with United Cerebral Palsy of San Diego to design assistive technology for patients. Jay Vavra and Tom Fehrenbacher, also of High Tech High, had students engage in long-term investigations, reflections, and publications about the San Diego Bay. They created field guides in which students served as researchers and contributed to the understanding of local ecosystems, and celebrated the work of local heroes. Students in other classrooms have served local health agencies as translators or designed websites for local elementary schools. “All of this,” notes Riordan, “represents work of lasting value.”
As students plan for these kinds of projects, teachers help them facilitate critique and feedback sessions with community partners to make sure they are meeting real needs. Students can use this feedback to make necessary adjustments to their work—striving for better messaging in an advertising campaign to support a local non-profit, for example, or changing the design of a remodeling project at a local community center. Through such communication and revision, students take further ownership over the project and see relationships through from start to finish.
After the project is complete and shared with the community partner, it is important to give students an opportunity to reflect on their experiences.
1. How will the project be funded? How long will funding last?
2. How long will the project take to plan, implement, and complete?
3. What expectations are there for students doing service? What expectations for hosting partners? What work will need to be done outside of the classroom? What materials are needed, and who is responsible for getting them?
4. What learning experiences will the teacher and/or school provide for the students before, during, and after the experience?
5. How will the service learning project be evaluated, and by whom?
1. Brainstorm and ideate with stakeholders, including students.
2. Survey the community to identify needs.
3. Teachers can start this work.
For example, over the summer a teacher might identify that the YMCA, an environmental organization, a local homeless shelter, or a Veteran’s group is willing to work with students. The teacher builds the relationship; then students connect in Step 3.
4. Connect with community partners or recipients of student work.
5. Work with community partner mentors to draft a plan for service.
6. Teachers facilitate this draft work, invite community partners to the classroom to serve as panelists and give feedback on the draft, and help students create a revision plan that meets the end needs of the community partner.
7. Gather feedback from community members, peers, and mentors.
8. Work with adult mentors to revise the plan.
9. Begin work.
10. Draft and revise with critical feedback from community partners, other students, and teachers.
11. Present work to community and outside adults.
12. Reflect on the work.
1. In what ways did you grow as a result of your experience?
2. What benefits did your community partner incur as a result of your project?
3. What did you learn from the experience? How does it relate to what you are studying in school?
4. What were this project’s strengths? What were its weaknesses?
5. What are some personal challenges or problems you faced during this project?
6. What advice would you give to other students for how to improve, continue, or expand the project?
Service learning opportunities are most successful when they are driven by communities’ needs and students’ interests and are fundamentally connected to the curriculum. In addition, the most powerful service learning opportunities provide multiple and meaningful opportunities for reflection and connection—throughout the project, not just at its conclusion. All of this is achieved through intentional planning and the collaboration of classroom teachers, community partners, school administration, and even parents.
Both reflection and evaluation are important components for any service learning experience. Evaluation allows participants to provide concrete feedback on what could improve the practice. Reflection allows participants to review what they learned, explore how they changed, and examine their feelings about the experience. Students, teachers, and community partners participate in reflection exercises; they also evaluate project outcomes and processes.
Corporation for National & Community Service. February 2, 2017. What is service learning?.
AmeriCorps. https://www.nationalservice.gov/.
National Employer Leadership Council. 1999. Intuitions confirmed: the bottom-line return on school-to-work investment for students and employers. http://fles.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED430083.pdf.
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