Service-Learning and Community Service in K-12 Public Schools

Service-learning, discussed here in terms of incorporating community service experiences into students' school work, has long been viewed as a positive education reform option. Beginning in the 1970s, educators began paying more attention to this teaching option and the 1990s saw an array of initiatives to help promote the practice. To determine how extensive the practice is, NCES conducted the first national-level study of service-learning in America's K-12 public schools in the spring of 1999. Analysis of this study reveals a number of interesting results including the fact that roughly one-third of these schools have incorporated service-learning to some extent and that most of the schools that have service-learning provide teachers some sort of support to help them integrate service into their curriculum.

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