Alabama
From Service-Learning Wiki
Alabama service-learning can be found in formal and informal education, and from pre-kindergarten through graduate school. For example, service-learning is a key implementation strategy for the state’s Environmental Education Association. The Alabama Department of Education emphasizes that service-learning can become a sustainable and effective teaching method. Recent steps by leaders in the step have helped encourage the institutionalization of service-learning and bring it to a broader education audience.
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History
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Networks of Support
Higher education institutions have implemented service-learning in many contexts, and held the first conference for service-learning in higher education in October 2007. The University of Alabama convened representatives from 22 campuses to share and learn about service-learning.
Various state-level entities — including 21st Century Schools, School Improvement, Community Education, Dependent Care Grants, Gifted and Talented, and the federally funded Title programs — are collaborating to include service-learning at statewide conferences and trainings.
A new work group at the state-level called the “Increasing the Graduation Rate Work Group” began working together in December 2007 to present a series of informational meetings state-wide to school administrators. The six meetings will present service-learning as an implementation strategy to address goals set forth in Title One and Title Two. These include provisions for professional development that address the achievement gap and further the objectives of Career and Technical Education.
Convening and Celebrating
In 2005, during the convention of Alabama educators, held annually in Mobile, a service-learning track introduced teachers to the pedagogy and to the Learn and Serve America program. Service-Learning is also featured at semi-annual trainings for the Alabama Association of Federal Education Program Administrators. Indeed, as a member of the federal program team with responsibility for the state's comprehensive school reform program, Alabama Learn and Serve Director Sherry Coleman continually promotes service-learning through the work of the Alabama Department of Education.
In September 2007 the first joint two-day training of 100 teachers and administrators was held as a collaboration of the State Offices of Learn and Serve America, Community Education and 21st Century Schools. In March 2008 a larger conference with expected participation of 500 will convene for a four-day training.
Evaluating Progress
Through 2007 there has been no measure of how many young people in Alabama are engaged in service-learning. However, this may change as the state moves to include a question on service-learning in their required school survey. Because of the potential for variability in how service-learning is defined, follow-up to further understand the nature and quality level of service-learning is planned as a way to properly interpret the findings.
Policy Support
The Alabama Board of Education includes service-learning as one of several strategies to implement the new Alabama Course of Study eighth-grade social studies standards. Locally, several Alabama school districts require a certain number of hours of volunteer service for graduation. Local programs also take responsibility for partnership development and recognition of outstanding contributions. Increasingly service-learning in Alabama is seen as a way to realize the goals of No Child Left Behind to improve the graduation rate and increase attendance. Improving Sustainability
Learn and Serve
The designated State Education Agency for Alabama is Sherry Coleman of the Alabama State Department of Education.
The state Learn and Serve office provides training on grant writing for current Learn and Serve grantees, which have enabled four of the state's sixteen current subgrantees to secure private funding. The Learn and Serve office helps subgrantees identify ways that service-learning can leverage federal funds for a range of programs. For example, 21st Century Community Learning Centers have provided funding for Learn and Serve grantees in order to help them sustain their programs.
Subgrantees support training and long-term capacity building for service-learning in other ways. For example, each month Learn and Serve presents at least one school or school district service-learning workshop. Learn and Serve subgrantees play key roles in these presentations, including helping promote models of successful implementation.
Youth Civic Contributions
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Increasingly, the objective of the Growing to Greatness project reaches beyond the limits of service-learning to document the scope, scale, and impacts of youth contributions of all kinds. The chart below offers some basic and preliminary measures of the scale of youth civic contribution.
| Alabama Indicators of Youth Contributions | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Academics [1]
K-12 Students: 741,758 | Volunteering [2]
Volunteer Rate: 28.2% | Voting [3]
Turnout (2006): 57% | |
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Examples of Quality Service-Learning
- Career Technology School (Hale County, Alabama)
- Academy for Academics and Arts (Huntsville, Alabama)
References
- Cairn, Rich, Henning, Anna, and Neal, Marybeth. 2005. "State Profiles" in Growing to Greatness 2005. St. Paul: National Youth Leadership Council.
- Schultz, Nate. 2008. "State Profiles" in Growing to Greatness 2008. St. Paul: National Youth Leadership Council.
External Links
- Alabama State Department of Education
- Learn and Serve America in Alabama
- National Service in Alabama (Corporation for National and Community Service)
- Serve Alabama
| States and Territories of the United States | |
| States | Alabama - Alaska - Arizona - Arkansas - California - Colorado - Connecticut - Delaware - Florida - Georgia - Hawaii - Idaho - Illinois - Indiana - Iowa - Kansas - Kentucky - Louisiana - Maine - Maryland - Massachusetts - Michigan - Minnesota - Mississippi - Missouri - Montana - Nebraska - Nevada - New Hampshire - New Jersey - New Mexico - New York - North Carolina - North Dakota - Ohio - Oklahoma - Oregon - Pennsylvania - Rhode Island - South Carolina - South Dakota - Tennessee - Texas - Utah - Vermont - Virginia - Washington - West Virginia - Wisconsin - Wyoming |
| Federal District | District of Columbia |
| Territories | American Samoa - Guam - Northern Mariana Islands - Puerto Rico - Virgin Islands |
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