Maine
From Service-Learning Wiki
In Maine, as in many states, service-learning has been an integral teaching method for some years, fostered by the nonprofit KIDS Consortium, which has been honored nationwide for its innovative approaches to service-learning and civic engagement. Increasingly, Maine students have taken service-learning projects to scale — expanding projects on gun safety, working against alcohol advertising at family-friendly events, and teaching about shaken baby syndrome.
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History
Maine's statewide service-learning initiative began in 1988, when Marvin Rosenblum founded the KIDS Consortium of Maine. Through KIDS, students gathered input, "ground-truthed" land-use studies based on aerial photos, and helped develop recommendations to communities. When Learn and Serve America funding became available in 1992, the Maine Department of Education partnered with KIDS to provide service-learning training, materials, and program coordination.
Networks of Support
The MDOE continues to work in close partnership with KIDS. KIDS conducts trainings twice a year in northern and southern Maine.The MDOE, KIDS, Maine Campus Compact, Maine Commission for Community Service, and Communities for Children (an AmeriCorps placement site) meet monthly as the Maine Service-Learning Workgroup to strategize during the school year.
Collaboration has shaped service-learning efforts within the MDOE. Maine’s Learn and Serve coordinator, Lora Downing, is a member of the Department’s Career and Technical Education Team. She serves as liaison to four of Maine’s 27 High School Career and Technical Education Regions and Centers. She is also a member of the Department’s Standards, Assessment and Regional Services Team as Maine’s Career Preparation Consultant. Service-learning is integrated throughout the academic disciplines as well as Maine’s High School Reform initiative and Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration Projects. KIDS Consortium and the Maine Department of Education worked jointly to align service-learning and Academic Standards for all eight academic content areas of state standards.
Improving Sustainability
From 1998-2002, 12 Maine school systems ratcheted up service-learning practice and policy through participation in the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Learning In Deed (LID) national service-learning demonstration program.
In the 2003-2006, Learn and Serve America K-12 School-Based Formula program, Maine’s subgrantees will partner three veteran school systems with three systems new to service-learning. Mentoring districts will receive training on how to carry out that role. Each system will create a leadership team to ensure full implementation of staff development, planning, curriculum integration, and assessment of learning according to state standards. Each sub-grantee will implement service-learning aligned with Maine’s Learning Results and will develop assessments of student learning that may become a part of each school system’s local assessment system. At year’s end, sub-grantees will hold a celebration at which students can demonstrate their achievement.
Convening and Celebrating
Each year students from across the state who have participated in service-learning projects gather at the state capitol building to share their projects with members of the state legislature. The strongest projects are officially recognized by the governor.
In 2004, the fifth annual KIDS Student Summit will brought together hundreds of students, teachers, parents and community partners from around New England. Each year, there are team-building activities, a keynote address, a celebratory dinner with entertainment, and workshops in different skill areas common to many service-learning projects.
Participating students share their work in workshops and exhibits. Each year, hundreds of students come to the State Capitol Hall of Flags to display and talk about their service-learning projects and educate legislators about their efforts. KIDS Consortium is a lead partner in a new Youth Innovation Fund initiative in Portland, Maine, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation through the National Service-Learning Partnership. YOUTHINK creates a student board to allot grants to student-developed service-learning projects.
Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine share a Corporation State Office in Concord, New Hampshire.
Evaluating Progress
In 2003, the Maine Legislature formed the Legislative Study Commission on Civic Education in Maine. The Commission administered an online survey of school systems to determine the quality and extent of practice of service-learning and civic engagement. Results will be available in 2004, and will shape recommendations to the legislature.
Policy Support
In a unanimous decision on October 10, 2007, the Maine State Board of Education voted to adopt revised content standards mandating the inclusion of service-learning in social studies curricula. The new social studies standards require that all students be able to apply “social studies processes, knowledge, and skills” in “authentic contexts.” As part of meeting this standard, students in each grade span must complete a service-learning project or civic action.
The Maine standards also require educators to increase both the reach and the complexity of service-learning experiences as students move toward graduation. Elementary school students focus on addressing a classroom or school need, while high school students focus on community, school, state, national, or international needs. In terms of service-learning complexity, elementary students must “select, plan, and participate in a civic action or service-learning project” and “reflect on the project’s civic contribution.” In contrast, high school students are asked to "select, plan, and implement a civic action or service-learning project. . . and evaluate the project’s effectiveness and civic contribution." [1]
Learn and Serve
Learn and Serve funding, which in the past had been concentrated in southern Maine, has spread throughout the state, with a focus on high-poverty areas. This is largely due to a change in the way in which grants are administered. In the past, grants had been offered on the district level, but now they are being offered directly to schools. Charlie Hartman, the Department of Education’s Director of School-Based Service-Learning, thinks this allows more schools to hear about and apply for the grants because all schools in the state are directly contacted about available funding. These efforts have led to increased funding for service-learning in alternative schools.
Youth Contributions
This section is in need of expansion. You can help by expanding it.
Examples of Quality Service-Learning
References
- ^ Maine Department of Education. (2007). Maine Learning Results: Parameters for Essential Instruction. Retrieved from http://www.maine.gov/education/lres/pei/ss102207.pdf.
- Cairn, Rich and Neal, Marybeth. 2004. "State Profiles" in Growing to Greatness 2004. St. Paul: National Youth Leadership Council.
- Schultz, Nate. 2008. "State Profiles" in Growing to Greatness 2008. St. Paul: National Youth Leadership Council.
External Links
- Learn and Serve America in Maine
- National Service in Maine (Corporation for National and Community Service)
- Maine Department of Eduation Service-Learning
- Maine Commission for Community Service
- Maine Campus Compact
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