Massachusetts
From Service-Learning Wiki
With strong Congressional leadership, Massachusetts has helped foster a nationwide culture of service and service-learning and, with the assistance of various partners from within the state, Massachusetts continues to strengthen its commitment to the pedagogy.
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History
In 1986, Springfield Mayor Richard Neal and Superintendent of Schools Thomas Donahoe established community service-learning curriculum throughout the district as a way for students to learn responsibility and necessary basic skills. In 1990, Carol Kinsley, Springfield Service-Learning Program Director, launched the Community Service-Learning Center to provide training and technical assistance to schools. Service-learning sprang up in Andover, the Thomas Jefferson Forum in Boston, and other local communities across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as the movement spread.
Senator Edward Kennedy brought Massachusetts’ experience of service-learning to the 1990 and 1993 federal legislation that created the Corporation for National and Community Service, including AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve America. The Massachusetts Service Alliance was formed in 1991 (first called the Massachusetts Youth Service Alliance) to serve as the state commission on service and volunteerism.
In 1992, the MDOE and the MSA received their first Learn and Serve America funding. From 1992-1997, these funds supported combined school-community service-learning programs across the Commonwealth. Other organizations joining the service-learning effort included the Lincoln Filene Center and the Community Service-Learning Center at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The Corporation for National and Community Service supported the latter through the National Youth Leadership Council. W.K. Kellogg Foundation-supported peer consultants also helped teachers implement service-learning.
From 1997 to 2003, MSA and Massachusetts Campus Compact matched state service-learning funds and community-based Learn and Serve to support one-year grants to after-school programs. In the current round of Community-Based Learn and Serve programs, MSA supports 17 youth councils in community-based organizations, schools, and local governments.To increase the civic engagement of young people and to give them first hand experience in identifying community needs, each youth council partners with local government to learn how decisions are made and to understand local government priorities.
Networks of Support
For the 2006-2009 Learn and Serve grant cycle, the Massachusetts Department of Education, the Massachusetts Service Alliance, Brandeis University, and Massachusetts Campus Compact have partnered together and received a competitive, school-based grant. This grant, totaling $449,999, is intended for districts working to establish a new community partnership or those planning to deepen existing partnerships.
The four partners are interested in fostering school-community partnerships that involve community partners in all aspects of the service-learning program. The goal is to push schools to engage with community partners as more than sites where students can perform service. These grants will go to at least 16 districts in Massachusetts. The Department of Education and the Massachusetts Service Alliance will provide grantees with at least six trainings focused on building stronger partnerships, high-quality service-learning, youth leadership development, and resource development. These trainings will be open to service-learning leaders throughout the state.
Governor Deval Patrick signed a bill in November 2007 that created the Commonwealth Corps, laying the foundation for community-based serving. The mission of the corps is to engage residents of all ages and backgrounds in direct service to rebuild communities.
Empowering Youth
The Massachusetts Service Alliance, with funding from Learn and Serve America, has supported over 50 Youth Councils throughout the state since 2000. In addition, the implementation plan for the competitive school-based grant focuses on youth development, engaging at-risk youths, and ensuring that young people have opportunities for leadership through their service-learning projects and elsewhere in their communities.
The Department of Education and the Massachusetts Service Alliance offered a youth-adult partnership training in spring 2007 to help school and community partners enter into a dialogue about strategies for empowering youth.
Convening and Celebrating
The Massachusetts Department of Education brings together at least 250 students, teachers, administrators, community partners, and representatives of higher education for an annual state service-learning conference. Current Learn and Serve grantees are invited to present their programs. Several sessions each year focus on how to sustain service-learning programs. The 2007 conference featured a round table with superintendents about how district leaders can better support service-learning.
MSA holds a biannual statewide conference involving full-time, school-, campus- and community-based service-learning, Senior Corps, and community volunteerism. This conference is designed to build the capacity of the service field in Massachusetts and provides resources for participants that include: sustainability, program management, performance measures, and building an active board.
Evaluating Progress
In 2000 the Massachusetts Board of Education formed the Community Service-Learning Advisory Council to provide guidance to the Board and the Department of Education on how to best employ service-learning as a strategy for improving student academic performance, personal development, and civic engagement. In 2001 the Advisory Board began surveying superintendents to uncover the prevalence of service-learning in Massachusetts. The resulting report, Fulfilling Our Civic Mission: Service-Learning in Massachusetts, was published in March 2006.[1]
The Advisory Council found that more than a third of all districts in the state reported the use of service-learning in their classrooms, and that service-learning is most often utilized as a strategy for fostering students’ sense of civic responsibility and connection to the community. The Advisory Council also identified several factors that check the rapid expansion of service-learning practice in Massachusetts: lack of funding, teacher overload, and limited professional development. The report recommends increased policy support and advocacy for service-learning, increased resources to support service-learning, increased professional support for service-learning, and a state-wide system for collecting service-learning data. The Advisory Council plans to replicate their survey of superintendents every five years.
Policy Support
Responding to an extended campaign by MSA, the Massachusetts Legislature dedicated $2.5 million per year from 1998-2002 for community service-learning. Over 120 programs in schools, higher education, and community-based organizations were funded annually.
Many districts funded by Learn and Serve Massachusetts developed advisory committees to build capacity and sustainability. In 2003, Learn and Serve Massachusetts began requiring such committees, which must develop sustainability plans. Grants have been on two-year cycles, but are shifting to one-year cycles.
Massachusetts joined Maine and Rhode Island in implementing a Learn and Serve Linking Civics, History, and Service grant that social studies teachers from all the states will use to develop civics curriculum.
Learn and Serve
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Youth Contributions
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Examples of Quality Service-Learning
- Cora Hubert Kindergarten Center (Hudson, Massachusetts)
- Newton North High School (Newton, Massachusetts)
References
- ^ Community Service-Learning Advisory council to the Massachusetts Board of Education. (2006). Fulfilling Our Civic Mission: Service-Learning In Massachusetts. Malden, MA: Massachusetts Learn and Serve.
- 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 Massachusetts
- National Service in Massachusetts (Corporation for National and Community Service)
- Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education - Service-learning
- Massachusetts Serve Alliance
- Massachusetts Campus Compact
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