Rhode Island
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History
In 1992, Rhode Island began receiving Federal Learn and Serve funding to support school-based service-learning. Twenty-five sites received grants of $2,000 each, which were supplemented by funding from the Junior League.
In 1997, the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) began to focus larger Learn and Serve America sub-grants on fewer schools, targeting grants to improve practice. Depending upon how administrators and individual teachers approach the curriculum, each school develops its own approach to service-learning. RIDE has particularly emphasized improvement of high school programs. High school teachers who have resisted other reform initiatives have embraced service-learning.
In 1998, responding to a call for a service mandate, RIDE developed “quality indicators” for student achievement that require students to employ service-learning. The Rhode Island Legislature required that schools implement applied learning through work-based learning or community service. Therefore, all school improvement plans must include means to implement applied learning. Though the requirement applies only to high school students, all K-12 schools recognize the need to begin in the early grades to involve students in the community.
Networks of Support
In the early 1990s, Providence resident and philanthropist Alan Shawn Feinstein created the Feinstein Foundation to promote public and youth service in Rhode Island and beyond. Every high school in the state — 43 public and private schools — has received grants of $20,000 or more for service programs. Eighteen of these received separate grants of $25,000 to establish student philanthropy programs in which student boards of directors review requests from community agencies to which they award small grants. Three high schools received grants of $65,000 to restructure their curriculum around service-learning. Fifty Rhode Island public and private middle/junior high schools currently implement Feinstein Youth Hunger Brigade Projects. Tens of thousands of students in 270 Rhode Island elementary schools participate in the Good Deeds curriculum, which incorporates reflective journaling and service.
The Feinstein Foundation also gave grants for service programs to colleges and municipalities to establish or strengthen service programs so that when students graduate from high school, they find a strong infrastructure of support for service in their colleges and universities. Student Teacher Project: Rhode Island elementary education majors – who, during their student teaching experience design and teach a unit incorporating the values of caring, compassion, and brotherhood – receive a $1,000 grant, which is then awarded to the school that employs them in full time teaching positions after their graduation.
Together, these many “gifts” have helped establish a culture of service across the state. Learn and Serve America programs have been able to build upon this foundation to strengthen service-learning.
Rhode Island gained awareness of campus community service when Brown University President Howard Swearer co-founded Campus Compact in 1985, and began to enlist college and university presidents across the nation. Brown University still hosts the 900-member Campus Compact. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Rhode Island convened two Youth Service Councils that encouraged schools, government, and businesses to support an agenda of service.
Campus Compact places 150 “education award-only” AmeriCorps members in Rhode Island schools whose role is, in part, to support service-learning programs. Practicing teachers must engage in staff development as service to schools and maintain portfolios on their progress.
RIDE has maintained a broad approach to service-learning, focusing on program quality while weaving the philosophy and methods of service-learning into a range of school improvement efforts in turn, especially those linked to broader reform goals and strategies. School-to-Work, Goals 2000, and literacy programs have been particular areas of focus. Rhode Island’s state writing test includes “prompts” related to service. Learn and Serve America coordinator Lora Crowley has given 130 small grants to teachers for staff development.
Increasing Capacity
In the early 1990s, RIDE focused on publicizing service-learning and disseminating quality materials. As a small state, however, Rhode Island has never had much funding to develop an infrastructure of support for service-learning. Fortunately, as Rhode Island geared up for service-learning in the early 1990s, Carol Kinsley at the Community Service-Learning Center in Springfield, Massachusetts, provided invaluable guidance. Rhode Island has also greatly benefited by participating in conferences and trainings in neighboring states.
Currently, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maine are jointly implementing a Learn and Serve Linking Civics, History, and Service grant. Social studies teachers from all three states will develop civics curriculum. Sixty educators will gather in Maine for a week in the summer of 2004 to weave service-learning into history and civic curricula. Each state will form a study group to follow up and Rhode Island will have four sites. Each delegation will develop recommendations for state policy. Pre-service education professors will also integrate service-learning into teacher preparation courses.
Convening and Celebrating
Rhode Island had two National Service-Learning Leader Schools. The Rhode Island Secretary of State recognizes service contributions by individual students. The state hosted the National Service-Learning Conference in 2000.
Policy Support
Rhode Island has officially defined service-learning, but does not require it for high school graduation, have service-learning incorporated into state academic standards, or have a statewide program offering credit for community service, volunteering, or service-learning.
The Legislature also has created the Permanent Commission on Civic Education, which includes support for many aspects of service-learning. The Commission has increased involvement with government and business. Schools must teach the basics of civics, including the responsibilities of citizens. The Commission also sponsors an essay contest.
Learn and Serve
Rhode Island coordinates Learn and Serve activities through the Rhode Island Department of Education. Currently the state has one full-time, state-level service-learning advocate: Diana Crowley, State Service-Learning Coordinator, who serves as SEA.
As of 2008, Rhode Island receives a $225,000 Learn and Serve K-12 Competitive Grant, but has not allocated additional funding to supplement those provided by the Corporation for National and Community Service. The state reports 4,629 participants engage in service-learning program through the nine subgrantees funded by this grant.
Two higher education grants also support service-learning in the state, through Rhode Island Campus Compact and the Campus Compact national office in Providence.
Youth Contributions
This section is in need of expansion. You can help by expanding it.
Examples of Quality Service-Learning
References
- Cairn, Rich and Neal, Marybeth. 2004. "State Profiles" in Growing to Greatness 2004. St. Paul: National Youth Leadership Council.
External Links
Corporation for National and Community Service
- Learn and Serve America in Rhode Island
- National Service in Rhode Island (Corporation for National and Community Service)
Community-Based Organizations
Higher Education
- Rhode Island Campus Compact
- Campus Compact (National Office)
- Feinstein Center for Service-Learning (University of Rhode Island)
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