Tennessee
From Service-Learning Wiki
Tennessee, nicknamed the “Volunteer State,” launched a structured service-learning initiative following passage of the National and Community Service Act in 1993. Key strategic partnerships have enabled steady building of momentum for service-learning since the early 1990s.
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History
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Networks of Support
When the Tennessee Commission on National and Community Service (now called Volunteer Tennessee) began in 1994, it invited members of the state’s Lions Clubs to serve on the Commission Board. The Department of Education soon formed a partnership with Lions that transformed service-learning in the state. In 1995, Tennessee was one of two states to receive a Lions-Quest service-learning grant for a statewide service-learning conference and for 20 high school teams. In 2001, through a Core 4 Lions Clubs International Foundation grant, Tennessee extended the partnership with Lions, offering intensive two-day teacher trainings. To date, these trainings have engaged more than 2,000 service-learning practitioners. Lions now embrace service-learning as a state-wide emphasis and manage a Tennessee Lions Quest Advisory Council.
In 1996, the Department of Education’s Safe and Drug Free Schools program partnered with Volunteer Tennessee to train and mobilize 76 teams of high school youths. Safe and Drug Free Schools continues to emphasize service-learning as a core strategy and to support service-learning programs in the state. Safe and Drug Free Schools funding currently supports the Aspire service-learning program housed at Volunteer Tennessee. Aspire is a statewide high school leadership program that empowers youth to improve the learning climate of schools with special focus on school safety and youth norms regarding alcohol, drugs, and violence.
In 2000, the State Board of Education adopted the Success Skills through Service-Learning Curriculum Framework. Every teacher must participate in training, including service-learning to teach the class. Currently, approximately 82 schools offer this one- to three-credit service-learning course.
In 2006, Volunteer Tennessee was awarded Learn and Serve America Community-Based funding to support integration of service-learning in strong afterschool networks to further statewide meth prevention initiatives by creating anti-meth communication products for youth by youth. Several afterschool networks have infused service-learning into their afterschool programming including 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC), Lottery Education for Afterschool Programs (LEAPs), and the Child Care Resource and Referral network.
Tennessee Campus Compact was launched in March 2008 and will now provide a solid resource for increasing service-learning through the higher education programs in the state. Volunteer Tennessee also looks forward to increasing the number of College of Education students trained in service-learning.
Many schools deploy AmeriCorps members in support of service-learning, and tutoring and mentoring programs.
Evaluating Progress
Volunteer Tennessee’s Statewide Service Plan includes goals related to service-learning. The numbers of teachers trained in Lions Quest service-learning trainings is recorded at the Department of Education. An annual Character Education survey is distributed to every teacher in the state and also records which teachers are using the service-learning methodology.
Through the Learn and Serve school-based and community-based grants, two teams of professional evaluators (UT Evaluation Team from Knoxville and Dr. Molly Laird of Columbus, OH) calculate the progress of statewide service-learning programs.
Convening and Celebrating
Tennessee will co-host the 20th Annual National Service-Learning Conference in Nashville on March 18-21, 2009.
Learn and Serve funds are used to emphasize practitioner training. Sub-grantees assemble each fall for two days of training. Each spring, participants share program presentations with fellow sub-grantees, Lions and other community organizations, and state education officials. The inspirational presentations range from PowerPoint and DVD to personal testimony by students and teachers. Both community-based and also school-based Learn and Serve programs participate.
Tennessee's Aspire program gathers youth from across the state together for a three day fall training session and a spring celebration which includes service-learning presentations by each of the Aspire programs.
Policy Support
Tennessee has adopted a formal definition of service-learning that has been incorporated into policy related to program and funding management and into state academic standards. Additionally, service-learning experiences can count toward graduation requirements.
Learn and Serve
Tennessee receives three Learn and Serve grants: a school-based grant to the State Department of Education, a community-based grant to Volunteer Tennessee, and a higher education grant to Vanderbilt University. Total funding to the state in 2008 amounted to $833,132 and involved 9,222 participants through 59 subgrantees.
Nicole Cobb, Director of School Counseling at the Tennessee Department of Education, serves part-time as SEA for the state and coordinates Learn and Serve K-12 programs in the state. The Department of Education contracts with Volunteer Tennessee to administer training and technical assistance for service-learning programs. The Department of Education receives the LSA formula grant and has allocated 21 sub-grantees, while also providing some state-level supplemental funding. Several of the subgrantees have additional sub-sub-grants. Sub-grants last for three years to foster institutionalization of service-learning within schools and school districts.
Volunteer Tennessee also currently receives LSA competitive community-based funding. This funding covers subgrants to 20 afterschool program agencies. The objective of this grant is to further statewide meth prevention initiatives through service-learning by creating anti-meth communication products for youth by youth.
Learn and Serve funds also emphasize practitioner training. Sub-grantees assemble each fall for two days of training. Each spring, participants share program presentations with fellow sub-grantees, Lions and other community organizations, and state education officials. The inspirational presentations range from PowerPoint and DVD to personal testimony by students and teachers. Both community-based and school-based Learn and Serve programs participate.
Youth Contributions
Youth in Tennessee are involved in service-learning in a variety of ways, in addition to being service-learning participants. Youth in the Aspire program not only plan service-learning projects related to school climate, but they also gather twice a year for leadership training and celebration.
Volunteer Tennessee has an active youth board member and the Tennessee Service-Learning Advisory Council also has a youth representative.
Youth volunteers are being recognized in a new way this year in Tennessee. The first annual Governor Stars Awards will be presented in October. These awards enable each county in the state to recognize one outstanding youth and adult volunteer. The Governor will distribute these awards at a banquet on October 27, 2008.
Examples of Quality Service-Learning
References
- Cairn, Rich, Henning, Anna, and Neal, Marybeth. 2005. "State Profiles" in Growing to Greatness 2005. St. Paul: National Youth Leadership Council.
External Links
- Learn and Serve America in Tennessee
- National Service in Tennessee (Corporation for National and Community Service)
- Tennessee Learn and Serve
- Volunteer Tennessee
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