"One is not born into the world to do everything but to do something."   Henry David Thoreau         Training Modules   Benefits of Service Learning Initiation of a Service Learning Project Implementation of a Service Learning Project Reflection and Service Learning Assessment and Service Learning Challenges and Advice in Service Learning North Carolina Graduation Project

NC Social Studies              Standard Course of Study    K-12 Skills in the Social Studies World History Civics and Economics United States History

   Introduction

Because of the open-ended nature of service learning, assessing the experience will probably be ambiguous.  All stakeholders--the student, community and teacher--should have some role in the assessment of a student's service peformance. 

i EARN-USA promotes assessment as a means for teachers to develop more complex relationships with their students.  The website states that "assessment helps students answer the questions 'Am I getting it?' and 'How am I doing?'  Assessment can help make content connections clear.  Assessment engages students directly in the evaluation of their own work.  Assessment helps teachers plan their next steps..."

However, student engagement, despite the best planned rubric, is difficult to measure and originally planned objectives may have to be revised as the service learning experience unfolds and challenges surface.  Prepare to be flexible with your assessment in such an open-ended learning environment.  

Essential Questions--Assessment

• How can teachers best assess their student's service learning project?
• How can assessment be formatively used to positively influence the direction of a service learning project?
• What role should the community play in assessing a student's service learning project?
• How can students assess their own performance in a service learning project?

   Resource Links--Assessment

• Jumpstart and Service Learning      

  Jumpstart was originally founded at Yale University in 1993 as a non-profit organization focused on the public need for quality early childhood programs and the nation’s growing commitment for service education.  Jumpstart collaborated with scholars Patti Clayton and Myra Moses in developing a service learning resource guide located in section II of this website.  This guide offers a path for institutions of higher education to implement a service learning program into a wide range of disciplines.  The guide provides structure and advice in promoting the value of civic engagement, leadership and service to students.  Dr. Clayton and Dr. Moses currently direct the Center for Curricula Engagement at N.C. State University.

• Coalition of Essential Schools Northwest Service Learning Network  The CES Service Learning Network goals include implementation of service learning across all of the core disciplines. The CES Network includes hundreds of schools that reflect "personalization, democracy and equity, and intellectual vitality and excellence".  These essential schools focus on effective practices in standards-aligned interdisciplinary studies, community-based learning and performance based assessment.   This site would be an excellent resource in the understanding of each of the NC Service Learning modules.
• Colorado Department of Education-Service Learning Trail Guide   The Colorado Department of Education has approved a service learning trail guide for interested educators and students to follow.  Supported by Learn and Serve America, the Corporation for National and Community Service, and the National Youth Leadership Council, the trail guide is divided into three major components--a section devoted to research linking service learning and high performing schools, descriptions and snapshots of service learning "in action", and a resource list for starting and implementing a service learning project.
• International Education and Resource Network  iEARN-USA is a member of the International Education and Resource Network, an online K-12 non-profit network that helps young people worldwide use digital media to collaborate on educational projects.  This site provides rubrics on collaboration skills and assessments of project-based learning that may be adapted for use in assessing a service learning project.
• Learn and Serve America Clearinghouse  Learn and Serve America's National Service Learning Clearinghouse (NSLC) touts itself as "America's Most Comprehenive Service Learning Resource".  NSLC supports all levels of education interested in strengthening the relationship between communities and schools through service learning strategies.  This website shares timely service learning information, as well as, discussion lists that encourage collaboration of educators and students on the issues of service education. 

 Primary Document Connection--Assessment

When students think of assessment, they think of a graded finished product.  As an educator, you are aware of both formative and summative types of assessment in the social studies.  All assessments are informed evaluations of where one is at a given moment in time.  As such, assessments can be formatively used to sumise and change a course of direction, hopefully for the better.  There are several examples in history in support of the NC Standard Course of Study, in which people have evaluated or "graded" their position.  Use the following primary documents to reiterate that students need to heed the formative and summative assessments of their service learning projects.  In what ways is the author evaluating or assessing the current state of American society?  How does the author hope to impact the future?  In what ways is your service learning project positively impacting the community and your own learning?

• North Carolina, Views of an official and a settler, 1699, 1712
• Benjamin Franklin, "Join or Die", Pennsylvania Gazette, May 9, 1754
• Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address
  • 
• Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives
• Lewis Hine, photographs, Child Labor in America
• Martin Luther King, Jr. "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", April 16, 1963
  • 
• George W. Bush, September 20, 2001, "Address to a Joint Session of Congress" following 9/11 attacks

  North Carolina Service Learning Social Network

The NC Service Learning Social Network is designed to be an online collaborative professional learning community (PLC) for integration of service learning in the social studies.  Through forum questioning, blogs, and online shared resources, the social studies section at the Department of Public Instruction hopes that social networking makes service learning a more accessible, manageable, and integral part of the North Carolina social studies classroom. 

  Professional Development--Assessment (Available Spring 2010)