Making the Most of Your Time: Implementing the K-12 Service-Learning Standards for Quality Practice.

Abstract

wokie weah, nYlc vice president, oversees professional development, hiv/aids prevention initiatives, and new service-learning program development. a past unicef project officer for education, she has written and spoken on service-learning and diversity throughout the united states and africa. in Growing to Greatness 2007, we presented the history of the development of standards for service-learning and shared promising research-based practices to improve student outcomes. For decades, the echoes of “quality matters” were evident in many evaluations and research studies. Without fdelity to quality, service-learning does not live up to its promise of positive outcomes; but with quality, signifcant impacts on participants have been found in the areas of academic performance, civic engagement and responsibility, personal and social skills, career aspirations, reduction of risky behaviors, and more (Billig 2007; Weah 2007).