Service-learning opportunity for students in Baltimore County Public Schools

Yesterday I wrote about Arin Gencer's article in the Sun on service-learning.

The article has a sidebar which includes this bit:

Examples of projects tied to service-learning

• Writing a letter to a delegate or senator regarding a particular issue or piece of legislation, or advocating a community need

Which gave me an idea:

Students in Baltimore County could lobby the Maryland General Assembly to repeal the 75-hour service-learning graduation requirement. And get service-learning credits for it!

Sounds like fun to me, and for a worthy cause. Win-win!

p.s. I'm serious about this. If any high school students in the BaltoNorth area* would like to get organized and do something along these lines, send me an email. I'd be happy to help out with ideas, publicity, or introductions to some legislators in Annapolis.

*The BaltoNorth areas corresponds roughly to the districts for Dulaney High School, Loch Raven High School and Towson High School. And perhaps Pikesville High School too.

Sun article on "service learning" program in Maryland schools

Arin Gencer interviewed me for it.

Kathleen Kennedy Towsend and some school administrators defend the program in the article. I found their comments unconvincing and bland.

I'm glad Arin wrote the piece, but I was hoping that the article would dig deeper into the issues, and I was hoping that she would challenge KKT a bit more aggressively.

My original post on the topic of service learning is titled Oxymoron Squared! Mandatory volunteerism now optional in Baltimore County Public Schools. And here's my followup to it.

For more of my posts on schools, go here.

UPDATE: The Sun's dead tree headline was relatively lively and interesting: "Service-learning in classroom stirs debate". But for some reason they toned it down online to the boring: "Reflecting on service learning".

Service Learning, Part II: a response to comments on Joanne Jacobs's blog

One of Joanne Jacobs's readers, Catherine, commented on my earlier Service Learning post:

>Actually, service experiences are often
>more meaningful when tied to curriculum
>and thoughtful systematic analysis.

Catherine's assertion sounds good at first blush, but is it really true? If a student shovels a sidewalk for an elderly neighbor or delivers meals to a shut-in, does "thoughtful systematic analysis" really make the experience more meaningful? I don't think so.

Even if you accept her assertion, reality gets in the way. At BCPS, the thoughtful systematic analysis is not happening for the kids that I know:

1. In most cases, the students don't even realize that in-class projects are part of Service Learning,
2. Students don't fill out the reflection forms for in-class projects, and
3. Even if they were to fill out the forms, what teenager would do anything but roll his eyes at the questions? One example: "How did you build character from your service learning activity?"

>It’s true that service integrated into a course
>probably doesn’t fit the definition of “volunteering.”
>That’s probably why it’s called “service learning”
>instead.

"Service learning" is educational jargon. Most people outside the school system don't know the official meaning. No matter how schools define it in their manuals, parents and kids will take it to mean community service. And because there is no pay, parents and kids will call it volunteering. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend led the effort to create Maryland's service learning graduation requirement. On her own website, she does not use the term "service learning". She calls it "community service".

I wonder how she feels about the state of her brainchild now.

Here's yet more evidence that BCPS's official definition of Service Learning ("not volunteerism") contradicts the reality of the program: The Dulaney High School website encourages Service Learning students to apply for Prudential's Spirit of Community Award, a "youth recognition program based solely on volunteering".

>I think you’ve taken something out of context

I don't think I've taken anything out of context. If anyone with knowledge of the BCPS system believes that I've done so, I'm happy to listen.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In a second comment, Catherine says:

>It’s not because service learning is inherently
>bad or a waste of time, as [BaltoNorth] suggests.

I am not suggesting that service learning is inherently bad. I am suggesting that:

(1) Mandatory service learning, as implemented in Baltimore County and throughout Maryland, has not succeeded and never will.
(2) The current BCPS implementation of Service Learning does not live up to the vision of its creators. Not even close.
(3) The BCPS implementation is worse than a waste of time. By breeding disrespect and cynicism, it damages our kids in a real--if small--way.
(4) The General Assembly in Maryland should 'fess up to its mistake, eliminate the graduation requirement, and divert all Service Learning resources (a non-trivial amount that includes administrators at the state, county, high school and middle school levels) to programs that are far more worthy.

Oxymoron squared! Mandatory volunteerism now optional in Baltimore County Public Schools

If a student at Ridgely Middle School reads his report card carefully, he might well ask, "why do the Service Learning hours on my report card go up every semester even though I haven't done any community service work yet?"

The answer: Over the past decade or so, Service Learning has slowly become "infused" in the curriculum. Students get community service credits just for going to class! They don't have to leave the school or do any extra work!

This means, of course, that community service in Baltimore County Public Schools has come full circle. Before 1992, it was voluntary. Then, thanks to Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and the Maryland General Assembly, volunteering became mandatory across the state. Now, thanks to infusion, mandatory volunteerism is optional.

Lovely.

On the bright side, the only kids who need to volunteer now are the ones who actually want to do community service. But there's a dark side too. Failed programs like Service Learning look ridiculous to students, breeding disrespect for schools and cynicism about government.

UPDATE: Joanne Jacobs linked, with a great headline. There is some interesting discussion in her comments. In response to Catherine's comments I wrote this.

UPDATE: Peter Wood at the National Association of Scholars says students have another name for mandatory volunteerism: voluntyranny.

Service Learning background: the Dulaney High School website

The service learning coordinator at DHS, a school librarian, suggests that students fulfill their requirement by doing community service projects in ... the school library:



The DHS service learning web page:



The DHS Service Learning "reflection form" asks students, "How did you build character from your service activity?":

Service Learning background: Ridgely Middle School

An official student handbook describes "infusion" of Service Learning in the curriculum:

Service Learning background: "preparation, action, reflection"

Good intentions from the MSDE service learning web page:

Service-learning projects must include academic preparation, service activities, and structured reflection...

Service Learning background: Kathleen Kennedy Townsend's role in Maryland

According to her website, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend "founded the Maryland Student Service Alliance to make Maryland the first, and still only state that requires young people to engage in community service as a condition of graduation."

Service Learning background: Maryland's graduation requirement

From the MSDE website, here's the requirement:

General Instructional Programs 13A.03.02.06

D. Student Service. Students shall complete one of the following: ....

(1) seventy-five hours of student service that includes preparation, action, and reflection components and that, at the discretion of the local school system, may begin during the middle grades;
or
(2) a locally-designed program in student service that has been approved by the State Superintendent of Schools.

Service Learning background: MSDE's Maryland timeline

UPDATE: New link for the updated MSDE timeline for service learning is here]

Apparently not much of note has happened in the past five years. The last entry is from 2004:

1988 - [...] the Maryland Student Service Alliance (MSSA) is created as a public/private partnership with the State Department of Education to enhance service-learning efforts in Maryland. [...]

1990 - State funding adds full-time technical assistance capacity to MSSA staff. [...]

1992 - The State Board of Education adopts the current mandatory service requirement which becomes effective in 1993 and affects the graduating class of 1997 and beyond.

1992-93 - Considerable publicity, some of it hostile, was given to the mandatory requirement, focusing almost exclusively on the 75 hour option. Most local school boards, teachers organizations and student groups initially opposed the requirement.

1992-93 - MSSA conducts a vigorous public education campaign focusing heavily on having involved and engaged students change other students' attitudes toward the requirement. [...]

January 1993 - An effort by state legislators to overturn the Board of Education requirement is defeated. Similar efforts in later years will likewise fail.

March 1993 - All 24 school districts opt to design their own service-learning programs and submit plans to the State Superintendent. [...]

June 1997 - 42,000 Maryland public school students graduate with their service-learning requirement fulfilled. Only 49 students in the state did not graduate solely because of the service-learning graduation requirement. [...]

October 2000 - "Statewide Quality Review" initiative begins with MSSA specialists visiting every school district during the school year to monitor service-learning implementation policies and assess quality of service-learning activities. The State Board requests an annual presentation on the status of this initiative. [...]

June 2004 - The Maryland Student Service Alliance disolves as a public/private partnership between the Student Community Service Foundation, Inc. and the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE). The service-learning program is fully integrated MSDE and supported through the Youth Development Branch. The many contributions of MSSA and its staff through the years are greatly appreciated and helped make Maryland a pioneer in service-learning.