• Introduction
• Student Reports of School Practices to Promote Community Service
• Student Reports of Participation in Community Service and Service-Learning
• Summary
• References

Involving America's students in community service activities is one of the objectives established under the third National Education Goal for the year 2000, which seeks to prepare students for responsible citizenship. Over the past 10 years, legislative initiatives have responded to and galvanized a growing national emphasis on increasing students' involvement with their local communities and linking this service to academic study through service-learning. Examples of initiatives that have mandated support for service-learning activities in elementary and secondary schools include the National and Community Service Act of 1990, the Serve America program and the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993, and the Learn and Serve America program (Corporation for National Service 1999).

Although definitions of service-learning vary, for the purposes of this report, it is defined as "an educational activity, program, or curriculum that seeks to promote students' learning through experiences associated with volunteerism or community service" (Sheckley and Keeton 1997, 32). Proponents argue that involvement in service-learning enhances education, revitalizes communities, and teaches the importance of community participation and democratic values. The National Service-Learning Cooperative states that "service-learning is a teaching and learning method that connects meaningful community service experience with academic learning, personal growth, and civic responsibility" (Mintz and Liu 1994, 12).

Trends suggest that the percentage of American high school seniors who participated in "community affairs or voluntary work" in any given year was relatively stable from the mid-1970s through the early 1990s (Youniss and Yates 1997), and the percentage of 12- through 17-year-olds who volunteered in 1995 was similar to the percentage who volunteered in 1991 (Hodgkinson and Weitzman 1997). However, schools appear to have become more interested in promoting community service. In 1984, 27 percent of high schools offered community service opportunities to their students, and by 1999, over 80 percent of public high schools were doing so (Newmann and Rutter 1985; Skinner and Chapman 1999).

Although there are few studies of trends in service-learning based on student reports, some findings from school-level data do suggest that it has become more prevalent since the mid-1980s. In 1984, approximately 9 percent of all high schools had some form of service-learning, and in 1999, roughly 46 percent of public high schools were using at least some service-learning activities (Newmann and Rutter 1985; Skinner and Chapman 1999). Also, in 1999, 32 percent of all public schools (i.e., public schools at all levels) had service-learning. Among youth in 1996, 27 percent of students in grades 6 through 12 reported that at least part of their community service experience was incorporated into their curriculum in some way (Nolin, Chaney, and Chapman 1997). Together, these findings indicate that although America's youth are about as likely to participate in community service now as in the 1970s, schools have increasingly attempted to promote community service and to use service experiences to improve student education.

The National Household Education Surveys of 1999 (NHES:1999) and 1996 (NHES:1996) included nationally representative data on student reports of school practices, community service, and service-learning experiences at school, as well as data on student and school characteristics. Both NHES:1999 and NHES:1996 were conducted for the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Telephone interviews were conducted with 7,913 students in grades 6 through 12 (107 of whom were homeschoolers who were not included in this analysis) in 1999, and 8,043 students in grades 6 through 12 (103 of whom were homeschoolers who were not included in this analysis) in 1996. Information was also collected from parents of these student respondents. Data in this report regarding student and school characteristics are taken from these parent interviews.

In this report, data from the NHES:1996 "Youth Civic Involvement Interview" were compared to data from the NHES:1999 "Youth Interview" to estimate changes across years in student reports of school practices to promote community service, student participation in community service activities, and service-learning experiences. These data were then examined in relation to student and school characteristics, both across and within years.

In NHES:1996 and NHES:1999, students were asked whether their schools require and/or arrange community service activities (data were collected from January through early April for both administrations). Results were organized into four categories, depending on whether students attended schools that both required and arranged community service, required but did not arrange, arranged but did not require, or neither required nor arranged community service. Generally, there has been a slight but significant increase in the percentage of students in schools both requiring and arranging community service across years (table 1 and figure 1). Nineteen percent of students in 1999, compared to 16 percent of students in 1996, reported that their schools both required and arranged community service. As in 1996, 1999 results indicate that most students attend schools that arrange but do not require community service—67 percent reported that their schools only arrange community service, whereas 19 percent of students reported that their schools require and arrange community service, 12 percent reported that their schools neither require nor arrange community service, and 2 percent reported that their schools only require community service.

For both 1996 and 1999, there were differences by race/ethnicity found in reports of school practices (table 1). In 1996, Hispanic students (22 percent) were more likely than white students (15 percent) to attend schools that both require and arrange community service. By 1999, both black (22 percent) and Hispanic (28 percent) students were more likely to be in such schools than were white students (16 percent). Across years, Hispanic students were more likely to report that their schools required and arranged community service in 1999 (28 percent) than in 1996 (22 percent).

In both survey years, students in grades 6 through 8 were less likely than students in grades 9 and 10 and in grades 11 and 12 to report that their schools require and arrange community service, suggesting that high school students experienced more incentives

Figure 1.—Percent of students in grades 6 through 12 who reported various school practices to promote community service: 1996 and 1999

Table 1.—Percent of students in grades 6 through 12 who reported school practices to promote student community service, by selected student and school characteristics: 1996 and 1999

from their schools to participate than did middle school students. In 1999, the percentages of students reporting that their schools required and arranged community service were significantly higher for grade 9 and 10 students (24 percent) than for grade 11 and 12 students (20 percent).

For both 1996 and 1999, students attending church-related private schools (42 percent for both years) and nonchurch-related private schools (31 percent in 1996 and 41 percent in 1999) were more likely to say their schools required and arranged community service than students attending public schools. Still, there was a statistically significant increase across years in reports by public school students that their schools both required and arranged community service (14 percent in 1996 and 17 percent in 1999).

In NHES:1996 and NHES:1999, students were asked whether they had participated in a community service activity within the last year. If they had participated, students were then asked whether they had talked about their community service activity in class, kept a journal or written about the service activity, or received a grade based on the service activity. For the purposes of this report, participation in service-learning is defined operationally as a positive response to at least one of these three indicators.

NHES:1999 data provide mixed results with respect to fulfilling the goals of increasing participation rates in community service and service-learning. Overall student participation in community service was 52 percent in 1999, up from 49 percent in 1996 (table 2). Roughly 3 in 10 students engaged in service-learning in 1999, which was not a statistically significant change from the 27 percent who engaged in service-learning in 1996 (estimates not shown in tables). This means that in 1999 about 57 percent of students, and in 1996 about 56 percent of students, who participated in community service had at least some of their participation reflected in service-learning activities (table 3). Looking at service-learning participation as a percentage of community service participation is important since com-munity service is a prerequisite of service-learning (this approach is used throughout the remainder of the report). Of the three indicators of service-learning shown in table 3, in both 1999 and 1996, service-learning participants were more likely to say they talked about their service experience in class than to say they were required to keep a journal or write an essay for class, or to say that the service activity contributed to a class grade.

Table 2.—Percent of students in grades 6 through 12 participating in community service, by selected student, household, and school characteristics: 1996 and 1999

Table 3.—Among students in grades 6 through 12 who engaged in community service, percent participating in service-learning and the indicators of service- learning, by selected student, household, and school characteristics: 1996 and 1999

A comparison of overall participation in community service activities with school practices (for both 1996 and 1999) supports findings reported in a previous NCES report that looked only at the 1996 NHES data (Nolin, Chaney, and Chapman 1997). The 1996 and 1999 comparisons reveal that, in both years, students whose schools require and arrange or only arrange community service were more likely to participate in a community service activity than students whose schools only require or neither require nor arrange community service (table 2). It is probable that the low participation rates in community service among students whose schools only require it are due to the fact that not all students will have participated in community service within the last year, even though they might have fulfilled the requirement earlier or else planned to satisfy it later. These findings suggest that facilitation by schools is a factor in whether or not youth perform community service and also confirm the findings of Verba, Schlozman, and Brady (1995), which indicate that announcements of opportunities for participation often serve as a catalyst for volunteerism. In both years, a comparison of service-learning participation with school practices (table 3) reveals that students who attend schools that both require and arrange community service (67 percent in 1996 and 70 percent in 1999) were more likely to engage in service-learning than students who attend schools that only arrange (56 percent in 1996 and 1999) or neither require nor arrange community service (27 percent in 1996 and 34 percent in 1999). The same holds true generally for the three indicators of service-learning taken individually.

Students in grades 11 and 12 were more likely to participate in community service activities than students in grades 6 through 8 and students in grades 9 and 10, for both 1996 and 1999 (table 2). In addition, sex, linguistic, and race/ethnicity differences were found each year in reported youth participation in community service. Females were more likely than males to participate in community service, as were youth who speak mostly English at home compared to those who speak mostly another language at home. White students were more likely to participate in community service than black and Hispanic students. For 1999, black students were more likely than Hispanic students to report community service. In addition, students whose parents have higher levels of education are more likely to participate in community service than students whose parents have lower levels of education.

Though less likely than white students to participate in community service, of those students who did community service, Hispanic and black students were more likely than white students to participate in service-learning in both 1996 and 1999 (table 3). Furthermore, parents' level of education appears to be inversely associated with service-learning in that students whose parents have less education were significantly more likely to report service-learning experiences than students whose parents have higher levels of education. Results by parents' highest level of education were similar for each of the three indicators of service-learning.

For both 1996 and 1999, students in public schools (47 percent in 1996 and 50 percent in 1999) were less likely to report participation in community service than students in church-related private schools (69 percent in 1996 and 72 percent in 1999) (table 2). In 1999, students attending public schools were less likely to participate in community service than were students in private nonchurch-related schools (50 percent compared to 68 percent). In addition, students from private church-related schools were more likely than those from public schools to report service-learning experiences for both 1996 and 1999 (table 3).

Student reports of school practices indicate that a higher percentage of students were in schools that required and arranged community service in 1999 than in 1996. These reports indicate that students in grades 9 and 10, and 11 and 12 are more likely to attend schools that require and arrange community service than students in grades 6 through 8. Also, private school students are more likely to report that their schools require and arrange community service than are public school students. Public school students did, however, show an increase across years with respect to attending schools that require and arrange community service. Overall, approximately 50 percent of 6th- through 12th-grade students participated in community service and over half of these participants were engaged in service-learning in both 1999 and 1996.

Parents' highest level of education is positively associated with community service participation, whereas it is inversely associated with service-learning. With respect to race/ethnicity, white students were more likely to participate in community service, but of those students who did community service, white students were less likely than black and Hispanic students to participate in service-learning at their schools. In addition, in 1999, white students were less likely than black and Hispanic students to report that their schools both require and arrange community service. Thus, it appears that black and Hispanic students, and students whose parents have less education, are more likely to be enrolled in schools that place greater emphasis on service-learning. Future research might examine the nature of these findings.

Finally, as in 1996, the 1999 results indicate that school practices are significantly associated with community service participation rates and service-learning experiences among students. Students are more likely to have service-learning experiences if their schools both require and arrange community service. Further, students are more likely to perform community service activities when their schools require and arrange or else only arrange community service. The low participation rates in community service among students whose schools only require it may be due to the fact that not all students will have participated in community service within the last year, even though they might have fulfilled the requirement earlier or else planned to satisfy it later.