Student Participation in Community Service Activity / Chapter 3
Schools may engage in several activities to encourage students to participate in community service. The most direct action a school may take is to include community service participation as a requirement for graduation; this may be either a policy of an individual school or a rule set by a state for all of its public school students. Schools may also facilitate community service by either arranging or offering service activities, thus making it easier for students to become involved. A survey by Independent Sector (1996a) indicates that 93 percent of teenagers who were asked to volunteer actually did participate, compared with 24 percent of those who were not asked, lending credence to the idea that schools may have substantial influence by simply offering or arranging community service. Still another step schools may take is to incorporate community service into the school curriculum (e.g., by talking about it in class, having students write about it, or allowing the activity to contribute to a class grade), thus increasing the visibility and perhaps the perceived value of community service, as well as possibly offering rewards for service.
The great majority of students (84 percent) said their schools arranged student community service, including 16 percent who said their schools not only arranged it but also required it (figure 2). Almost all of the remaining students (14 percent of the total) reported that their schools neither arranged nor required community service. Very few students (2 percent) were in schools that required community service without also arranging it.
NOTE: Standard errors are as follows: school requires community service, 0.6; school arranges community service, 0.5; school only arranges community service, 0.7; school only requires community service, 0.2; school neither requires nor arranges student community service, 0.5; school requires and arranges student community service, 0.5.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, , National Household Education Survey, spring 1996, Youth Civic Involvement component.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- School requires School does not and arranges School only requires School only arranges require or arrange Community service community service community service community service community service participation ------------------- ---------------------- ---------------------- -------------------- Estimate s.e. Estimate s.e. Estimate s.e. Estimate s.e. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Number of students (thousands) 4,242 136 394 53 17,446 177 3,644 124 Community service participation Any participation by time of interview/1/ 56% 1.9 19% 3.9 52% 0.9 30% 1.7 Regular 30 1.6 9 2.3 27 0.7 15 1.3 1 or 2 times 27 1.6 10 3.5 25 0.8 14 1.2 Will participate later this school year/2/ 32 1.8 61 5.1 29 0.8 37 1.6 No participation this school year 11 1.0 20 4.7 19 0.6 34 1.8 Plans to participate next school year Yes 87 1.4 76 5.5 81 0.6 70 1.9 No 13 1.4 24 5.5 19 0.6 30 1.9 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1\ Data were collected from January 2, 1996, through April 13, 1996. Any student who reported participating in at least one activity more than twice is classified as a regular participant. Students may have participated in multiple activities without being classified as regular participants if no individual activity was performed regularly.
NOTE: s.e. is standard error. Numbers may not add to totals because of rounding.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, , National Household Education Survey, spring 1996, Youth Civic Involvement component.
Among those relatively few students who were at schools that required community service but did not arrange or offer it, the most common response was that students had not participated yet but they planned to later in the year (61 percent). If all of these students ultimately did participate by the end of the year (which was not certain, since the presence of a requirement did not necessarily mean the requirement had to be fulfilled in that year), the overall participation rate for that year would be better than at schools that neither required nor arranged community service (80 percent versus 66 percent), but no better than at schools that arranged service without requiring it (80 percent versus 81 percent).[7]
At least two hypotheses are available to explain how school policies affect students' participation in community service: school policies might compensate for lower motivation to participate among some students (either by forcing students to participate regardless of their motivation, or by making participation easier so that less work or initiative is required to participate), or schools might help students to overcome other barriers to participation (e.g., the student may not know how to get involved, what opportunities are available, and whom to contact). It is possible for both of these hypotheses to be true, but each might tend to support a different kind of school policy: requiring students to participate might seem most directed at compensating for lower motivation, and arranging community service might seem most directed at removing barriers to participation. Based on this logic, the fact that arranging community service appears more important than requiring it provides some evidence that students are willing to participate but that many students need help in order to participate.
Another way to examine this issue is to compare students across schools in terms of the number of hours that students devote to community service. Since schools that arranged community service generally seemed to be successful in getting additional students to participate, one can ask how those students compared to the students who probably would have participated in any case. If the students who were led to participate by the school policies had less motivation than other participants, one might expect them to participate for fewer hours. If so, schools with such policies might have a different distribution from other schools, with more students concentrated at the low end of the scale. In fact, no such pattern appeared, and the patterns of participation were much the same regardless of the school policies (table 8). For example, the percentage of students who participated for 10 or fewer hours ranged from 23 to 27 percent, and the percentage who participated for more than 80 hours ranged only from 19 to 23 percent. Thus, the school policies seemed primarily to work by lessening barriers to participation for students who were otherwise willing to participate, rather than compensating for lower motivation.
School policies also were related to students' plans for participating in community service in the next year, although the relationship was not as strong as for the same year. Students in schools that both required and arranged community service were more likely to plan to participate in the next year (87 percent) than students in schools that only arranged (without requiring) community service (81 percent), and students at both kinds of schools were more likely to participate than those in schools that neither required nor arranged community service (70 percent)[8].
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- School requires School does not and arranges School only requires School only arranges require or arrange Community service community service community service community service community service participation ------------------- --------------------- --------------------- -------------------- Estimate s.e. Estimate s.e. Estimate s.e. Estimate s.e. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Number of students (thousands) 1,253 75 34 9 4,755 137 554 47 Hours of community service since the beginning of school/1/ 10 or fewer hours 23% 2.7 (*) (*) 27% 1.6 25% 3.9 11 to 30 hours 28 3.0 (*) (*) 27 1.4 30 3.4 31 to 80 hours 26 3.0 (*) (*) 26 1.5 25 3.9 More than 80 hours 23 2.4 (*) (*) 20 1.3 19 3.5 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1\ This variable was constructed by summing all reported hours of community service activity during the current school year in which a student had participated by the time of the interview. This question was asked only of those who had participated in at least one activity on a regular basis (26 percent of 6th through 12th grade students). Additional information on this measure is provided in the section on survey methodology at the end of this report, under the heading "hours of service measure."
NOTE: s.e. is standard error. Numbers may not add to totals because of rounding. Because of the small number of cases (un weighted n=14), estimates for students in schools that only require community service are not presented but are designated by (*).
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, , National Household Education Survey, spring 1996, Youth Civic Involvement component.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- School requires and arranges School only School only School does not community requires community arranges community require or arrange Number of service service service community service Characteristic students ----------------- ----------------- ----------------- ------------------ (thousands) Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 25,726 16 0.5 2 0.2 68 0.7 14 0.5 Student's grade* 6-8 11,535 13 0.7 2 0.3 67 1.0 18 0.8 9-10 7,429 21 1.1 2 0.4 65 1.3 12 0.7 11-12 6,760 18 1.0 1 0.2 71 1.3 11 0.9 School type Public 23,343 14 0.5 2 0.2 70 0.7 15 0.5 Assigned 20,010 14 0.6 1 0.2 70 0.8 15 0.5 Chosen 3,332 18 1.5 2 0.4 67 1.8 13 1.3 Private 2,383 40 2.1 2 0.5 49 2.2 10 1.2 Church-related 1,851 42 2.3 2 0.6 46 2.4 10 1.5 Not church-related 533 31 4.0 1 0.5 60 4.3 8 2.1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*One case was coded ungraded, no equivalent. It was not included in this analysis.
NOTE: s.e. is standard error. Numbers may not add to totals because of rounding.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, , National Household Education Survey, spring 1996, Youth Civic Involvement component.
The lack of an adult participating in community service seemed to most affect the percentage of students who participated regularly. One example is among students at schools that arranged community service; if the students lived in households with a participating adult, 33 to 37 percent participated regularly, compared with only 20 to 21 percent if no adult participated in community service. By contrast, there was not much difference in the percentage who participated one or two times (e.g., 27 percent versus 22 to 26 percent).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- School requires School only School only School does not Characteristic and arranges requires community arranges community require nor arrange community service service service community service -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Estimate s.e. Estimate s.e. Estimate s.e. Estimate s.e. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Number of students (thousands) 4,242 136 394 53 17,446 177 3,644 124 No adult participated in community service Number of students (thousands) 1,932 83 225 39 8,032 151 1,752 93 Student community service participation Any participation by time of interview/1/ 47% 3.1 13% 4.7 43% 1.3 20% 2.0 Regular 21 2.0 6.0 2.6 20 1.0 10 1.6 1 or 2 times 26 2.5 8.0 4.6 22 1.1 10 1.4 Will participate later this school year2 37 2.9 59 8.5 33 1.2 34 2.5 No participation this school year 16 1.9 28 7.8 24 1 46 3 Student plans to participate next school year Yes 82 2.6 70 8.2 75 1.1 59 3.1 No 18 2.6 30 8.2 25 1.1 41 3.1 Adult participated in community service Number of students (thousands) 2,310 108 170 34 9,414 187 1,892 90 Student community service participation Any participation by time of interview/1/ 64 2.4 26 6.1 60 1.3 39 2.3 Regular 37 2.3 13 4.4 33 1.1 20 1.9 1 or 2 times 27 1.9 14 5.7 27 1 18 1.9 Will participate later this school year/2/ 29 2.1 64 6.8 26 1.1 39 2.7 No participation this school year 7 1.1 10 4.8 14 0.8 22 2.1 Student plans to participate next school year Yes 91 1.2 83 7.1 87 0.9 80 2.2 No 9 1.2 17 7.1 13 0.9 20 2.2 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1\ Data were collected from January 2, 1996, through April 13, 1996. Any student who reported participating in at least one activity more than twice is classified as a regular participant. Students may have participated in multiple activities without being classified as regular participants if no individual activity was performed regularly.
NOTE: s.e. is standard error. Numbers may not add to totals because of rounding.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, , National Household Education Survey, spring 1996, Youth Civic Involvement component.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Coefficient/1/ Standard error P-value Odds ratio/2/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Intercept -3.17** 0.157 0.0000 0.04** Student characteristics Female 0.13* 0.053 0.0128 1.14* English spoken most at home by student 0.45** 0.130 0.0009 1.57** Number of types of student activities 0.60** 0.037 0.0000 1.82** Student in grades 11 or 12 0.21** 0.066 0.0025 1.23** Student received mostly As 0.51** 0.078 0.0000 1.67** Student received mostly Bs 0.20* 0.078 0.0113 1.22* Family characteristics Adult performed community service 0.32** 0.066 0.0000 1.38** Parent/guardian had college degree or hi 0.25** 0.064 0.0002 1.28** School characteristics Church-related school 0.58** 0.137 0.0000 1.79** Other private school 0.13 0.228 0.5715 1.14 School policies School required service 0.10 0.091 0.2650 1.11 School arranged service 1.00** 0.083 0.0000 2.72** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*p<.05. **p<.01.
1\ Each category is expressed relative to an omitted category for the variable, controlling for all other variables in the model. The applicable coefficients can be summed to estimate the probability that students with certain characteristics will participate in community service. For example, for a female student who spoke English the most at home, who participated in three other types of activities, who received mostly As, who had an adult in the household who performed community service, and who fit none of these other criteria, the sum is -3.17 + .13 + .45 +3(.60) + .51 + .32 = .04. Based on these characteristics, the probability of participation is 1/(1 + e ^-.04) = .51, or 51 percent.
2\ The odds ratio can be used to estimate the change in probability of a student participating in community service. An odds ratio greater than 1 indicates that students in the indicated group were more likely to perform community service than the omitted group. More specifically, suppose a student would ordinarily have a probability of participating of 51 percent, but that student is in a school that arranges service. The student's original probability can be expressed as an odds [51/(100-51) = 51/49 = 1.04]. The odds ratio of 2.72 for schools that arrange service can be multiplied by the original odds (2.72 times 1.04 = 2.83) to estimate the revised odds that the student would participate, based on the school's policy. To express the revised odds as a probability, one can apply the formula: probability = (odds)/ (1 + odds) = 2.83/3.83 = .74. Thus, by being in a school that arranges services, the student's probability of participating would increase from 51 percent to 74 percent. The amount of the increase that is associated with the school policy varies from one student to another depending on the student's original probability of participating.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, , National Household Education Survey, spring 1996, Youth Civic Involvement component.
A common goal of encouraging community service through school policies is to turn it into a learning experience by providing a chance within the student's curriculum to reflect about the experience - also called service-learning. A majority (56 percent) of students who participated in community service reported that their schools in some way used service-learning methods by incorporating their community service into the curriculum (table 12). Nearly half (45 percent) of those students who participated in community service said they had a chance to talk about their service experience in class or in a group session with other students. Further, 23 percent said their service activity contributed to a class grade, and 17 percent said they were required to write about a service activity in a journal or essay. An estimated 7 percent said the service activity was incorporated in all three ways.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Number of students Service activity Service activity participating Talked about Required to Service activity was was in service activity write about contributed to a incorporated in incorporated in Characteristic community in class service activity class grade at least one way all three ways service ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (thousands)* Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Total 12,627 45 0.9 17 0.7 23 0.8 56 0.9 7 0.6 School practice Requires and arranges service 2,389 50 2.3 32 2.2 35 2.3 67 2.3 14 1.8 Requires service only 74 32 11.6 40 13.8 44 13.0 57 11.3 17 11.3 Arranges service only 9,087 47 1.2 14 0.8 22 1.0 56 1.2 6 0.6 Neither requires nor arranges service 1,076 21 2.6 9 1.8 6 1.4 27 2.8 3 1.2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*Numbers may not add to totals because of rounding.
NOTE: s.e. is standard error.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, , National Household Education Survey, spring 1996, Youth Civic Involvement component.
Looking at all three curriculum strategies together, students were more likely to report that at least one of the strategies was used if they were in schools that both required and arranged service than if the school only arranged service (67 percent versus 56 percent) or neither arranged nor required service (67 percent versus 27 percent). Finally, students were more likely to have the service activity incorporated into the curriculum in all three ways if they were at schools that required service (14-17 percent versus 3-6 percent).
[7] Standard errors for the combined estimates are as follows: school only requires community service, 4.7; school does not require or arrange community service, 1.8; school only arranges community service, 0.6
[8] Data are not presented in a table. Standard errors are as follows: planned participation for students in schools that require and arrange community service, 1.4; for students in schools that only arrange community service, 0.6; and for students in schools that neither require nor arrange community service, 1.9.
[9] Some measures that were related to participation when bivariate tests were performed did not show statistically significant results in the logistic regression and were dropped from the model: these were percentage of households in the respondent's ZIP code that were below poverty level and percentage of households that were owner occupied, household income, race, and the number of parents in the household. This does not mean that these factors had no impact on participation, but only that no statistically significant independent effect could be identified. The basic findings did not change when these variables were included, or when alternative forms of the model were also examined (see table 13 for the full logistic regression model). The impact of arranging community service continued to be statistically significant while the impact of requiring community service continued not to be significant if information about school type was removed from the regression, if a separate term was included to measure schools that both required community service and arranged or offered it, and if both actions were taken (i.e., excluding school type and including a separate term for schools that both required and arranged service). Statistical significance depends in part on the number of cases, and a lack of statistical significance does not necessarily mean that the policy had no impact. However, since the magnitude of the coefficient was also small compared to that for arranging community service, it appears that the policy of arranging community service had the greatest impact.
10\ A qualification that should be added is that the number of students in schools that required community service but did not arrange it was so small that this group might be combined with any of the other three groups without much impact. The important point is that these two methods of incorporating the service activity into the curriculum were more common when students were in schools that both required and arranged community service than when the schools did not require community service.
Chapter 2. Level of Participation Chapter 4. Summary and Conclusions