Topics of Interest

Summer of Service Background
Service-Learning
At Risk Youth
Middle School
Policy and Legislation

Summer of Service Background

Learn more about the background of Summer of Service on ICP's SOS homepage.

Summer of Service: A New American Rite of Passage?

Op Ed by Shirley Sagawa and Susan Stroud originally published in Youth Today, July/August 2005

Summer of Service: A New American Rite of Passage

This report by ICP describes elements that would be common to Summer of Service programs, includes youth and community benefits that would result from these programs, and illustrates the policy implications of this initiative.

Program Parameters

The program parameters established by ICP for Summer of Service programs.

Service Learning

Bring Learning to Life Video

8-minute video on service-learning from the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse.

Impacts of Service-Learning on Participating K-12 Students

Recent research emphasizes academic, civic/citizenship, social/personal, and resilience impacts of service-learning on participating K-12 students.

Improving Outcomes for K-12 Service-Learning Participants

Several new studies have recently been completed that illuminate the characteristics of service-learning practice most closely associated with student outcomes. The studies are summarized, and a link to the full study is provided.

Service-Learning: In Action Guide

This guide, available through the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, was authored by Cathryn Berger Kaye. Teachers can use this guide to help integrate service-learning into their classrooms to strengthen and enhance academic development. This guide may also be helpful for the application of service-learning in less formal educational environments such as after-school programs and youth groups.

Reach, Teach and Engage with Service-Learning

Written by Cathryn Berger Kaye and available on the National Association of Secondary School Principals website, September 2007. An introduction to Service-Learning the Four Stages of Service-Learning.

Tips for effective service-learning projects in out-of-school time programs

Tips for turning regular service projects into service-learning projects and simple project ideas.

What is Service-Learning? A Guide for Parents

This guide is available through the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, as part of the Bringing Learning to Life Series. Written by Cathryn Berger Kaye, it provides information on the definition and benefits of service-learning, as well as practical steps that parents can take to ensure that service-learning is part of their child's education.

Youth and Communities Helping Each Other: Community-based Organizations Using Service-Learning as a Strategy During Out-of-School Time

This report by the Corporation for National Service is designed to offer community-based organizations ideas, suggestions and resources for improving or initiating service-learning programs for youth during out-of-school time. Nine programs are profiled that display nine key successful practices for service-learning programs.

Youth Voice: A Guide for Engaging Youth in Leadership and Decision-Making in Service-Learning Programs

This guide from Learn and Serve America describes the best methods for engaging youth in leadership capacities in service-learning.

At-Risk Youth

Demographic Differences in Patterns of Youth Out-of-School Time Activity Participation

This paper examines whether demographic differences exist in getting youth in the door of OST activities, as well as in the number of activities and the amount of time youth spend in activities. Results from two nationally representative datasets show that disadvantaged youth were less likely to participate in a variety of activities than their peers and that they participated in fewer activities.

Demographic Differences in Youth Out-of-School Time Participation: A Research Summary

This 2-page Research Summary synthesizes findings from two HFRP publications that examine demographic differences in children's OST participation. This summary, which contains a subset of findings contained in the Fact Sheet, presents key findings on differences in multiple dimensions of participation in a range of OST activities and among youth from varying family income levels and racial and ethnic groups.

Effective practices for engaging at-risk youth in service

This guide by Youth Service America is designed to provide an overview of the underlying theory and effective practices for engaging at-risk youth in service by examining the roles they have played - and can play - in serving their communities.

Engaged for Success: Service-Learning as a Tool for High School Dropout Prevention

This comprehensive report presents original and secondary research that shows the ability of service-learning to address some of the principle causes of dropping out. It highlights findings from a nationally representative survey of 807 high school students, including 151 at-risk students, who share their views of service-learning.Service-learning holds the potential to address each of the underlying causes of low graduation rates, while incorporating the strategies most recommended for preventing students from dropping out.

Findings From HFRP's Study of Predictors of Participation in Out-of-School Time Activities: Fact Sheet

This Fact Sheet summarizes findings and implications from HFRP's recently completed Study of Predictors of Participation in OST Activities. It examines the child, family, school, and neighborhood predictors of children's participation in OST activities, paying special attention to disadvantaged youth.

Grad Nation: A Guidebook to Help Communities Tackle The Dropout Crisis

Grad Nation is a guidebook that provides a road map to help communities tackle the dropout crisis. It is designed to help communities develop tailored plans for keeping students on track to graduate from high school, prepared for college, work and life.

Leveling the path to participation: Volunteering and Civic Engagement Among Youth From Disadvantaged Circumstances

This report is the third in the Youth Helping America Series, a series of reports based on data from the 2005 Youth Volunteering and Civic Engagement Survey, a national survey of 3,178 American youth between the ages of 12 and 18. The survey was conducted by the Corporation for National and Community Service in collaboration with the U.S. Census Bureau and the nonprofit coalition Independent Sector. The survey collected information on teen volunteering habits, experiences with school-based service-learning, and other forms of civic engagement. This report explores the attitudes and behaviors of youth from disadvantaged circumstances toward volunteering and other forms of civic engagement.

On the Frontlines of Schools: Perspectives of Teachers and Principals on the High School Dropout Problem

Teachers and administrators in public high schools recognize there is a dropout problem, know they are confronted with daunting challenges in classrooms and in schools, and express strong support for reforms to address high dropout rates.

Urban Youth in Community Service: Becoming Part of the Solution

A survey of issues, outcomes, and attitudes related to community service programs targeted at urban youth.

What Are Kids Getting Into These Days? Demographic Differences in Youth Out-of-School Time Participation

This research brief examines demographic differences in youth's OST participation rates. It first provides information on current demographic differences in OST participation rates, and then looks at whether there is any evidence that such differences have changed in recent years. The brief concludes with implications for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers.

Youth Activities, Substance Abuse and Family Income

This report finds that students from low-income families are less likely to participate in school-based, community-based, church or faith-based or related activities; however, regardless of income, those who did participate were less likely to engage in substance abuse.

Youth Out-of-School Time Participation: Multiple Risks and Developmental Differences

This paper examines whether youth who are at risk, according to child-, family-, school-, and neighborhood-level factors, are less likely to participate in out-of-school time activities, and whether the predictors depend on youth's age or socioeconomic status. Findings reveal that child- and family-level risks are most consistently related to youth's OST participation. However, these relationships emerge only in early and late adolescence, when youth have more autonomy in their decisions about non-school time use. For certain types of activities, namely those that require fees and financial commitments, contextual risks are more strongly associated with OST participation for higher SES families than for lower SES families.

Middle School

Effects of Service-Learning on Middle School Students' Social Responsibility and Academic Success

Available through the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, this article studies the effects of service-learning on 1,153 racially and socioeconomically diverse middle school students from Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Missouri.Service-learning participants and comparison groups completed fall and spring surveys that addressed social responsibility, personal development, parent involvement, engagement in schoolwork, perceived scholastic competence, responsibility for academic achievement, grade point average, student conduct in school, and goal orientation. Differences between the two groups were found on measures of self-efficacy, concern for others' welfare, pursuit of higher grades, and positive perceptions of the opportunities for personal development in schools, with service-learning being associated with higher gains in each of these areas.

Engaging middle school students in service-learning

Service-learning helps students develop academic, workforce, and citizenship skills while helping to solve local problems. This effective practice highlights service-learning at McGehee School in New Orleans, Louisiana, where all 131 students participate in service-learning as part of the regular school curriculum during grades five through eight. McGehee School was profiled in the National Service News, Issue No.159, May 27, 2002, published by the Corporation for National and Community Service.