Service-Learning Effective in Dropout Prevention

Service-learning is gaining momentum as a promising strategy for dropout prevention in April, with the launch of a new national campaign to keep young people in high school and the release of powerful new research that shows service-learning’s effectiveness in helping young people stay in school.

Service-learning is gaining momentum as a promising strategy for dropout prevention in April, with the launch of a new national campaign to keep young people in high school and the release of powerful new research that shows service-learning’s effectiveness in helping young people stay in school.

America’s Promise Alliance released Cities in Crisis: A Special Analytic Report on High School Graduation on April 1, a report that has inspired a national campaign to reduce high school dropout rates and prepare children for college, work, and life. The campaign will include a series of high-level Dropout Prevention summits to be held in every state and 50 communities over the next two years. America’s Promise Alliance works to ensure young people have access to what it calls the Five Promises: caring adults, safe places, a healthy start, effective education, and opportunities to help others. NYLC partners with America’s Promise Alliance to provide youths with the opportunities they need for healthy development. In Growing to Greatness 2008, Alma Powell, board chair of America’s Promise Alliance, and Marguerite Kondracke, its president and CEO, explain how service-learning supports their organization’s efforts.

On Friday, April 11, John Bridgeland, president and CEO of Civic Enterprises, spoke at The National Service-Learning Conference in Minneapolis, where he released the report Engaged for Success: Service-Learning as a Tool for High School Dropout Prevention. The report presents key findings from both primary and secondary research, including interviews with students and teachers showing that service-learning can improve aspects of education that are needed to address the dropout crisis: connection to school, attendance, engagement, student motivation, academic performance, and good behavior.

The National Youth Leadership Council, The National Dropout Prevention Center, and others in the service-learning movement welcome the growing base of support in promoting service-learning as an effective tool to keep young people engaged in school.