Ninety-seven percent of seniors in Pawtucket, Rhode Island's Shea High School’s Government and Public Administration Academy earned a high school diploma this past June.  Let’s say it again – this program, a specialized Academy operating within one of the most diverse high schools in Rhode Island, had a 97% graduation rate this year.  Compare this to the overall graduation rate at Shea (59.1%) or the state as a whole (76.9%) for 2011, and you can’t help but be impressed.  To top it off, all of the Academy’s graduating seniors were accepted to 2- or 4-year college for Fall 2011. 

Started in 2004, the Academy, a career cluster program, serves approximately 60 eleventh and twelfth grade students. The program includes intensive coursework, a government or public administration-related internship experience, classes with Roger Williams University (RWU) Public Administration faculty, and large group service-learning projects.  This year’s group project teamed Academy students with RWU and the Rhode Island chapter of the American Society for Public Administration (RIASPA) to organize RIASPA’s annual conference.  With Academy students in the lead, this year’s conference was the most successful in the Association’s history.

In nearby Providence, we find another remarkable story.  Students for Change: Using Social Entrepreneurship to Access Change in Our Communities is a partnership among Trinity Academy for Performing Arts (TAPA), a brand new charter school located on Providence’s south side, Amos House,  a community agency that provides direct services for those facing poverty and homelessness in Rhode Island, and Johnson & Wales University(JWU).  With assistance and mentoring from JWU students, Amos House staff and community volunteers, thirty-four 7th grade TAPA students developed a design and educational message for their social venture – an eco-friendly, aluminum water bottle.  Amos House will sell the student-designed bottle at their Friendship Café with proceeds going to support the agency’s work.  These 7th grade budding social entrepreneurs used their emerging skills and knowledge in math, social studies and design to provide valuable service to others in their own community.

What Makes These Initiatives So Successful? 
 “Service-learning is the engine….Service-learning will continue to be part of our program because our data says that it improves graduation, attendance and provides for student success in higher education.”  - Mike Connolly, Applied Learning Coordinator, Pawtucket School Department

Service-learning – linking student-led community service with academic learning – may be the “engine” driving the efforts in Providence and Pawtucket, but there are at least three important features these programs share that have been critical to their success.

Meeting “Real” Community Needs 
 The K-12 and college students involved in Shea’s Academy and at TAPA are engaged in service that is both meaningful and “real.”  Students are seen as important community assets helping to find creative and effective solutions to challenges in their community.

JWU faculty member and community activist Peter Bortolotti sees community involvement of TAPA and JWU students as absolutely critical.  “Our idea is to create a web of connections to support a vibrant, healthy, growing community.  Student involvement and social entrepreneurship from TAPA as well as from Johnson & Wales are important components of the community development work underway on the south side of Providence.”

Similarly, Mike Connolly, Coordinator of Applied Learning for Pawtucket Public Schools, and Dr. Michael Hall, RWU Associate Professor and Director of the Master’s Program in Public Administration, share a big vision.  Their hope is that the Academy will graduate an increasing number of students who can contribute to the Rhode Island economy as well as to their community, and ultimately, make much needed improvements to how government works for its citizens.   

These adults have a vision of community change and their students – K-12 and college students alike – play a central role in making change happen with and in the community. The work is real and needed. As a result, the students are motivated, engaged, and committed because they know that what they are doing really matters.

Promoting College Access And Success For K-12 & College Students
A recent paper commissioned by Campus Compact concluded, “quality civic engagement efforts can enhance academic success among both current college students and K-12 students who will make up tomorrow’s college population”(Cress et al., 2010, p. 21).  Shea’s Academy program and TAPA offer two excellent examples of how this is happening on the ground.

The K-12 students have clearly benefited from the connection with college students and faculty.  At TAPA, the 7th graders spent time every week learning with and from JWU students in Professor Mari Nardolillo-Dias’ psychology class.  This experience exposed the 7th graders to the array of possibilities that college can offer them.

For Shea’s Academy, not only are an incredibly high number of students attending college, but also both Hall and Connolly believe these students are well-prepared to succeed in college.  As part of the program, Academy students attend college classes with college students.  Each Academy student is also required to prepare a portfolio of work that is reviewed by Hall for college credit worthiness.  And, adds Dr. Hall, because of the internship and service-learning experiences built into the Academy, “the Shea students learn time management and other basic skills needed for college success.”

It turns out that partnering college students with K-12 students holds great benefit for college students as well.  In fact, the Compact paper suggests that “these programs may have an even stronger effect on the success of students already in college, since civic and service work has been found to bolster their commitment to attaining a degree” (Cress et al., 2010, p. 13). 

“Yes,” says Dr. Hall, “The RWU students do get a lot out of their experience with the Academy students.  RWU students see diversity in the classroom and what that really means.  They were impressed with the high school students and respected their work ethic.”  Deirdre Newbold, Service-Learning Coordinator in the JWU Feinstein Community Service Center concurs.  “Working with the TAPA students was a great learning experience for Johnson & Wales students.  It really helped the students think more broadly about how they can be of service.”

Linking Service-Learning To Career & Workforce Preparation 
There is solid evidence that engaging PK-16 students in high quality service-learning experiences can have a powerful impact on students’ academic, civic and social growth.   Shea, TAPA and their partners have taken this notion a giant step further – linking service-learning to career and workforce preparation - to benefit both the K-12 and college students involved.

According to Dr. Richard Battistoni and Dr. Nicholas Longo, Providence College faculty members who explored the connections between career preparation and service-learning at the college level in a white paper commissioned by Massachusetts Campus Compact, these Rhode Island programs may be on to something significant.  “Service and community-based learning done in the context of addressing important public problems can alert students – who see themselves as future professionals – to the public and policy dimensions of both their work and their civic lives” (Battistoni &Longo, p. 9).

This is exactly what is happening in the TAPA and Shea Academy partnerships.  According to JWU’s Newbold, “For the JWU students, this project with the TAPA students showed the multiple ways that they can help in the community.  We want to find ways for our students to put the career skills that they are developing at JWU to work helping in the community.”

Battistoni and Longo’s thinking about these connections, though initially geared to colleges, resonates at the K-12 level as well.  Shea’s Academy curriculum, as well as TAPA’s social entrepreneurship focus, offer great examples of how to effectively link community service and community engagement to career exploration and skill building. Because of this link, these middle and high schools students are developing job-specific skills such as graphic design or census-taking (in the case of Shea this even includes high schoolers gaining job certification in particular areas) as well as “soft” skills, what some call  “21st Century” skills, including critical thinking, problem solving, communication, information literacy, and teamwork.

TAPA and Shea are doing exactly what Battistoni and Longo suggested in their investigation – helping students experience the possibilities for how they can use their skills and knowledge to be active citizens and contributing professionals in their community. 

Invest Time and Resources to Build Strong Cross-Sector Partnerships
Investing time and resources necessary to develop and maintain strong, effective, cross-sector partnerships has been a major factor in the success of these initiatives.  JWU’s Newbold put it best:  “It is not easy. But it is worth it.  Overall, the project went remarkably well and there is no doubt that the TAPA students learned a lot, the JWU students learned a lot, and Amos House truly benefited from the work of the partnership.”     

The partnership Newbold refers to did not materialize overnight.  TAPA and Johnson & Wales University had a well-established relationship in place well before this project.  In fact, several JWU departments were involved in the planning process for TAPA, providing volunteers to help launch the charter school including creation of a logo, readying the space for student occupancy, marketing the school for potential students, and working on fundraising.  Partnering with Amos House to implement this project was also critical to its success.  Steve Olsen, TAPA Head of School, explains the central role that Amos House played in the learning process:

“When working with adolescents it is essential to create personal connections to ensure learning.  The most powerful moment for our students was the panel of current and past Amos house residents.  To see the homeless as 3-dimensional individuals with unique stories allowed the students to make a social connection and understand the depth of this issue.”

Similarly, the partnership between Shea High School and Roger Williams University has been an important anchor for both institutions.  RWU has clearly helped guide and support the Academy’s curriculum and approach.  The Academy’s involvement with RWU has, in turn, helped support the growth and development of RWU’s public administration program as well as the growth of the RIASPA.

Imagine What Rhode Island PK-16 Students Could Accomplish…
These two innovative service-learning projects represent some of the best work being done in Rhode Island to address pressing challenges in our schools and communities.  The potential for partnerships like these to make a real impact in our schools and communities is enormous.  As one partner in these efforts reflected, “it was not perfect but it sure was a powerful experience, a powerful pilot project.” 

If pilot projects – first time efforts – can be this successful, just imagine what the potential is for Rhode Island PK-16 students, schools and communities when partnerships like these are supported and expanded to reach their full potential.

 
The projects highlighted in this article as well as the writing of this feature for the web were supported by Rhode Island Campus Compact with funding from Learn and Serve America.  Special thanks to all who contributed their time and expertise to the development of this article.                                                
- Jill Glickman, Lead Consultant, RI PK-16 Service-Learning Project

End Notes:
Cress, C.M., Burack D., Giles, D.E., Elkins, J. & Stevens, M. Carnes. (2010). A Promising Connection: Increasing College Access and Success through Civic Engagement.  Boston, MA: Campus Compact. Retrieved July 6, 2011 from http://www.compact.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/A-Promising-Connection-corrected.pdf.

Battistoni, R. M. and Longo, N.V. (2006). Connecting Workforce Development and Civic Engagement: Higher Education as Public Good and Private Gain. Danvers, MA: North Shore Community College.  Retrieved on July 6, 2011 from http://www.northshore.edu/ppi/pdf/wp_workforce_development.pdf



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