Salt Lake City: I gave the keynote luncheon address today at the International

Service-Learning Research Conference. I argued that we need research

to test whether service-learning (i.e., combinations of community service

with academic study) works as well or better than competing approaches

to civic education. The best way to prove causality is an experiment

in which students are randomly assigned to the "treatment"

(here, service-learning) or to a control group, and then the two groups

are compared. That’s the "gold standard," although there are

ways to approximate random selection if it proves to be impossible.

There has never been anything like a random experiment to test whether

(or how well) service-learning works as civic education.

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I was in New York City today, trying to help raise foundation money for a campaign to implement the recommendations of the Civic Mission of Schools report. (The last sentence contains far too many prepositions, but I’m too tired to fix it.) We are proposing that coalitions in several states would advocate policies to promote civic education. A multi-state advocacy campaign will cost a lot of money, but after today, I’m cautiously optimistic that we will be able to raise the necessary funds.

I’m in the air, en route to Colorado Springs for a conference on service-learning and cognitive science. I’ll explain what that means once I’ve participating in some sessions and understand the topic better.

Yesterday, I spoke at a conference sponsored by the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools within the US Department of Education. This is the office that has responsibility for civic education, and the assignment may be a bureaucratic accident. But it does raise the question: Is there a form of civic education that can help makes schools safer? Perhaps a standard view is that “good citizens” are those who don’t abuse drugs or act violently; thus “civic education” means reducing such antisocial personal behavior. I would like to endorse an alternative position advanced by Dr. Joel Westheimer at yesterday’s conference. Joel argues that we’ll only make schools safer by helping to create active, critical, participatory democratic citizens who strive for justice. “Justice-oriented” civic education will reduce crime because (a) teaching kids to be civic activists may steer some away from negative roles; and (b) if there is a critical mass of active citizens in a school, they may be able to address immediate causes of crime, such as a lack of after-school activities.

Clearly, creating “justice-oriented citizens” would be good even if it didn’t make schools safer. Whether there is a link between the best forms of civic education and safe schools is an empirical question. I don’t know whether it has been answered. But it is plausible to imagine that youth civic engagement would reduce crime.

I am going to give a plenary address to the annual Service-Learning Research Conference in a few weeks. (“Service-learning” means a combination of community service with academic work on the same topic: a common approach today.) I’m going to argue that research on service-learning needs to be much more tough-minded. Proponents need to show that average service-learning programs produce better outcomes over the long term than rival approaches, considering not only the benefits but also the costs (in time and money) and the risks. Such research requires random assignment of students to service-learning projects and to rival methods, and then long-term follow-up.

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I’m at the bucolic Airlie House retreat center in Northern Virginia, with a bunch of people who are trying to organize a lobbying/advocacy campaign to implement the recommendations of the Civic Mission of Schools report. My organization, CIRCLE, doesn’t do advocacy. We are a research center with a commitment to intellectual independence and to supporting a diversity of views. However, we didn’t want to issue a report and then see it sit on a shelf somewhere. Thus we helped to convene a group of practitioners who might organize themselves for advocacy. I believe they are making good progress.

After dinner, we heard from Leslie Harris, a public interest lawyer and brilliant organizer of advocacy coalitions, including the movement to pass the “E-Rate” provision (which pays to wire schools and libraries). I had suggested that she speak to the group of civic educators, because several years ago I observed her skillful work in organizing a coalition of media reform organizations. This coalition later mobilized mass opposition to the FCC’s media consolidation regulations. Tonight, she challenged leaders in civic education to develop “one big idea” that can motivate a coherent campaign. She also challenged the field the include youth in the development of its policy agenda.