Imagine an instructional strategy that produces the following results:

• Moderate to strong gains in student academic achievement and decreases in dropout rates. Students who experience it come to class more often, complete more classroom tasks, and take a more active role in class discussions.
• Increased ability to relate to culturally diverse groups; greater willingness to help others, to be reliable, and to accept responsibility.
• Greater likelihood of participating in political activity as an adult and development of the skills, values, and understandings necessary for committed, informed, and responsible citizenship.
• A stronger sense of community within schools and stronger connections between schools and their surrounding communities.

Sound too good to be true? As many educators have discovered, it's not. Teachers in thousands of schools across the United States have discovered the promise of service learning, an educational approach that integrates community service with academic study to enrich learning, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities. A growing body of research supports this discovery: Service learning is a powerful instructional strategy that can engage students and produce significant academic and social growth.

A recent study published by the American Youth Policy Forum, Finding Common Ground: Service Learning and Education Reform, finds that service learning is compatible with many leading comprehensive school reform models. This is good news, indeed. The U.S. Department of Education this spring estimated that there are several thousand low-performing schools scattered through- out the 50 states. Over the next several years, the stringent accountability measures contained in the newly reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act will compel many of these schools to seek out comprehensive reform strategies that have proven effective at improving student learning. At the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), we believe that service learning has the potential to revitalize the teaching and learning processes in low-performing schools and should therefore be an essential component of any school improvement effort.

All too often, teachers, administrators, and students in low-performing schools become mired in a shared sense of hopelessness. We believe that service learning has the potential to help rekindle a passion for teaching and learning, transforming the culture of despair and cynicism to a culture of hope.

According to Learning in Deed, a report from the National Commission on Service Learning, the number of schools making use of service learning has grown rapidly over the last decade; however, "the overwhelming majority of American primary and secondary students still lack the opportunity to participate in this demonstrably effective means of promoting scholarly achievement and overcoming academic and civic disengagement." As a member of the National Commission on Service Learning, I represent ASCD's belief that all children in the United States from kindergarten through high school should have the opportunity to participate in service learning. We believe that children in low-performing schools in particular stand to benefit from service learning and that their schools should be provided with the financial resources that are necessary to implement and sustain this promising instructional technique.

In recent months, the U.S. Congress has been involved in the reauthorization of the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993, the primary federal funding source for service learning. Despite the promise of this reform strategy for school improvement and a growing interest by educators, funding for this important law has not been increased since its initial passage. Consequently, many of our children, particularly those in underfunded, low-performing schools, have not had the opportunity to benefit from the powerful effects of service learning. It is our hope that Congress will remedy this situation by taking action to provide the resources that are needed to make service learning part of the educational experience of all children.

Learning in Deed can be downloaded from http://www.service-learningpartnership.org. Selections from Finding Common Ground are available at http://www.aypf.org.