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Learn and Serve America impacts both the service participants and the communities they serve. Performance reviews, research, and policy analysis help develop and cultivate knowledge that enhance the overall effectiveness of Learn and Serve America and service-learning. A number of independent studies evaluating Learn and Serve America and assessing the program’s impact on the participant have been undertaken over the years. All have come to the same conclusion—Learn and Serve America has a positive impact on participants' civic attitudes and involvement in volunteer service.
Learn and Serve America Performance Report 2006-2007
 The Learn and Serve America Performance Report provides program data for those organizations that received funds from Learn and Serve America for the 2006-2007 program year.
Learn and Serve America Performance Report 2005-2006
The Learn and Serve America Performance Report provides program data for those organizations that received funds from Learn and Serve America for the 2005-2006 program year.
The Impact of Service-Learning: A Review of Current Research
Research studies of service-learning, an educational method that intentionally connects community service to classroom learning, demonstrate that service-learning programs can have positive impacts on youth in three general areas: academic engagement and achievement; civic attitudes and behaviors; and social and personal skills. The studies also demonstrate that students gain the maximum benefit when their service-learning experience includes a direct tie to the curriculum, planning and design of service projects by students, structured reflection on the service experience in the classroom, and continuity of service for at least one semester. This issue brief offers some of the most compelling evidence to date on how service-learning positively affects youth.
Youth Helping America Series
Building Active Citizens: The Role of Social Institutions in Teen Volunteering
In collaboration with the U.S. Census Bureau and the nonprofit coalition Independent Sector, the Corporation for National and Community Service in early 2005 conducted the Youth Volunteering and Civic Engagement Survey, the first major national study of volunteering by teenagers in more than a decade. The first in a series of briefs based on the survey’s data explores the state of youth volunteering and the connections between youth volunteering and the primary social institutions to which teenagers are exposed – family, schools, and religious congregation. Among other findings, the analysis shows that the state of youth volunteering is robust -- with 55% of youth participating in volunteer activities each year – and that the level of their volunteer commitment is directly related to the nature of the social institutions with which they interact.
The State Performance Report: Program Year 2002-2003 (October 1, 2002 to September 30, 2003). The Corporation for National and Community Service presents performance data on its programs annually, however, this is the first report offeringa comprehensive review of impact and performance data organized by program and state.The Corporation views this as an ongoing process of increasing the amount of transparency in our reporting of performance data, and plans to continue to work with program staff, the field, and other constituents to develop measures of performance that will continue to help us to improve the services we provide.
National Evaluation of Learn and Serve America: This evaluation report describes the results of a two-year evaluation conducted by Brandeis University and Abt Associates that examined the impacts of the Learn and Serve America programs in seventeen middle schools and high schools across the country, using a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods. The study concluded that at the end of one year of service, the program had a positive impact on participants' civic attitudes, involvement in volunteer service, educational attitudes and school performance.
K-12 Service-Learning: A Strategy for Rural Community Renewal and Revitalization: The core problem this research addresses is making an assessment of service-learning as a community development strategy, and the promise it may hold for rural communities in an age of transition.
Combining Service and Learning in Higher Education: This report summarizes the results of a three-year RAND study designed to resolve some fundamental questions about service-learning. The study evaluated the effects of the programs on student volunteers, service recipients, and higher education institutions. It also assessed the returns on the nation's investment in the Learn and Serve America Higher Education program.
National Center for Education Statistics Report on Service Learning and Community Service in Schools: NCES conducted this national-level study of service-learning in America's K-12 public schools. Analysis reveals a number that roughly one-third of the schools have incorporated service-learning to some extent and that most of the schools that have service-learning provide teachers some sort of support to help them integrate service into their curriculum.
Study of the Community, Higher Education, and School Partnerships (CHESP): The study concludes that the CHESP experience has demonstrated that three-way partnerships can be created; that considerable time, resources, and skills are needed to do so; and that there is a widespread belief that these kinds of partnerships are leading to more and better service-learning.
More Information On the Impact of Service-Learning
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