The Learn and Serve Grant Program was designed to support schools and community-based organizations (CBOs) that engage children and adolescents in service activities linked to the school curriculum that address real community needs. An evaluation covered 93 Pennsylvania schools and CBOs that received funding to design and implement programs.…

Verbal learning does not prepare adolescents for a society which expects students to graduate as adults from secondary school. This is obvious when one sees how often adolescents are excluded from adult activities and responsibilities. Experiential learning can provide students with a link between academic content and the self-confidence adulthood…

Information on 12 exemplary volunteer programs is gathered in this manual for school officials, teachers, and volunteer coordinators. An introductory chapter discusses the place of volunteerism in middle and secondary schools, covering categories of volunteers; the services volunteers can provide; the benefits of volunteer programs to students,…

For 14 years, Mountain Outreach, a program at Cumberland College (Williamsburg, Kentucky), has enabled college students to participate in community service projects. Recently, 35 students traveled to New Mexico to build a house for a Navajo elder who was unable to obtain adequate housing. Participants discuss their learning experiences and their…

Discusses accomplishments of students in Miami Middle School and High School in northeastern Oklahoma, who with the help of teachers are linking their lived experience, school-based learning, and new-found activism through the medium of a service-learning project. Discusses the history of Tar Creek, now designated as the nation's worst…

Examined benefits/risks of participation in five types of extracurricular activities (prosocial, team sports, school involvement, performing arts, academic clubs). Data for 1,259 adolescents were drawn from the Michigan Study of Adolescent Life Transitions. Found that prosocial involvement was linked to positive educational trajectories and low…

An evaluative study was done of the Teen Outreach Program, a national, multi-site effort to reduce teenage pregnancy, school failure, and dropout. The study sought to identify the critical "active ingredients" of the program responsible for its success. The study was based on analyses of data collected at 114 different sites nationally,…

Suggestions are presented for the improvement of current educational programs in the state of New York through student involvement in "recycling" available local resources and the generation of new resources that may be used in cooperative programs involving the entire school and the local community. Benefits of the suggested approach…

This booklet discusses how the United Nations University, established in 1973, can bring youth together on a world scale and create an international system through which youth can join in the work of building a world community. The first chapter, A University for the World: The United Nations Plan, describes student protests in Thailand in 1973.…

This guidebook was developed to provide assistance to persons wishing to begin, expand, or promote programs of youth community service. It features examples of what young people already are doing and practical, down-to-earth ideas for designing, organizing, running, promoting, and supporting youth service programs. Special attention is given to…

This collection of materials and ideas is designed for the high school student who wants to try to influence society. The guide provides background information and descriptions of experience-based learning activities for use by students as they explore political involvement opportunities in their communities. The purposes of the materials are to…

Research supports the value of youth service, but indicates concerns about the diminishing interest of young people in giving of themselves. New justifications for community service include the following: (1) documentation of the educational value of service; (2) greater understanding of environmental and human needs; and (3) greater understanding…

The guide provides multiple experience-based activities for use by secondary social studies students as they examine occupational possibilities in their communities. The purposes of the materials are to help students evaluate themselves and their value systems, examine occupations, and become aware of the changing philosophy and value of work in…

This article discusses national, state, and local youth service, noting the initiatives of 1984-5, the association of national youth services with the military draft, some keys to deriving maximum value from youth service initiatives, and the outcomes that can be anticipated from a youth service program. (DCS)

The performance of the American high school as an institution is discussed, based on a study of U.S. secondary education conducted by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Attention is directed to students, teachers, the principal, the classroom, and the curricula. Field studies were conducted at 15 public high schools, which…