SERVICE LEARNING

NDA in the News

Our country continues to see the need to involve young persons in activities that emphasize service to the community. There has been national-level discussion about the merits of instituting federal programs to provide such service.  On this page and by following these links you will learn a little more about our response.

On the state level, the State Board of Education has approved Service Learning Standards for Alternative Schools. These standards include the essential elements of effective service learning practice that were compiled and adopted by the National Service Learning Cooperative of the National Youth Leadership Council in April 1998. 

They are:

Karen Willey, Principal

New Directions Academy

Dickson County Schools

NDA's Service Learning Brochure

MS Word

MS Publisher

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An Overview of 2003-04

•  Effective service learning establishes clear educational goals that require the application of concepts, content, and skills from the academic disciplines and involves students in the construction of their own knowledge.

•  In effective service learning, students are engaged in tasks that challenge and stretch them cognitively and developmentally.

•  In effective service learning, assessment is used to enhance student learning as well as to document and evaluate how well students have met content and skills standards.

•  Students are engaged in service tasks that have clear goals, meet genuine needs in the school or community and have significant consequences for themselves and others.

•  Effective service learning employs formative and summative evaluation in a systemic evaluation of the service effort and its outcomes.

•  Effective service learning seeks to maximize student voice in selecting, designing, implementing, and evaluating the service project.

•  Effective service learning values diversity through its participants, its practices, and its outcomes.

•  Effective service learning promotes communication and interaction with the community and encourages partnerships and collaboration.

•  Students are prepared for all aspects of their service work including a clear understanding of task and role, the skills and information required by the task, safety precautions, and the people with whom they will be working.

•  Student reflection takes place before, during, and after service, uses multiple methods that encourage critical thinking, and is a central force in the design and fulfillment of curricular objectives.

•  Multiple methods are designed to acknowledge, celebrate, and further validate students’ service work.

•  Service Learning is an integral part of the NDA program. We use the Lions- Quest Skills for Action curriculum to implement our service- learning tasks.