DOCUMENTATION
A documentation project of the Service-Learning and
Civic Engagement Consortium. Seven universities
collaborate to generate, foster, and promote high
impact civic engagement practices in metropolitan
Chicago.
Service-Learning
and Civic Education in
Chicago Universities
April 2015
Service-Learning and Civic Education in Chicago’s Universities
I.
Introduction
Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and Chicago area universities have been actively
engaging faculty and students in service-learning and civic-engagement for more than a
decade. The Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Collaborative was created (SLCEC) in
2011 in order to bring universities together with the Chicago Public Schools to share
practices and strategies and generate opportunities for collaboration among universities
and between CPS and universities. SLCEC serves as a forum for local universities and
Chicago Public Schools to discuss service-learning and civic engagement strategies and
generate opportunities for shared learning and collaborative practice. During its first
four years, SLCEC has worked on student teacher policy, hosted numerous professional
development events for university faculty, generated civic learning opportunities
between universities and CPS schools, and served as a critical friends’ forum for
practitioners.
In generating this report on current service-learning and civic engagement practices of
seven local universities in the Chicago area and their intersection with Chicago Public
Schools, we hope to accomplish three things:
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II.
Encourage universities to generate increased opportunities for their students to
experience civic life and develop civic identities among their students;
Strengthen efforts by universities to prepare pre-service teachers to learn,
experience, and use service-learning and civic engagement pedagogies as they
enter CPS and other classrooms; and
Encourage increased collaboration between universities and K-12 public schools
in service-learning and civic engagement pedagogies and practices.
The Case for Service-Learning and Civic Engagement
Defining Service-Learning and Civic Engagement
Service-learning is an instructional strategy that connects classroom learning to service
projects often in the community. Students engaging in service-learning build social,
civic and academic skills outlined in the research below. According to Eyler and Giles
(1999), “service-learning should include a balance between service to the community
and academic learning”.
Civic Engagement is an instructional strategy that engages students is their local, national
and global community as a learner as well as social agents. Barbara Jacoby (2009) and
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the Coalition for Civic Engagement and Leadership at the University of Maryland
(2005) define civic engagement as embracive of a wide range of activities, including
“developing civic sensitivity, participation in building civil society, and benefitting the
common good” (Coalition for Civic Engagement and Leadership, 2005).
Research
Incorporating service-learning and other civic engagement strategies has tremendous
impact on students. The following research highlights recent studies that demonstrate
service-learning leads to more democratically engaged students, increases student
learning outcomes, fosters positive youth identity construction, and reduces student
drop-out rates.
Civically and Democratically Engaged Students
According to Battistoni (1997), Einfeld and Collins (2008) engaging in servicelearning leads to the development of more civic-minded, democratic student
participants. They argue that by engaging student-participants in real-world
concerns, challenges and events, students are more apt to take ownership of their
learning and of their world. Westheimer and Kahne (2004) build on this
understanding and contend in their frequently-cited article, “What Type of
Citizen,” that not only does service-learning contribute to civically engaged
students, but the type of service a student participant engages in, can contribute
to the type of citizen they will become.
Increase in Academic Learning
A direct correlation of higher academic learning with service-learning exists
according to Astin, Vogelsegang, Ikeda and Yee (2000) in their comprehensive
study and Novak (2007) and Warrren’s (2012) meta-analyses several years later.
Positive Youth Identity Construction
In their research on service and social responsibility, Youniss and Yates (1997)
demonstrate that “youth’s participation in solving social problems has the
potential to promote the development of personal and collective identity.” Jones
and Abes’ 2004 study had similar findings, and concludes that students
experience a more “integrated identity evidenced by complexity in thinking
about self and relationships with others, an openness to new ideas and
experiences, and shifts in future commitments” as a consequence to engaged
service-learning.
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Drop Out Reduction
Bringle, Hatcher and Muthiah (2010) and Gallini and Moely (2003) found that
college students were more likely to reenroll if they had taken a service-learning
course compared to those who did not. Their respective conclusions reveal that
student engagement and a connection to the university community has a direct
correlation to their reenrollment.
III.
Areas of Inquiry
Service-Learning and Civic Engagement in Chicago’s Universities explores the
following questions:
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How does service-learning/civic engagement practice align with the university’s
missional statements?
How does the university integrate service-learning/civic engagement into
academic coursework?
How does the university’s college of education prepare pre-service teachers to
use service-learning as a pedagogical practice?
How do universities collaborate with CPS schools, teachers, and students in
developing and implementing civic and service-learning experiences?
Through this document, we are interested in highlighting the depth and diversity of
high impact practice in Chicago and promoting strategies that build civic competencies
and commitments while strengthening academic performance.
IV.
University Profiles
Each university included in this document has participated in the SLCEC over the
course of the past four years. In the following pages, this document will highlight the
following components:
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Structure of civic engagement and alignment with university mission
Exemplary projects
Service-learning in teacher education
University collaboration with Chicago Public Schools
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Loyola University Chicago
The mission of Loyola University Chicago reads:
We are Chicago's Jesuit Catholic University-- a diverse
community seeking God in all things and working to
expand knowledge in the service of humanity through
learning, justice and faith. One important way that
the university lives out this mission is through the
Center for Experiential Learning, which
collaborates with campus, faculty, and community
to promote, develop, and implement academic
experiential learning through teaching, research, and service.
Loyola University coordinates academic-based civic learning opportunities through the Center
for Experiential Learning (CEL). CEL engaged learning programs include service-learning,
academic internships, and undergraduate research. Each academic year, more than 25% of
Loyola undergraduate students participate in engaged learning through classes and experiences
facilitated by Loyola faculty. The university’s experiential learning strategy is successful
because of strong administrative support and the university’s requirement that all
undergraduate students complete one 3-credit course in “engaged learning” in order to
graduate.
The CEL works with more than 600
community partners in order to enable
students to meet the engaged learning
requirement and support faculty as
they generate service-learning
opportunities.
LIFT Chicago is one of Loyola’s key
partner organizations and creates
opportunities for students to connect
their academic coursework to work in
the community through servicelearning. Social Work, Psychology,
Education, and Theology students
receive training to work with Uptown residents through LIFT-Chicago as they seek housing,
employment, job training, and other resources to lift them out of poverty. Students connect
their service experience to the classroom in multiple ways by examining poverty, strategic
responses, community development, psychology impacts of poverty, etc.
As a faith-based university, Loyola requires all students to complete two Theology courses. In
an Introduction to Christian Theology course, students experience worship in a neighborhood
congregation and participate in the service and minsitry of the congregation as a way to explore
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the question of how individuals and congregations connect faith and service. As students read
and discuss narrative texts about Christians who have wrestled with this question, they
encounter lay and clergy in the community who are living into these questions providing an
opportunity for students to consider and construct their own faith identity.
Exemplary Project
The Quinlan Business School offers a Microenterprise course each year to MBA and upper level
undergraduate students. Teams of five students are matched with an emerging entrepreneur
from Chicago’s south or west sides. These entrepreneurs are working to open small businesses
in neighborhoods that have long been neglected. The economic empowerment that comes from
local business development is critical to the development of communities. Business students
work closely with the entrepreneurs over the course of the semester while learning essential
business development practices. The final product is a business plan done in consultation with
the clients. Many of the emerging entrepreneurs have subsequently gone on to own successful
businesses that are profitable while providing a crucial function and purpose in the community.
Teacher Education
In 2013 Loyola’s School of Education re-launched its teacher preparation program to merge
classroom experience with clinical experience. Working with more than 15 CPS elementary and
high schools across the city, almost every teacher preparation course is taught inside elementary
and secondary schools rather than at the university.
Professor Charles Tocci, Clinical Assistant Professor and Senn High School Faculty Coordinator,
suggests that “holding education courses within elementary and secondary schools really
makes for some exciting work. In my Social Studies Methods course, we studied how to
integrate primary sources in the first half of the class and in the second half of the class, preservice teachers met with Senn faculty members to plan and then implement primary sources
into the high school classroom.” Additionally, Tocci’s class received an introductory lesson on
service-learning, observed and taught a class on colonialism and social Darwinism, then
returned to their own classroom session to discuss how service-learning could be integrated
into the lesson.
Tocci concludes that restructuring the School of Education’s instructional strategy better
prepares education students to enter the field as they leave with robust pre-service experiences
that begin freshman year and continue through the student teacher assignment. Other teacher
education classes, such as Teaching and Learning in Urban Communities and Math for
Elementary Teachers, place students directly in schools and community organizations for indepth service-learning experiences.
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Loyola and Chicago Public Schools
Senn High School recently launched
its IB Global Environmental Studies
program. The program is designed
to prepare students to help create a
more environmentally sustainable
school, community, and world. An
example of this work is reflected in an
environmental service-learning
experience with freshmen. Working
with Loyola’s undergraduate science
students, Senn 9th graders provide
stewardship at nearby Osterman Beach learning about the harmful effects of pollution, the
disturbance of natural ecosystems and the impact of global warming. Senn and Loyola
students work together throughout the semester in ways that impact their own learning and the
quality of life in the community for all.
Loyola University also hosted Election 2014! - an electoral simulation for high school students.
Students from five high school civics classes spent the day at Loyola simulating a presidential
campaign. Students played the roles of state delegates (red, blue and purple states), political
parties, community organizations, media and election officials and participated in campaign
activities, voter registration, candidate debates, media strategies and finally electronic voting.
The robust campaigning led to a close election among three political parties.
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Illinois State University
Illinois State University (ISU) incorporates high academic
standards with civic engagement to move students to serve
as citizens locally, nationally and globally. The mission of
ISU reads: We at Illinois State University work as a diverse
community of scholars with a commitment to fostering a
small-college atmosphere with large-university
opportunities. We promote the highest academic standards
in our teaching, scholarship, public service and the connections we build among them. We
devote all of our resources and energies to creating the most supportive and productive
community possible to serve the citizens of Illinois and beyond.
The Office of the Provost at ISU helps to promote active learning experiences and civic
engagement by partnering with local, national and international business, government, and
educational institutions and organizations for the purposes of expanding service outreach and
enhancing financial support for instructional, scholarly, and service activities. The American
Democracy Project at ISU promotes constructive civic engagement on the part of
undergraduates while they are on campus, and after they graduate. Building on a wide variety
of such activity already occurring at ISU, the American Democracy Project is designed to serve
as a catalyst for programmatic changes that will ensure all Illinois State students are fully
prepared to assume a responsible role as contributors to civic society. Through this work, ISU
incorporates service-learning and civic engagement in academic coursework by holding
classroom/community workshops and facilitating professional learning communities that help
integrate civic engagement into course syllabi as well as provide ongoing support for faculty
members.
Teacher Education
ISU has a Civic Engagement and Responsibility Minor which requires students to complete
courses in civic responsibility, service-learning, and government to prepare for future
participation in social change and build commitment to social responsibility. Courses in urban
education and social justice offer students the opportunity to explore civic engagement in
depth. Within this minor, the Urban Teacher Preparation strand offers pre-service teachers
nearly 70 courses that have been redesigned with urban content and context.
Exemplary Project
STEP-UP (Summer Teacher Education Partnership for Urban Preparation) is a selective
program through which Illinois State’s teacher education students are placed with Chicago host
families located in the neighborhood students are assigned to serve. Over four weeks, STEP-UP
Fellows co-teach in CPS alongside veteran teachers, engage in service-learning projects with 42
different community-based organizations, and complete seminars in cutting edge educational
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initiatives. STEP-UP Fellows work sideby-side with community organization
staff to develop meaningful projects that
contribute in sustained and positive ways
to the organization’s service to the
neighborhood. Many Fellows develop
curriculum plans to enhance particular
aspects within their service area.
Illinois State and Chicago Public
Schools
ISU trains teacher candidates in service-learning and civic engagement through practical
experience and through its College of Education and the Chicago Teacher Education Pipeline
(CTEP). Established in 2004, CTEP connects ISU in Normal, Illinois to the city of Chicago and
its public schools. CTEP’s mission is grounded in social justice and works to cultivate and
sustain innovative, resilient, and effective educators for urban schools and their communities.
ISU secures private and public funding to sustain CTEP, which effectively links ISU, Chicago
Public Schools and Chicago’s many community-based organizations. According to Dr. Robert
Lee, Illinois State University’s executive director of its Chicago Teacher Education Pipeline, “It
is through a social justice lens that we need to prepare teachers to work in urban communities
and stay there. We do this by exposing students to long-term service programs that flatten
hierarchies, are sensitive to communities and their respective school needs and beneficial to all
parties.”
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National Louis University
National Louis University (NLU) provides
access to quality higher education that
nurtures opportunity for students through
innovative teaching, scholarship, community
engagement and service excellence. NLU
supports civic engagement and service-learning through the Civic Engagement Center (CEC) by
engaging faculty and students in service-learning, community-based research and other
community engagement endeavors. Aligned with National Louis University’s mission the CEC
seeks to advance the education of students to become civic-minded, actively engaged, life-long
scholars and leaders on campus, locally, throughout the nation and globally.
NLU’s CEC advisory team meets monthly to discuss community-based research projects and
encourage each other’s research. Members of the CEC assist faculty members desiring to
embed service-learning into coursework by presenting at faculty meetings, annual forums,
brown bag lunches, department and program meetings and various special events. The CEC
has been instrumental with rewriting NLU’s Student Learning Outcomes to include one specific
to Civic Engagement. The CEC is also instrumental in rewriting new university course outlines
to include areas for service-learning. The CEC supports students with volunteer opportunities
and other community engagement activities.
The CEC began the process of writing for the 2015 Carnegie Community
Engagement Classification application in 2013 and was instrumental in
seeing that application through to submission. NLU is proud to have
received that designation through 2025.
Exemplary Projects
Service-Learning is embedded in the foundations courses in the School of Teacher Preparation
in the National College of Education (NCE) at NLU. As such, teacher candidates volunteer at
many local organizations. CARE Plus, in the Bensenville Elementary School District in Illinois
is one of them. It was founded in 1996 to provide elementary students with one-on-one and
small group learning opportunities to augment their classroom reading experiences. CARE
stands for Citizens Active in Reading Education. Plus was added when the program expanded
to include math, science, social studies, and writing assistance. Students are paired with
volunteer mentors who can be high school students, business people, community members, or
college students. Discussions with our teacher candidates participating in the program indicate
that each mentor has a different experience since teachers utilize their volunteers differently.
Volunteers work with individual students or with a small group of students on specific skills
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and provide feedback to the teachers so that the teacher can monitor progress and create
individualized plans for the students.
Since 2008, NLU students have been consistently involved with the CARE Plus program.
Without exception and exaggeration, all of them have been testifying to tremendous benefits
gained from their service in the program. Teacher candidates provide mentoring services to
elementary students in reading and math at least once a week. Typical activities include one-onone sessions or small group in-class activities: “One week we made rainbows and another we
made turkeys out of craft paper. The hardest part of those projects was getting the students to
write their names on the front of the turkeys which were to be on display during conferences.
The students were well-trained in writing their names on the back of art projects. Other days I
have helped students draw pictures and write sentences based on the particular letter of the
day. The most fun were the two days Mrs. W handed the classroom off to me while she did
individual assessment work. I ran the guided reading group center and directed the students at
the other centers when it was time to wrap up and rotate to the next area.”
Most of the candidates who provide services for CARE Plus are elementary and special
education MAT students with limited or no prior teaching experience. Gaining access to schools
and children becomes invaluable experience in itself: “The entire experience has been a joy. The
students are engaging and never cease to surprise. My favorite quote came from a boy named F
my second time in the classroom. He said, ‘Mr. S, you came back.’ I told him, ‘Of course I did.
What else would I do?’ I have found it to be rewarding and worthwhile and I may continue
through the winter” “I think the most important thing that I have learned from my service
learning project is that I still really want to be a teacher. I love working with the students. I
love to see their faces when they finally remember the sound that goes with the letter Y. I love
it when they ask if they can work with me, even if they don’t need to because they already get
it.”
Another agency many of our students choose is PADS—Public Action to Deliver Shelter. It is a
not-for-profit organization committed to ending homelessness. PADS provides various levels
of housing for homeless: interim (overnight); transitional (clients are transitioning from
homelessness to housing thru positive life changes); permanent supportive housing (provides
affordable housing for individuals and families with a disability); and the Howlett Initiative
(targets families for housing).
PADS is on the list of choices for those teacher candidates who take the Social Justice
Perspectives course as part of the requirement for their degree. Many of them gravitate to PADS
due to a limited knowledge of homeless people and homelessness as a phenomenon. As this
student admits, “I had a very stereotypical picture of a homeless man or woman, a picture not
involving any children. Working as a family monitor [at PADS] changed that stereotype. Now
all these questions came flooding into my mind regarding these children: How will they
perform in school when they are sleeping on a mat with twenty other people in the room?
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Where will they get their school supplies? Will they have to start a new school this year because
of their transient lifestyle? They have no home, so no play dates at their home.”
Many find their time at PADS transformational. “Each time I went to Pads I had an ‘ah-ha’
moment, a moment that stopped me right in my tracks and made me think about these
homeless children and how their lives are so different than my family and just how difficult
things must be for them.” This engagement can take forms of setting up the beds and chairs in
the shelter, offering assistance in the kitchen, cleaning-up, or becoming a homeless family
monitor. Resulting in an “eye-opening experience,” this project “has kindled a sense of
compassion in me that I didn’t know that I had. This service learning has connected me to a
segment of youth that I hadn’t dealt with before but will empower me in my classroom
interactions in the future. It was very fascinating to hear two accounts where children were
being asked to be understood and not treated with pity, they did want to work hard and learn.”
Having experienced the lives of homeless children first-hand, this teacher candidate will add
significantly to her portfolio’s teaching philosophy statement: “Every child deserves the right
for a good education. This statement cannot be truer than it is for children who live in shelters. I
am a very caring and feeling person but after doing this project I feel so much for these children.
They really like going to school because it is the one thing in their [lives] that remains constant.”
Teacher Education
Several education courses within the NCE of NLU educate teacher candidates about effective
service-learning practices that focus on not only the fundamentals of service-learning pedagogy
(i.e., preparation, action, reflection and demonstration), but also how to assess successful
service-learning programs in schools.
NCE also prepares teacher candidates in service-learning and community engagement practices
via the Urban Scholars Teacher Education Partnership (USTEP) and Suburban Scholars Teacher
Education Partnership (SSTEP) programs. The USTEP and SSTEP programs place graduate
students in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and suburban high schools for seven to twelve hours
a week from September to February, after which the candidates spend March through June fulltime teaching in their assigned school. The USTEP and SSTEP residency programs require
teacher candidates to implement a service-learning project
National Louis and Chicago Public Schools
NLU is the Academy for Urban School Leadership’s (AUSL) exclusive teacher preparation
partner. NLU has worked with AUSL since 2001 and the NCE faculty created the curriculum for
this teacher residency program that has put AUSL at the forefront of urban school turnaround
success. The NLU/AUSL Chicago Teacher Residency is an intensive 12-month, full-time
program that provides teacher preparation, licensure and a graduate degree. Career-changers
and new college graduates with bachelor’s degrees in fields other than education can earn their
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teaching license and a master's degree. Licensed teachers with a desire to receive further
training for urban settings are eligible to earn a Master of Education (M.Ed.) in Urban Teaching.
Following the training year, graduates commit to teach in CPS for at least four years. Teacher
candidates and graduates of the program are teaching in across Chicago in many of its public
schools.
In foundational courses during the summer, teacher candidates asset map the community in
which they will be placed for the upcoming
academic year. Candidates are encouraged
to civically engage with the school
community throughout the year. Within
those and other courses in the program,
candidates learn the pedagogy of servicelearning to use with their PreK-12 students.
This pedagogical content knowledge allows
the candidates to proliferate service-learning
pedagogy as they graduate and become
teachers of record across CPS.
The USTEP program brings education, civic engagement and experiential learning together.
Partnering with Howard University’s Law School, NLU teacher candidates plan classes on legal
topics of interest to CPS students. While law students provide the content knowledge, USTEP
students turned these concepts into highly interactive lessons about citizen rights, the death
penalty, online bullying and how to obtain academic success, scholarships and complete college
applications. Following the planning period, law students and USTEP candidates
collaboratively taught workshops at three different CPS High Schools.
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University of Illinois at Chicago
A major research university in the heart of one of the
world's greatest cities, UIC provides a world-class
education for its students. We are committed to creating
and disseminating new knowledge as a university of
growing national and international stature. UIC's
mission is:
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To create knowledge that transforms our views
of the world and, through sharing and
application, transforms the world.
To provide a wide range of students with the
EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY only a leading
research university can offer.
To address the challenges and opportunities facing not only Chicago but all Great Cities
of the 21st century, as expressed by our Great Cities Commitment.
To foster SCHOLARSHIP and practices that reflect and respond to the increasing
diversity of the U.S. in a rapidly globalizing world.
To train professionals in a wide range of public service disciplines, serving Illinois as the
principal educator of health science professionals and as a major healthcare provider to
underserved communities.
The focal point of civic engagement at UIC is the Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement
(IPCE), part of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs (CUPPA). IPCE conducts,
encourages, and supports research, with an emphasis on how technology enhances the
engagement of citizens and on how government agencies make decisions and deliver services.
IPCE helps develop civic engagement among young people by offering paid internships
through the Urban Public Policy Fellows program as well as sponsoring Civic Engagement
Days for high school youth. IPCE provides online resources, including information on
government services, events in the community, public forums on government policy, and
training programs to help people become effective advocates for their communities.
In addition, the UIC Office of the Vice Chancellor
for Student Affairs sponsors a program called
Student Leadership Development and Volunteer
Services (SLDVS), which supports the development
of leadership, civic engagement in both one’s
personal and professional life, as well as a greater
understanding of social justice issues and
opportunities for advocacy. Grounded in the
tradition of Jane Addams and Hull House, the
SLDVS program sponsors multiple opportunities
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for students to get involved on campus and in the community, including an annual UIC Day of
Service. SLDVS also promotes civic engagement by helping students develop skills in
leadership, public speaking, and student organization development
Exemplary Project
The School of Social Work Practice Course is offered to all graduate students completing their
Masters Degrees at UIC’s Jane Addams College of Social World. Integral to the course is the
final project, where students are required to develop and implement a service-learning project
in a Chicago-area public school. Projects for the course typically range from high schools
youths presenting to elementary school youths a lesson bullying, to high school youth raising
funds for a community-based youth organization (McKay & Johnson, 2010). According to
Cassandra McKay, creator and professor of the courses, “The reason it works so well is that
students are able to put theory into practice.”
Teacher Education
Teacher education programs at UIC are taking steps to embed service-learning into methods
courses. For example, the social studies methods course taught by Professor Julie Peters
recently included the development of a service-learning project. Students were introduced to
the concept of service-learning and asked to propose ways in which they could wed servicelearning to a social studies unit. The proposal was designed so that teacher candidates could
freely explore their ideas about service-learning. They chose a location near a high school of
their choosing, created an asset map of the area, suggested several possible projects, and then
focused on one project that they imagined their students choosing. They then outlined the
project, showed how it was tied to the curriculum and to the Common Core, and explained how
students would demonstrate their learning. Finally, they created a list of questions they would
like to ask a Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Service-Learning Coach as well as questions they
would like to ask students who had done service-learning in the past. In the next phase of this
project, students will meet with a Service-Learning Coach and work directly with an existing
project. The plan is to take this assignment out of the imagined world and into the real world.
Peters plans to explore ways to make this an integral part of the methods course in coming
semesters. In addition, she plans to engage her colleagues in other teacher education programs
in a dialogue about how they might embed service-learning into their courses. Plans are also
underway to explore how teacher candidates might participate in real service-learning projects,
particularly in literacy, in order to give them hands-on experience working with students and
with service-learning itself.
UIC and Chicago Public Schools
Civic Engagement Days is a two-day workshop hosted by the Institute for Policy and Civic
Engagement (IPCE) that addresses how the legislative policy-making process affects high
school youth. Partnering with the Chicago Public Schools and CPS Global Citizenship's
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Initiative Program and its 25 schools, UIC invites high school students to campus every spring
for the purposes of learning about civic engagement and the role citizens play by featuring
videos, guest speakers, mock policymaking, debates and group presentations. Because Civic
Engagement Days not only helps to educate the learners as much as the presenters, this project
works to enhance civic learning for everyone.
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DePaul University
DePaul University honors its Catholic,
Vincentian, urban education mission by
empowering students to serve others with a
deep respect for their personal needs. The
Steans Center promotes the incorporation of
service-learning in academic coursework by
training and supporting faculty via
professional development workshops,
syllabus review and facilitation with
community partners. According to Executive Director, Howard Rosing, “High quality programs
are embedded in academic affairs. When staff work directly with faculty to integrate servicelearning into their curriculum, they have good capacity to develop effective relationships in the
community, as well as good support for students who are placed in projects in the community.”
All DePaul undergraduate students completing the Liberal Studies Common Core must
complete one course of experiential learning. Options to satisfy the JYEL requirement consist of
a study abroad, domestic study, community-based service-learning course or internship or
individual / group research project.
The Community Service Studies minor is a multidisciplinary degree offered by the Steans
Center and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences that provides a framework for
understanding and engaging in critical social issues. Students that receive a minor in CSS, take
courses across the disciplines as context for critical reflection on service and volunteerism.
Exemplary Project
Teacher Education
DePaul University’s College of Education mission statement is to support the urban educator.
According to Dr. Roxanne Owens, Department Chair of Teacher Education, “students complete
at least half their clinicals in public schools so that they can gain an understanding of the
challenges and rewards. In methods classes they learn about best methods to address kids from
different backgrounds, different needs and different talents.” Additionally, the College supports
several courses that work with Chicago Public Schools and their students on initiatives that
foster community voice, collaboration and action.
DePaul and Chicago Public Schools
In Professor Joseph Gardner’s Designing and Interpreting Curriculum course, DePaul College
of Education students partner with McCutcheon Elementary School students to provide a
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“training” on Project Soapbox, Mikva’s public speaking competition that asks students to
answer the question: “What is the biggest problem facing youth in your community?”
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Northeastern Illinois University
Northeastern Illinois University has a rich tradition of civic engagement and service dating to
its founding as a teacher training institution in 1867. As the first public four year institution
designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution in the Midwest and one of the most diverse
institutions in the country NEIU has built on this tradition of engagement and service through a
wide range of curricular and co-curricular offerings on its main campus on the north side of
Chicago. These offerings are further complimented by the work done through the Carruthers
Center for Inner City Studies located in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, the El Centro
campus in the Avondale neighborhood and the Center for College Access & Success (formerly
known as the Chicago Teachers Center) in the Wicker Park neighborhood.
The university’s strategic plan which was developed in 2008 includes a vision statement which
highlights NEIU’s urban mission; it also focuses in its strategic goals on Urban Leadership and
the importance of building upon the university’s rich tradition of community involvement.
Each year the campus develops a work plan which includes specific objectives that focus on this
goal of urban leadership and its action steps.
Northeastern is actively involved in the American Democracy Project, a multi-campus
initiative focused on public higher education’s role in preparing the next generation of
informed, engaged citizens for our democracy. The project began in 2003 as an initiative of the
American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), in partnership with The
New York Times. An example of this involvement may be found in their acceptance into ADP’s
new Economic Inequality Initiative Co-hort.
Northeastern was also selected in the spring of 2012 to be a part of National Association of
Student Personnel Administrators’ (NASPA) Lead Initiative on Civic Learning and
Democratic Engagement. This network of 92 NASPA member colleges and universities
committed to encouraging and highlighting the work of student affairs in making civic learning
and democratic engagement a part of every student’s college education.
In support of its mission, the University has established partnerships with business and
community groups, social service and government agencies, and other educational institutions.
These partnerships work to promote academic excellence among traditionally under-served
populations.
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Service Learning and Civic Engagement Embedded in Academic Programs
Northeastern has joined with Chicago City Colleges and Roosevelt University to become
members of the SENCER Center for Innovation Midwest. SENCER is a project of the National
Center for Science and Civic Engagement and stands for Science Education for New Civic
Engagements and Responsibility. The mission of SENCER is to “…apply the science of
learning to the learning of science, all to expand civic capacity. SENCER courses and programs
connect science, technology, engineering, and mathematics content to critical local, national,
and global challenges.” A recent example is the work of NEIU students and faculty in Earth
Science and Biology in partnership with the Friends of the Chicago River on sustainability and
strategies to deal with the impact of invasive species on the water and environment in Chicago.
The Math, Science and Technology Concepts Minor (MSTQE), an interdisciplinary pedagogical
content knowledge STEM minor for pre-service teachers, enhanced by a grant from the Searle
Funds of the Chicago Community Trust, collaborates with the College of Arts and Sciences by
embedding SENCER and service learning experiences across the math, science, health, and
sociology content and cognate courses.
The Department of Social Work trains a diverse student body to engage with their own
strengths and the strengths of diverse communities. It emphasizes the intersections among this
diversity across local and global contexts to promote social justice and human rights. One
important learning experience to further this goal is for candidates to participate in service
learning and civic engagement projects in Chicago area schools with school social workers,
counselors, teachers, parents and students. This work not only benefits the student social
workers but also increases the awareness in those school communities of life and socialemotional issues that impact student resiliency, persistence and academic achievement.
Exemplary Project
A partnership between Northeastern’s College of Education and Amundsen High School in
Chicago is focused on increasing teaching effectiveness for student achievement. This
partnership, now in its third year, places a “teacher in residence” and a faculty consultant at
Amundsen to assist the administrative team in its focus on teaching and learning. One goal of
this partnership is to graduate “college ready” Amundsen students (i.e., students who do not
need developmental courses upon entry into college). Additionally, it is hoped that the
program will foster a subset of students prepared to enter teaching. As part of this partnership,
Amundsen faculty members bring students to the Northeastern campus to conduct science
experiments. Amundsen students then participate in Northeastern’s Undergraduate Research
Symposium.
In-service teacher professional development, pre-service teacher collaboration, deep College of
Education faculty involvement in the school, and a process of joint decision-making related to
all aspects of the partnership guide this improvement strategy. Progress in this area includes
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ongoing partnerships between Northeastern faculty and Amundsen faculty so that high school
students are exposed to the college campus for projects early in their high school career and a
new policy at Northeastern for accepting International Baccalaureate credit from CPS high
schools.
Teacher Education
Northeastern has long been a national leader in graduating teachers of color. We are
consistently in the top 20 national rankings by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education for graduating
Latino and Asian American students with education degrees. The College of Education has
consistently placed in the top 30 national rankings for graduating “minority” candidates with
education degrees.
The College of Education has received a number of prestigious awards and ratings directly
related to its work with diversity issues in the last few years. The awards are evidence of the
work COE has done to develop robust partnerships with schools and community organizations.
The partnerships show a framework for supports tied to the structure of P-12 and university
levels. These awards include:

The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education selected Northeastern’s
College of Education in 2014 as one of ten members in its first Networked Improvement
Community (NIC). Over fifty colleges and universities nation-wide applied for
membership. The goal of this group is to increase teacher diversity by focusing on the
recruitment of male African American and Latino teacher preparation candidates.

The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) awarded
Northeastern the 2012 Best Practice Award in Support of Global Diversity. This award
recognized institution’s that “foster diversity, equity and global awareness as core
elements of its teacher education program(s).” The AACTE cited Northeastern for its
integrated curriculum and “aggressive recruitment of underrepresented students, strong
community ties and evident impact on the profession.” They added that, “equity,
diversity and global awareness are embedded within the curriculum and community
based-field experiences designed to serve high-need schools.”

The National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) selected the program for
the 2012 Rose Duhon-Sells Program Award for Multicultural Education. The award was
granted to Northeastern because of its “community-centered” teacher education
program, Grow Your Own Teachers (GYO). They noted that the effort is improving
teacher quality and retention, and thus, student learning in some of the most challenged
schools in Chicago.
Northeastern Illinois University and Chicago Public Schools
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Northeastern Illinois University has four Grow Your Own Teachers (GYO) Programs. GYO is a
state funded grant that facilitates collaboration among Northeastern, six local community-based
agencies, and the Chicago Public Schools. These partnerships have included grants and
contracts so that teacher education candidates have the support and tuition-assistance that they
need to complete their degrees. Community-based partners recruit potential teacher education
candidates and collaborate with College of Education faculty on the selection of those
candidates. Candidates are involved in their communities through their work with P-12 settings
and are non-traditional students. They are individuals who are older, have families, and work
while attending Northeastern. The education faculty and community partners join to provide
personal and academic support.
Beginning in 2008, faculty members have participated in community study days in partner
communities. Community partners and teacher candidates who live in the focus community
lead these community study days. In this way, faculty members become the students as they
learn about the issues (e.g., the foreclosure crisis, violence and safety, students whose parents
are incarcerated, tax-increment financing decisions) that are facing the various communities in
which they work and how those issues interface with the schools. Northeastern has held study
days in two partner communities located in predominately Latino neighborhoods (Chicago
Lawn/Gage Park, Humboldt Park), two in predominately African-American neighborhoods
(Bronzeville, North Lawndale), and one is in the most ethnically mixed area in Chicago
(Uptown).
The Center for College Access and Success (formerly the Chicago Teacher’s Center) has
generated grants to serve CPS schools and provide resources and support to in-service teachers
as well as direct service to students, parents and communities since 1978. The Center for College
Access and Success develops collaborative partnerships that engage entire communities to help
students succeed both academically and socially.
The Chicago Teacher Partnership Project (CTPP) is a federally funded Teacher Quality
Partnership grant that is in its 6th and final year. This project is a partnership between the
Colleges of Education and Arts and Sciences at Northeastern, Loyola Chicago, University of
Illinois at Chicago, National Louis University, and the Chicago Public Schools. The goals of this
project are 1) recruitment, retention and graduation of diverse traditional undergraduates who
plan on majoring in elementary education (or elementary education with a bilingual
endorsement), and 2) revamping undergraduate general education curriculum to increase the
rigor and to align with the Common Core.
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Roosevelt University
Reflecting the ideals of its founders in 1945, Roosevelt
University is a private, nonsectarian community of
educators, scholars, and learners committed to academic,
creative, and service excellence who value differences in
personal experiences and perspectives; ask the difficult
questions; and promote mutual understanding, inclusion,
social consciousness, and action toward social justice.
Recognizing that difference broadens perspectives,
Roosevelt University seeks and serves a diverse, promising student body from metropolitan
Chicago and around the world.
The hallmarks of the Roosevelt University experience are strong student-faculty interaction and
engagement with metropolitan Chicago as both a laboratory for learning and as an expression
of its commitment to social justice. The experience is created through the efforts of a strong
faculty dedicated to excellence in teaching, research, and creative activity and a staff equally
focused on helping students grow and achieve their educational and life goals.
Roosevelt is a metropolitan university that is an active partner in the social, economic and
cultural development of the communities it serves. It offers a broad array of academic
programs, from the baccalaureate through doctoral levels, in a highly interactive environment
where students can explore, discover, and develop their unique abilities and interests.
The Mansfield Institute for Social Justice and Transformation is charged with community and
civic engagement as well as transformational service-learning. Given the Roosevelt University
mission, this work is a natural fit at Mansfield Institute. The Mansfield Institute for Social
Justice and Transformation’s (MISJT) broad mission is to raise awareness of social injustice
while engaging in action-oriented projects that lead to progressive social change
Exemplary Project
The Transformational Learning Community-Based Class allows students to learn to critically
analyze type-written knowledge with the wisdom we can only gain through life experience in
addition to becoming aware of the power of 'one'. ONE advocate of change as well as ONE
united group with a shared desire to make a just community. The collaboration was a result of
conversations between Professor Sisco, the Mansfield Institute, Roosevelt students and faculty,
youth and concerned community members, and community agencies. The course is held at the
children's secured housing facility of Uhlich Children's Advantage Network (UCAN) where
each student is paired with a youth based on shared interests. The youth have been severely
abused and have developed aggressive coping strategies. Each week, the students discuss a
peer-reviewed, academic journal articles regarding youth violence, they learn a related skill to
circumvent the issue discussed, and then meet and engage the youth in a game-structured life
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lesson and mentorship hour structured through the Bringing Out Unity Through Interactive
Transformation (BoutIt) program.
Per the academic goals of the class, students
have an opportunity to critically discern the
difference between efficacy and efficiency
based on the challenges of a community
agency. The mentors learn self-acceptance
and the urban perspectives of violence in
marginalized communities and how little it
takes to create a monumental impact. The
youth we work with are not accustomed to
consistent one-on-one time nor pleasant
goodbyes which they experience with our
students. Simply being present does more
than many of the students will ever
know. Further, these youth wish to attend
Roosevelt and because they are wards of the state, they have a full scholarship to any college
which makes this connection valuable.
The program has become so popular that former students wish to volunteer or take the class
again. The youth often participate in the program for several semesters and talk about it with
their friends at UCAN. Even the staff acknowledges the value of the program and the improved
behavior of the youth while we are present; a UCAN staff member stated "Before you guys,
blue Mondays marked the beginning of a work week away from my family, but now, they are
red Mondays because of the heart you guys bring." The experience is becoming the topic of
dissertations; UCAN is in support of research that may aid in a better understanding of the
success in our collaboration.
Teacher Education
Transformational learning is a pedagogical approach and an innovative model of servicelearning that presents opportunities for personal and social transformation as students become
engaged citizens. The Mansfield Institute is committed to working with faculty who incorporate
transformational learning into their teaching by partnering with communities that are central to
creating social transformation and a more socially just society.
Transformational learning anchors the university's social justice mission in coursework by,
connecting students with the community. Through Transformational Learning courses
students develop their critical thinking skills, academic engagement, sense social responsibility
and gain skills to become engaged citizens who promote social change.
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Our vision for engagement is to enhance and cultivate the academic and social justice
experience at Roosevelt through coordinated community engagement; one where the
community sees Roosevelt University as a unique resource with mutual social justice
goals. Our vision of community engagement requires a collaborative approach to academiccommunity relationship that benefits all. For Roosevelt students and faculty, partnerships result
in research, Transformational learning placements, scholar activism, and possibilities for
lifelong investment in civic engagement and agency. For our community partners, Roosevelt
University works with them to help them reach their goals of social change at the policy and
community level. The Mansfield Institute strives for a deeper level of connectedness in the
community that cannot achieve this from a distance.
Roosevelt and Chicago Public Schools
The Embrace Restorative Justice (RJ) in Schools Collaborative, created at the Mansfield Institute,
is a unique collaboration of 25 organizations that have joined together to stem violence in
schools and communities by advocating for the use of RJ in Chicago Public Schools (CPS).
Roosevelt is partnering with CPS to integrate RJ into the schools in a systematic and effective
manner and have taken a key role in revising the CPS Student Code of Conduct to replace its
overly punitive measures with key components of RJ.
The Embrace collaborative seeks to expand the
use and understanding of RJ in Chicago Public
Schools and communities by implementing a
two tiered Restorative Justice Illumination
Campaign: Micro-grassroots and Macromultimedia. A major element of the campaign is
to promote awareness of the power of RJ and to
increase knowledge of the updated Student
Code of Conduct (SCC). The micro-grassroots
campaign will hold community events and share information across schools and communities
to ensure parents, teachers, and staff are aware of the changes in the SCC and how the use of RJ
differs from the punitive measures CPS has previously relied on. The macro-multimedia
campaign will engage the media with the goal to have a broad reach and utilize expert
messaging through multiple channels including print, broadcast and social media.
As Roosevelt seeks to promote broader awareness of restorative justice practices and
opportunities in Chicago Public Schools, it models the work by partnering directly with two
CPS elementary schools (Morrill and Namaste) to implement RJ practices. Students and faculty
work with CPS teachers and administrators at these schools to introduce and sustain peace
circles, peer mediation and other restorative justice practices.
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References
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the Retention of First-Year Students to Second Year. Michigan Journal of Community
Service Learning, 16(2), 38-49.
Astin, A. W. (2000). How Service-Learning Affects Students. Los Angeles: Higher
Education Research Institute, University of California.
Battistoni, R. M. (1997). Service learning and democratic citizenship. Theory into Practice,
36(3), 150-156.
Einfeld, A., & Collins, D. (2008). The Relationships Between Service-Learning, Social
Justice, Multicultural Competence, and Civic Engagement. Journal of College Student
Development, 49(2), 95-109.
Jones, S. R., & Abes, E. S. (2004). Enduring Influences of Service-Learning on College
Students' Identity Development. Journal of College Student Development, 45(2), 149-166.
McKay, C., & Johnson, A. (2010). Service learning: An example of multilevel school
social work practice. Social Work Journal, 35(1), 21-36.
Warren, J.L. (2012). Does Service-Learning Increase Student Learning? A MetaAnalysis. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 18(2), 56-61.
Westheimer, J., & Kahne, J. (2004). What Kind of Citizen? The Politics of Educating for
Democracy. American Educational Research Journal, 41(2), 237-269.
Youniss, J., & Yates, M. (1997). Community Service and Social Responsibility in Youth.
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press
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