NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS

Statistical Analysis Report April 1997

1996 National Household Education Survey

Student Participation in

Community Service Activity

U.S. Department of Education

Office of Educational Research and Improvement NCES 97-331
NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS

Statistical Analysis Report April 1997

1996 National Household Education Survey

Student Participation in

Community Service Activity

Mary Jo Nolin and Bradford Chaney

Westat, Inc.

Chris Chapman

Education Statistics Services Institute

Kathryn Chandler, Project Officer

National Center for Education Statistics

U.S. Department of Education

Office of Educational Research and Improvement NCES 97-331
U.S. Department of Education

Richard W. Riley

Secretary

Office of Educational Research and Improvement

Ramon C. Cortines

Assistant Secretary

National Center for Education Statistics

Pascal D. Forgione, Jr.

Commissioner

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting,

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April 1997

Suggested Citation

U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. Student Participation in

Community Service Activity, NCES 97-331, by Mary Jo Nolin, Bradford Chaney, and Chris Chapman.

Project Officer, Kathryn Chandler, Washington, DC: 1997.

Contact:

Kathryn Chandler

(202) 219-1767

(e-mail) nhes@ed.gov

http://www.ed.gov/NCES/NHES
iii

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Ethel Sanniez and Susan Gilmore of Westat as well as

Amanda Miller of the Education Statistics Services Institute for their research assistance. We would also

like to thank James Kielsmeier of the National Youth Leadership Council and the University of Minnesota

for his invaluable insights on the subject of community service and his careful reading of early drafts of this

report.

We are grateful for the encouragement provided by Martin Orland at the National Center for

Education Statistics to expand upon earlier analysis. Maureen Treacy, also at the Center, and Gerard

Devlin and Philip Carr at the Office of Educational Research and Improvement deserve special mention for

helping to assure that publication remained on an expedited schedule.

The report was reviewed by the following staff members of the National Center for Education

Statistics: Marilyn McMillen, Mary Frase, Jeffrey Owings, Steven Kaufmann, Michael Cohen, and Daniel

Kasprzyk. The report was also reviewed by Mary Jane Turner of the Close Up Foundation, Lisa Hicks of

Jobs for the Future, and Saundra Murray Nettles of the University of Maryland. The authors appreciate

the thorough reading and thoughtful suggestions provided by these reviewers. Their input substantially

improved the publication. Any remaining errors or problems are the sole responsibility of the authors.
iv
v

Highlights

• About half (49 percent) of students in 6th through 12th grade said they already participated in

community service at some time during the 1995-96 school year. They were interviewed over the

period January 2, 1996, through April 13, 1996, so some additional students may have participated

later in that school year.

• Females, white students, students for whom English was the primary language they spoke at

home, students who received high grades, and 11th and 12th graders were most likely to

participate.

• The greater the number of other activities the students participated in (student government, other

school activities, non-school activities, and working for pay), the more likely they were to

participate in community service.

• Students were also more likely to participate if an adult in the household participated in

community service, and the highest degree held by a parent was a college degree or higher.

• Students were more likely to participate if they attended private (especially church-related)

schools. The relationship between school type and participation persisted in a multivariate

analysis that adjusted for differences in school policies and student, family and community

characteristics.

• Eighty-six percent of all students were in schools that encouraged community service, either through

requiring participation or by arranging or offering community service.

• Students who were in schools that arranged or offered community service were more likely to

participate than students in other schools.

• Students’ participation in community service did not vary significantly based on schools’

requirements that students participate.

• The relationships between school practices and student participation continued to hold after

statistically adjusting for key characteristics of the students, their families, and their schools.

• Public school students tended to be in schools that arranged but did not require community

service, while private school students were split between schools that only arranged community

service and schools that both arranged and required community service.

• About half (56 percent) of the students who participated regularly in community service said that their

service was incorporated into the school curriculum in some way (service-learning).

• Students were more likely to encounter service-learning if they were at schools that both required

and arranged community service than at schools that only arranged community service.
vi
vii

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments......................................................................................................................... iii

Highlights..................................................................................................................................... v

Introduction.................................................................................................................................. 1

Previous Research............................................................................................................ 1

Data Sources and Indicators............................................................................................. 3

Level of Participation.................................................................................................................... 4

Plans to Participate Next Year.......................................................................................... 7

Student Characteristics..................................................................................................... 8

Alternative Student Activities............................................................................................ 9

Family Characteristics...................................................................................................... 11

Community Characteristics............................................................................................... 13

School Characteristics...................................................................................................... 13

School Practices to Encourage Participation and Learning............................................................. 15

Relationship Between School Policies and Student Participation........................................ 16

Types of schools promoting community service.................................................... 19

The impact of adults as examples......................................................................... 21

A Multivariate Test of the Relationship Between School Policies and

Student Participation........................................................................................................ 21

Incorporating Community Service into the Curriculum...................................................... 24

Summary and Conclusions............................................................................................................ 27

Survey Methodology and Data Reliability...................................................................................... 29

Response Rates................................................................................................................ 30

Data Reliability................................................................................................................ 30

Weighting and sampling errors............................................................................. 32

Nonsampling errors.............................................................................................. 33

Hours of Service Measure................................................................................................. 34

Students’ Expectations of Serving Later in the School Year ............................................... 35

Multivariate Analysis....................................................................................................... 35

References.................................................................................................................................... 38
viii

List of Tables

Table 1.— Percent of students in grades 6 through 12 and their reported

community service participation, by selected student characteristics:

1996.................................................................................................................... 5

Table 2.— Percent of students in grades 6 through 12 and their reported plans for

community service participation next year, by community service

participation in the current year: 1996................................................................. 7

Table 3.— Percent of students in grades 6 through 12 and their reported

community service participation, by selected student activities: 1996 .................... 10

Table 4.— Percent of students in grades 6 through 12 and their reported

participation in community service, by selected household

characteristics: 1996........................................................................................... 12

Table 5.— Percent of students in grades 6 through 12 and their reported

community service participation, by selected community

characteristics: 1996........................................................................................... 14

Table 6.— Percent of students in grades 6 through 12 and their reported

participation in community service, by selected school characteristics:

1996.................................................................................................................... 15

Table 7.— Community service participation of students in grades 6 through 12,

by reported school practices to promote student community service:

1996.................................................................................................................... 17

Table 8.— Hours of regular community service participation in the current

school year for students in grades 6 through 12, by reported school

practices to promote student community service: 1996......................................... 19

Table 9.— Percent of students in grades 6 through 12 who reported school

practices to promote student community service, by student’s grade

and school type: 1996.......................................................................................... 20

Table 10.— Community service participation of students in grades 6 through 12,

by participation in community service of adults in the household and

by school practices to promote community service: 1996..................................... 22

Table 11.— Logistic regression analysis to predict student participation in

community service............................................................................................... 23

Table 12.— Percent of students in grades 6 through 12 participating in community

service who reported incorporation of community service in the
ix

curriculum, by school practices to promote student community

service: 1996....................................................................................................... 25

Table 13.— Logistic regression analysis to predict student participation in

community service (full model, including variables that were not

statistically significant)........................................................................................ 37

List of Figures

Figure 1.— Percent of 6th through 12th grade students and their total hours of

participation in regular community service during the current school

year: 1996........................................................................................................... 6

Figure 2.— Percent of students in grades 6 through 12 who reported various

school practices to promote community service: 1996.......................................... 16

List of Exhibits

Exhibit 1.— Item response rates for variables used in the analysis............................................ 31
x
1

Introduction

Increasing community service participation has long been a goal in the United States. Some

examples of how this goal has played out in national policy are President Kennedy’s creation of the Peace

Corps, President Bush’s creation of the Points of Light Foundation, President Clinton’s creation of

AmeriCorps, and Congress’ adoption of the National Education Goals, which include the objective that all

students will be involved in activities that promote and demonstrate good citizenship and community

service. In part, the push for volunteer service reflects the idea that the act of volunteering would be

beneficial to those who participate and might counteract feelings of cynicism and apathy, as well as the

notion that volunteers are needed if national problems are to be addressed with limited government

resources. As in the National Education Goals, youth are often made a special focus because they are at a

time in their lives when their attitudes are still being formed so volunteer service might have greater effect.

In that context, volunteer service has also been seen as a tool for teachers to build interest in classwork and

thus becomes an aspect of education reform.

While volunteer service is widely accepted as desirable, there is a debate over how best to

encourage it. This debate influences the field of education in a number of ways, including the types of

volunteer policies schools develop. These policies can range from requiring service of all students, to

arranging service for interested students, to doing nothing to encourage service. Some schools try to

incorporate student service experiences into class work, while others do not.

This report examines data from the 1996 National Household Education Survey, Youth Civic

Involvement component, in which students in grades 6 through 12 were asked about their participation in

community service activities. Additionally, youth were asked about some of the ways that schools might

encourage community service participation and integrate it with classroom learning. From these data, one

can examine the relationship between community service participation and school practices, as reported by

the students. The data also provide information about how participation in community service activities is

related to student, family, community, and school characteristics.

Previous Research

Proposals that community service should be an integral aspect of education have been part of

the American educational debate since the early years of this century, sometimes capturing the public

attention and sometimes receding in importance (Barber 1992; Conrad and Hedin 1991; Boyer 1983; Kraft

1996). Proponents emphasize the potential benefits of community service in terms of linking the school to

the community and providing students with an opportunity for experiential learning (Kraft 1996).
2

Properly implemented, community service also may reduce the alienation from society that adolescents

often experience, help young people to develop community-oriented attitudes, and encourage them to

become engaged in democratic processes, such as voting, when they are young adults (Calabrese and

Schumer 1986; Conrad and Hedin 1991; Kraft 1996). When integrated into the curriculum, community

service is a strategy for preventing school dropouts and improving the transition from school to work

(Shumer 1994; Gomez 1996; Scales and Blyth 1997).

Studies of the effects of community service programs indicate that they can have important

and measurable positive outcomes for high school students. For instance, in a study of 10 programs,

participating students were found to have experienced more psychological, social, and intellectual growth

than nonparticipating students (Conrad and Hedin 1982). Another study reported that students who did

volunteer work developed a more socially responsible perspective than students who did not participate in

volunteer activities (Hamilton and Fenzel 1988). In a related study of over 2,000 K-12 students from 24

schools, University of Wisconsin researchers found improved student performance resulted from active

learning such as service-learning if combined with high intellectual content (Newman, Markes, and

Gamoran 1995). A quantitative evaluation of a community-based learning program for 9th through 12th

grade students, which incorporated participation in service activities in the community, showed a positive

effect on students’ grades and attendance, both of which were related to academic achievement and

retention in school (Shumer 1994). Studies of college undergraduates have shown specific cognitive

development, especially an increase in awareness of the multidimensionality of social problems and

community-oriented decisionmaking, as an outcome of participation in community service (Batchelder and

Root 1994), as well as increased personal efficacy, commitment to future service, and recognition of the

importance of influencing the political system to ameliorate social problems (Giles and Eyler 1994).

To encourage greater participation in community service and service learning, the state of

Maryland and some school districts have instituted mandatory service requirements in public schools. In

some instances this decision has provoked initial opposition from members of the academic community and

from some parts of the general public who view mandatory community service as involuntary labor that

students may resent and that would increase the cost of education (Short Sentence 1992; Goldsmith 1995).

However, in recent years, more education leaders have recognized the academic benefits to students of

integrating community service activities into the classroom. This has come to be known as servicelearning. The Commission on National and Community Service (now the Corporation for National

Service) defines service-learning as an educational experience that, among other things, is integrated “into

the student’s academic curriculum or provides structured time for a student to think, talk, or write about

what the student did and saw during the actual service activity” (Commission on National and Community

Service 1993).
3

Involving America’s students in community service activities is one of the first objectives that

was established under one of the National Education Goals for the year 2000, that of preparing students for

responsible citizenship, but national data on the percentage of youth who participate in community service

are sparse. Most estimates of the participation of adults and youth in community service have been based

on institutional surveys; however, it is difficult to capture through institutional surveys the number of

students who engage in community service activities, particularly those who do not participate through

school programs and those who participate in programs that do not receive external funding (Kraft 1996).

A notable exception is a set of national surveys sponsored by Independent Sector that examine volunteering

and giving among teenagers.

1

Data Sources and Indicators

The National Household Education Survey (NHES), a large national study of adults and

youth conducted by Westat for the National Center for Education Statistics, provides data to meet this

research need. In 1996, following screening interviews conducted in 55,708 households, telephone

interviews were conducted with 2,250 randomly sampled adults, 20,792 parents of children age 3 through

12, and 8,043 students in grades 6 through 12. This report is based primarily on data collected from the

students.

2

 A more detailed discussion of survey methodology, including response rates and data reliability,

can be found in the section on survey methodology.

Each student was asked whether he or she had participated in any community service activity

during the current school year. The activity could have been associated with the student’s school, service

sponsored by another social institution such as a church or synagogue, or volunteer work in which the

student participated on his or her own. Service programs vary widely in nature, from one-time

opportunities to clean up a park or contribute canned food to a weekly commitment to tutor other students

or visit senior citizens. The NHES:96 captured an aspect of this variation by asking students if their

community service activities happened once or twice during the school year or on a regular basis. To help

analyze student involvement in service-learning, students who said they participated in community service

were asked whether they had a chance to talk about their service activity in class, whether they were

required to write about the experience, or whether participation in the activity contributed to their grade in

a class. These basic reflection activities characterize what are considered best practices for servicelearning (Honnet and Paulson 1989; Alliance for Service-Learning in Education Reform 1993; Cairn and

Kielsmeier 1991). Students who said that they had not yet participated in a service activity during the

 

1

 These surveys are titled Volunteering and Giving Among American Teenagers, 1992 and Volunteering and Giving Among American Teenagers,

1996.

2

 Youth who were schooled at home were not included in this analysis because they were not asked many of the items that are central to this report.
4

current school year were asked whether they would participate in a service activity sometime before the end

of the current school year. All students, regardless of their participation status, were asked whether their

schools arranged for student service activities or provided service opportunities at schools.

3

 In a separate

question youth were asked if their school required students to participate in community service (e.g., in

order to graduate). All students also were asked if they thought they would be doing any kind of

community service in the next year.

Level of Participation

An estimated 49 percent of students in grades 6 through 12 reported that they participated in a

community service activity during the 1995-96 school year (table 1).

4

 They were interviewed over the

period January 2, 1996, through April 13, 1996, so some additional students may have participated later in

that school year. The students were split fairly evenly between those who participated only once or twice

(23 percent) and those who participated more regularly (26 percent). No attempt was made to define

“regular” participation more specifically because of the many types of participation that would

appropriately be considered regular, including spending several hours during 1 day each month working in

a nursing home, babysitting toddlers during church services each week, or reading to younger students for

20 minutes on 2 or 3 school days each month. However, information on the total number of hours of

regular participation was collected. With the school year not yet completed, 12 percent of regular

participants reported already volunteering more than 30 hours, and nearly 20 percent had volunteered more

than 10 hours (figure 1).

 

3

 No distinction was made in the questionnaire between these two related ways of encouraging student participation. Thus, throughout this report

references to arranging activities also includes providing them.

4

 Given that the NHES survey focused on volunteer activity during the school year, this estimate is roughly comparable to an Independent Sector

report (1996b) indicating that 59 percent of teenagers volunteered sometime during the entire year prior to their interview.
5

Table 1.—Percent of students in grades 6 through 12 and their reported community service participation, by selected

student characteristics: 1996

Number of

students

Participated by time of interview1 Will participate

before the end

Will not

participate

Characteristic (thousands) Regular

participation

One or two

times

Total (any

participation)

of the school

year

2

this school year

Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e.

 Total.................................... 25,726 26 0.6 23 0.6 49 0.7 31 0.7 20 0.6

Student’s grade3

 6-8....................................... 11,535 23 0.9 24 0.9 47 1.1 34 1.1 19 0.9

 9-10..................................... 7,429 24 1.0 22 1.0 45 1.0 35 1.3 20 1.0

 11-12................................... 6,760 32 1.3 24 1.4 56 1.4 22 1.1 22 1.1

Student’s academic

performance4

 Mostly A.............................. 8,689 33 1.2 27 1.1 60 1.3 26 1.3 13 0.8

 Mostly B.............................. 9,833 24 1.0 24 1.1 48 1.3 32 1.1 20 0.9

 Mostly C.............................. 5,809 19 1.0 19 1.3 38 1.4 36 1.5 26 1.4

 Mostly D or F...................... 1,394 16 2.4 15 2.0 30 3.0 37 3.4 33 2.8

Student’s sex

 Male.................................... 13,190 22 0.7 23 0.8 45 0.9 32 0.8 23 0.8

 Female................................. 12,537 29 0.9 24 0.8 53 1.1 31 1.0 16 0.8

Student’s race/ethnicity

 White, non-Hispanic............ 17,322 27 0.7 25 0.7 53 0.9 28 0.8 20 0.7

 Black, non-Hispanic............. 4,112 22 1.7 21 1.8 43 1.9 39 2.0 18 1.6

 Hispanic .............................. 3,281 21 1.6 17 1.3 38 1.8 40 1.9 22 1.5

 Other................................... 1,012 27 2.4 23 2.9 50 3.0 26 2.4 24 2.9

Language spoken most at

home by student

 English................................ 24,164 26 0.6 24 0.7 50 0.8 30 0.7 20 0.6

 Other................................... 1,562 15 1.9 16 2.0 32 2.5 45 2.7 23 2.2

1 Data were collected from January 2, 1996, through April 13, 1996. Any student who reported participating in at least one activity more than

twice is classified as a regular participant. Students may have participated in multiple activities without being classified as regular participants if

no individual activity was performed regularly.

2 Only students who had not done community service by the time of the interview were asked this question.

3 One case was coded ungraded, no equivalent. It was not included in this analysis.

4 This variable is from the NHES:96 Parent and Family Involvement in Education/Civic Involvement (PFI/CI) data file.

NOTE: s.e. is standard error. Numbers may not add to totals because of rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Household Education Survey, spring 1996, Youth

Civic Involvement component.
6

Figure 1.—Percent of 6th through 12th grade students and their total hours of participation in regular

community service during the current school year: 1996

NOTE: Standard errors are as follows: no community service, 0.7; community service one or two times only, 0.6; regular

community service, 0.6; 10 or fewer hours, 0.3; 11-30 hours, 0.3; 31-80 hours, 0.4; more than 80 hours, 0.3.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Household Education Survey,

spring 1996, Youth Civic Involvement component.

In addition to those students who said they already had participated in community service,

another 31 percent said they had not yet participated but that they planned to before the school year was

completed. This response option was provided because the survey was conducted sometime between

January 2, 1996, and April 13, 1996, so there still may have been considerable time to participate in such

activities. Depending on when the students were interviewed, between 10 percent and 50 percent of the

school year remained. However, students’ reported plans to participate should not be considered as definite

as the other responses. Many people make plans that they do not fulfill. Also, some students may have

said they planned to participate in order to please the interviewer (i.e., to give a socially desirable

response), rather than because they really expected to follow through. The methodology section of this

report provides data suggesting that many of these students ultimately did not participate in community

service during the school year. This report, therefore, focuses on those students who already had

participated as being the best measure of student participation.
7

Plans to Participate Next Year

Students also were asked if they planned to participate in community service in the next

school year. Since students’ expectations of participating later in the school year may often have been left

unfulfilled, it is difficult to evaluate the accuracy of students’ projections for the next year. Still, it appears

that once students start participating, they generally expect to continue (table 2). Of those who already

participated regularly in community service, 92 percent expected to also participate in the next year. A

comparable percentage (89 percent) of those who had participated once or twice also expected to

participate again in the next year.

5

 Students who expected to participate by the end of the school year were

less likely to say they would participate the next year (84 percent) than students who had participated (91

percent), and students who neither participated nor planned to participate later in the school year were the

least likely to expect to participate (49 percent).

Table 2.—Percent of students in grades 6 through 12 and their reported plans for community service

participation next year, by community service participation in the current year: 1996

Characteristic

Number of

students

Student plans to do

community service next year

Student does not plan to do

community service next year

(thousands) Percent s.e. Percent s.e.

 Total............................................... 25,726 80 0.6 20 0.6

Community service participation

Any participation by time of

 interview1....................................... 12,627 91 0.5 9 0.5

 Regular....................................... 6,596 92 0.7 8 0.7

 1 or 2 times................................. 6,031 89 0.9 11 0.9

Will participate later this school

 year

2

..............................................

8,005 84 0.9 16 0.9

No participation this school year....... 5,094 49 1.8 51 1.8

1 Data were collected from January 2, 1996, through April 13, 1996. Any student who reported participating in at least one

activity more than twice is classified as a regular participant. Students may have participated in multiple activities without

being classified as regular participants if no individual activity was performed regularly.

2 Only students who had not done community service by the time of the interview were asked this question.

NOTE: s.e. is standard error.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Household Education Survey,

spring 1996, Youth Civic Involvement component.

 

5

 Given these high percentages, an analysis was performed to examine the possible effect of incorporating community service into the curriculum on

students’ expected participation the next year. For those students who had already participated (these were the only students asked about curriculum

incorporation), the expectation of participating in the next year was uniformly high (ranging from 88 to 93 percent) regardless of the ways in which

the curriculum was involved.
8

Student Characteristics

Student characteristics are likely to be related to community service participation. Such

characteristics as the students’ race/ethnicity, grade level, and school performance are often related to the

resources available to the students (e.g., for transportation or for clothing or supplies used in the service),

students’ knowledge of and access to community service opportunities (e.g., based on contacts through

family or friends), and students’ skills and attitudes that may affect community service (e.g., self-esteem

and self-efficacy). A recent study by Independent Sector (1996b) shows a relationship between one student

characteristic — race/ethnicity — and community service, with blacks and Hispanics being less likely to

participate than whites.

Using a broad range of student characteristics, the current study confirms that some types of

students are more likely to participate than others (table 1). There was an especially strong relationship

between students’ academic performance and their participation, with 60 percent participating among

students who reported receiving mostly As, compared with 48 percent of those receiving mostly Bs, 38

percent of those receiving mostly Cs, and 30 percent of those receiving mostly Ds and Fs. It is not possible

from the data to determine the direction of the relationship; Shumer (1994) found that participation had a

positive effect on school grades, but other factors that are related to grades (such as household income and

the education level of adults in the household, both of which precede student participation) also are related

to student participation. It may be that both explanations are correct: student participation may affect

student grades, while the kinds of students who participate may also be the ones more likely to receive high

grades.

Students were also more likely to participate if they were female (53 percent) than male (45

percent), white (53 percent) rather than black or Hispanic (38-43 percent), and if English was the primary

language they spoke at home (50 percent versus 32 percent). Finally, 11th and 12th graders were more

likely to participate than those in earlier grades (56 percent versus 45-47 percent); some possible

explanations for this difference are differences in student maturity based on age (as in Miller 1994), greater

mobility, or the need to fulfill a community service requirement before graduating.

It is possible that just as there were differences among students who participated, there might

also be differences in how much they participated. One type of student might tend to participate once or

twice, while other types might tend to participate more regularly. For example, the additional increment of

participants in one group might be based on an increased percentage of students who participated only once

or twice, while there were no differences between the groups in the percentage who participated more

regularly. However, the general result, as in the overall findings, was that students who participated in

community service were split fairly evenly between those who participated one or two times and those who
9

participated more regularly. The major exceptions were among 11th and 12th graders, who were more

likely to participate regularly than to participate once or twice (32 percent versus 24 percent), students who

received mostly As (33 percent participated regularly versus 27 percent who participated one or two times),

and females (29 percent versus 24 percent). For females and for 11th and 12th graders, it is the relatively

large number who participated regularly who are responsible for the overall differences in participation

rates, while there were only small differences in the percentage who participated one or two times.

Students who received mostly As showed a different pattern; they were more likely than those receiving Ds

and Fs not only to participate regularly, but also to participate one or two times.

Alternative Student Activities

Student activities might also play an important role in terms of whether or not a student gets

involved in community service. Several different hypotheses on the relationship can be developed regarding

the relationship between student activities and participation in community services. On the one hand,

involvement in other activities demonstrates self-efficacy and a desire to be involved, so that students who

are involved in one activity might also be involved in community service. On the other hand, involvement

in alternative activities could also be expected to reduce the amount of time available for community

service, so that one type of involvement might compete with the other — especially if the community

service occurs regularly.

The data suggest that the first hypothesis is more accurate: students who were involved in

alternative activities were more likely to be involved in community service as well (table 3). For example,

42 percent of the students who were involved in student government also said they regularly participated in

community service, compared with 22 percent of those not in student government. Similarly, 31 percent of

those who were involved in other school activities, and 32 percent of those involved in non-school activities,

said they regularly participated in community services, compared to 14-15 percent of other students. Even

students who worked for pay, who might be hypothesized to be more needy and/or to be more oriented to

satisfying their personal needs, were more likely to say they participated regularly in community service

than students who did not work (30 percent versus 21 percent).

No direct measure of hours spent in other activities was collected. However, a sense of the

level of commitment to other activities can be developed by looking at the number of different kinds of

activities in which students were involved. The greater the number of types of activities that students were

involved in, the more likely they were to also report regularly participating in community service; for

example, 51 percent of the students who participated in all four of the listed activities also said they
10

Table 3.—Percent of students in grades 6 through 12 and their reported community service participation, by selected

student activities: 1996

Number of

students

Participated by time of interview1 Will participate

before the end

Will not

participate

Activity (thousands) Regular

participation

One or two

times

Total (any

participation)

of the school

year

2

this school year

Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e.

 Total ............................. 25,726 26 0.6 23 0.6 49 0.7 31 0.7 20 0.6

Student involved in

student government3

 Yes................................ 4,247 42 1.6 28 1.6 70 1.6 21 1.3 9 0.9

 No................................. 21,479 22 0.6 23 0.7 45 0.8 33 0.8 22 0.6

Student involved in other

school activities

 Yes................................ 17,491 31 0.8 26 0.8 57 0.9 28 0.9 15 0.5

 No................................. 8,235 14 0.8 17 1.0 32 1.3 38 1.2 30 1.2

Student involved in nonschool activities

 Yes................................ 16,201 32 0.7 28 0.8 60 0.8 26 0.8 14 0.5

 No................................. 9,526 15 0.8 16 0.9 31 1.1 40 1.3 29 1.2

Student worked for pay

 Yes................................ 12,468 30 0.9 26 1.0 56 1.0 27 0.9 17 0.7

 No................................. 13,258 21 0.8 21 0.7 43 1.0 35 1.0 22 0.8

Numbers of types of

student activity4

 0.................................... 2,423 8 1.4 12 1.5 20 1.9 46 2.3 35 2.0

 1.................................... 6,313 14 1.0 17 1.1 31 1.4 39 1.5 30 1.3

 2.................................... 8,568 26 1.0 24 1.0 50 1.2 31 1.1 19 1.0

 3.................................... 6,731 37 1.2 31 1.2 68 1.2 22 1.1 10 0.7

 4.................................... 1,691 51 2.7 29 2.5 81 2.1 16 1.9 4 0.8

1 Data were collected from January 2, 1996, through April 13, 1996. Any student who reported participating in at least one activity more

than twice is classified as a regular participant. Students may have participated in multiple activities without being classified as regular

participants if no individual activity was performed regularly.

2 Only students who had not done community service by the time of the interview were asked this question.

3 Includes running for office, working on a campaign, or serving in the student government.

4 Total number of activities in which the student reported that he or she participated, based on the following four categories: student

government, other school activities, organized non-school activities, and working for pay either regularly or occasionally.

NOTE: s.e. is standard error. Numbers may not add to totals because of rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Household Education Survey, spring 1996,

Youth Civic Involvement component.
11

participated regularly in community service, compared with 37 percent of those who participated in three of

the four activities, and 8 percent of those who participated in none of the four activities.

Family Characteristics

Student behavior is often strongly related to the student’s family background. Student

community service activity is probably no different since the family environment is likely to affect students’

interest in community service and their ability to participate. For instance, one study (Independent Sector

1996b) found that participation was much higher among students who said both parents volunteered than

among students who said neither parent volunteered (78 percent versus 47 percent). Parental education and

income may affect the resources available to help students participate, including the knowledge of what

opportunities might be available, and the transportation or other resources that might be needed. Twoparent families might provide more support for community service than one-parent families, either directly

(e.g., two-parent families may have more time and resources for their own participation in community

service and in supporting their children), or indirectly (e.g., whether the parental environment affects such

student characteristics as self-esteem and self-efficacy, which in turn may affect student participation).

Each of the above family characteristics was associated with whether or not the students

participated (or planned to participate) in community service (table 4). Students were more likely to

participate if an adult in the household participated in community service (57 percent) than if no adult

participated (39 percent). They also were more likely to participate if the highest degree held by a parent in

the household was a college degree or higher (58-64 percent) than if no adult had a college degree (34-48

percent), and if the household income was more than $40,000 (53-60 percent) than if it was lower (37-47

percent). Finally, students in two-parent households were more likely to participate than those in oneparent households (52 percent versus 43 percent).

Again, student participants tended to be relatively evenly split between those who participated

once or twice and those who participated more regularly. Two exceptions were that students who had an

adult in the household who performed community service were more likely to participate regularly than

once or twice (32 percent versus 26 percent) as were students who had a parent with a graduate or

professional degree (35 percent versus 29 percent).
12

Table 4.—Percent of students in grades 6 through 12 and their reported participation in community service, by selected

household characteristics: 1996

Number of

students

Participated by time of interview1 Will participate

before the end

Will not

participate

Characteristic (thousands) Regular

participation

One or two

times

Total (any

participation)

of the school

year

2

this school year

Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e.

 Total ............................ 25,726 26 0.6 23 0.6 49 0.7 31 0.7 20 0.6

Household income

 $10,000 or less............. 3,262 19 2.1 18 1.9 37 2.4 41 2.5 22 1.9

 $10,001 to $20,000....... 3,374 21 1.6 22 1.8 44 1.7 36 1.6 21 1.6

 $20,001 to $30,000....... 4,112 24 1.6 21 1.7 46 1.7 32 1.8 22 1.6

 $30,001 to $40,000....... 3,755 24 1.3 22 1.5 47 1.6 33 1.5 20 1.4

 $40,001 to $50,000....... 2,837 26 1.3 26 1.8 53 2.0 28 1.5 20 1.5

 $50,001 to $75,000....... 4,378 30 1.4 25 1.3 56 1.5 26 1.4 19 1.1

 More than $75,000....... 4,007 32 1.5 28 1.4 60 1.8 25 1.6 16 1.1

Parents/guardians’

highest education

 Less than high school.... 2,469 15 2.0 18 2.0 34 2.3 44 2.7 23 2.0

 High school diploma or

 equivalent................... 7,775 22 1.0 20 1.1 42 1.3 36 1.2 22 1.1

 Vocational education or

 some college............... 7,472 25 1.0 23 1.0 48 1.2 31 1.2 21 1.1

 College degree.............. 3,881 29 1.7 29 1.5 58 1.5 26 1.5 16 1.3

 Graduate/professional

 training or degree....... 4,129 35 1.5 29 1.5 64 1.9 22 1.6 14 1.0

Number of parents/

guardians in the

household

 1................................... 7,978 22 1.2 21 1.2 43 1.2 34 1.2 23 1.1

 2................................... 17,748 27 0.6 25 0.7 52 0.8 30 0.7 18 0.6

Any adult in the

household does

community service

 Yes............................... 13,785 32 0.9 26 0.8 57 1.0 28 0.9 14 0.7

 No................................ 11,941 19 0.8 21 0.9 39 1.1 34 0.9 26 0.9

1 Data were collected from January 2, 1996, through April 13, 1996. Any student who reported participating in at least one activity more than

twice is classified as a regular participant. Students may have participated in multiple activities without being classified as regular participants

if no individual activity was performed regularly.

2 Only students who had not done community service by the time of the interview were asked this question.

NOTE: s.e. is standard error. Numbers may not add to totals because of rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Household Education Survey, spring 1996, Youth

Civic Involvement component.
13

Community Characteristics

Though one would not expect the student to be affected as closely by the community as by the

family, the nature of the community also determines the role models offered to students, the resources

available, and the opportunities for service. For the most part, the differences among students based on

community characteristics were not as strong as those based on personal and family characteristics (table

5). However, just as household income was related to community service, community-based measures of

wealth also were related to community service. Students living in ZIP codes where less than 5 percent of

the families were below the poverty level in income were more likely to participate than those in ZIP codes

where 20 percent or more lived in poverty (54 percent versus 42 percent). Also, students living in ZIP

codes where more than 60 percent of the households were owner occupied were more likely to report

participating than were students in areas with lower ownership rates (50-51 percent versus 45 percent).

Community-based measures of wealth are closely related to household income (e.g., families with high

incomes are likely to live in communities with high income), so these findings do not necessarily indicate

that the community had an impact that was independent of the household characteristics.

School Characteristics

One focus of this report is on the role that schools play in students’ participation in

community service. It is therefore helpful to examine general patterns of participation based on school type

before looking in more detail at specific school policies that may affect student participation. The school

type may be important both because it may be related to the type of policies and opportunities at schools

concerning community service, and because to the degree that students and parents are able to select which

schools the students attend (i.e., especially among private schools, though students are sometimes able to

choose among public schools as well), student and family characteristics and attitudes may be interrelated

with school characteristics.

There was a great difference in participation depending on which type of school the student

attended (table 6). Students in private schools were more likely than those in public schools to report they

participated in community service (66 percent versus 47 percent). This difference was most pronounced

when comparing students in church-related schools to public schools (69 percent versus 47
14

Table 5.—Percent of students in grades 6 through 12 and their reported community service participation, by selected

community characteristics: 1996

Number of

students

Participated by time of interview1 Will participate

before the end

Will not

participate

Characteristic (thousands) Regular

participation

One or two

times

Total (any

participation)

of the school

year

2

this school year

Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e.

 Total.............................. 25,726 26 0.6 23 0.6 49 0.7 31 0.7 20 0.6

Census region

 Northeast....................... 5,295 26 1.1 21 1.3 47 1.6 32 1.5 22 1.2

 South............................. 8,842 25 1.0 24 1.0 49 1.1 33 1.1 19 0.9

 Midwest......................... 6,186 26 1.3 25 1.3 51 1.6 29 1.4 20 1.3

 West.............................. 5,403 26 1.3 24 1.2 50 1.6 31 1.4 19 1.2

Percent of families below

poverty in ZIP code3

 Less than 5 percent........ 7,424 29 1.1 25 1.1 54 1.4 28 1.3 19 1.0

 5 to 9 percent................. 7,489 26 1.1 24 1.1 50 1.3 30 1.1 20 1.2

 10 to 19 percent............. 7,250 24 1.1 23 1.1 47 1.2 32 1.4 21 1.1

 20 percent or more......... 3,563 22 1.6 20 1.6 42 1.7 39 1.9 19 1.4

Percent of households in

ZIP code owner occupied3

 60 percent or less........... 6,704 23 1.1 22 1.1 45 1.2 35 1.2 20 1.1

 61 to 70 percent............. 6,492 28 1.4 22 1.3 50 1.6 29 1.4 20 1.2

 71 percent or more......... 12,530 26 0.8 25 0.9 51 1.1 30 1.0 19 0.8

1 Data were collected from January 2, 1996, through April 13, 1996. Any student who reported participating in at least one activity more than

twice is classified as a regular participant. Students may have participated in multiple activities without being classified as regular participants if

no individual activity was performed regularly.

2 Only students who had not done community service by the time of the interview were asked this question.

3These variables are from the NHES:96 Household & Library restricted data file, which can be obtained from NCES under a special licensing

agreement.

NOTE: s.e. is standard error. Numbers may not add to totals because of rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Household Education Survey, spring 1996, Youth

Civic Involvement component.
15

percent).

6

 Students in church-related private schools also differed from the general pattern by being more

likely to have participated regularly (40 percent) than to have participated once or twice (28 percent).

Table 6.—Percent of students in grades 6 through 12 and their reported participation in community service, by

selected school characteristics: 1996

Number of

students

Participated by time of interview1 Will participate

before the end

Will not

participate

Characteristic (thousands) Regular

participation

One or two

times

Total (any

participation)

of the school

year

2

this school year

Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e.

School type

 Public............................ 23,343 24 0.6 23 0.6 47 0.8 32 0.7 21 0.6

 Assigned..................... 20,010 24 0.7 23 0.7 47 0.8 32 0.8 21 0.7

 Chosen........................ 3,332 28 1.8 22 1.9 50 2.0 32 2.1 18 1.3

 Private........................... 2,383 38 2.1 28 2.1 66 2.3 22 2.0 13 1.3

 Church-related............. 1,851 40 2.7 28 2.3 69 2.8 20 2.2 11 1.5

 Not church-related....... 533 29 4.8 28 4.2 57 5.0 26 4.0 17 3.6

1 Data were collected from January 2, 1996, through April 13, 1996. Any student who reported participating in at least one activity more

than twice is classified as a regular participant. Students may have participated in multiple activities without being classified as regular

participants if no individual activity was performed regularly.

2 Only students who had not done community service by the time of the interview were asked this question.

NOTE: s.e. is standard error. Numbers may not add to totals because of rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Household Education Survey, spring 1996,

Youth Civic Involvement component.

School Practices to Encourage Participation and Learning

Schools may engage in several activities to encourage students to participate in community

service. The most direct action a school may take is to include community service participation as a

requirement for graduation; this may be either a policy of an individual school or a rule set by a state for all

of its public school students. Schools may also facilitate community service by either arranging or offering

service activities, thus making it easier for students to become involved. A survey by Independent Sector

(1996a) indicates that 93 percent of teenagers who were asked to volunteer actually did participate,

compared with 24 percent of those who were not asked, lending credence to the idea that schools may have

substantial influence by simply offering or arranging community service. Still another step schools may

take is to incorporate community service into the school curriculum (e.g., by talking about it in class,

 

6

 These findings are consistent with those reported in Frase (1995). That study was based on data from the NELS:88 database and was limited to high

school seniors.
16

having students write about it, or allowing the activity to contribute to a class grade), thus increasing the

visibility and perhaps the perceived value of community service, as well as possibly offering rewards for

service.

The great majority of students (84 percent) said their schools arranged student community

service, including 16 percent who said their schools not only arranged it but also required it (figure 2).

Almost all of the remaining students (14 percent of the total) reported that their schools neither arranged

nor required community service. Very few students (2 percent) were in schools that required community

service without also arranging it.

Figure 2.—Percent of students in grades 6 through 12 who reported various school practices to

promote community service: 1996

NOTE: Standard errors are as follows: school requires community service, 0.6; school arranges community service, 0.5; school

only arranges community service, 0.7; school only requires community service, 0.2; school neither requires nor arranges student

community service, 0.5; school requires and arranges student community service, 0.5.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Household Education Survey,

spring 1996, Youth Civic Involvement component.

Relationship Between School Policies and Student Participation

Based on the students’ description of their schools, the type of policies that schools

established appears to be related to student participation. The most important factor appeared to be

whether schools arranged or offered community services: 52 to 56 percent of students in such schools said
17

they had participated in community service, compared with 19 to 30 percent of the remaining students

(table 7). On the other hand, school policies that required community service did not appear to have as

much impact, at least at the time of the survey. The participation rates of students in schools that both

arranged and required community service (56 percent) were similar to those in schools that only arranged it

(52 percent), while participation at schools that only required service (19 percent) was actually lower than

either schools that only arranged it (52 percent) or that neither required nor arranged it (30 percent).

Table 7.—Community service participation of students in grades 6 through 12, by reported school practices to

promote student community service: 1996

Community service

participation

School requires

and arranges

 community service

School only requires

community service

School only arranges

community service

School does not

require or arrange

community service

Estimate s.e. Estimate s.e. Estimate s.e. Estimate s.e.

 Number of students

 (thousands).................. 4,242 136 394 53 17,446 177 3,644 124

Community service

participation

 Any participation by

 time of interview1......... 56% 1.9 19% 3.9 52% 0.9 30% 1.7

 Regular..................... 30 1.6 9 2.3 27 0.7 15 1.3

 1 or 2 times............... 27 1.6 10 3.5 25 0.8 14 1.2

 Will participate later

 this school year2............ 32 1.8 61 5.1 29 0.8 37 1.6

 No participation this

 school year................... 11 1.0 20 4.7 19 0.6 34 1.8

Plans to participate next

school year

 Yes................................. 87 1.4 76 5.5 81 0.6 70 1.9

 No.................................. 13 1.4 24 5.5 19 0.6 30 1.9

1 Data were collected from January 2, 1996, through April 13, 1996. Any student who reported participating in at least one activity more

than twice is classified as a regular participant. Students may have participated in multiple activities without being classified as regular

participants if no individual activity was performed regularly.

2 Only students who had not done community service by the time of the interview were asked this question.

NOTE: s.e. is standard error. Numbers may not add to totals because of rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Household Education Survey, spring 1996,

Youth Civic Involvement component.

Among those relatively few students who were at schools that required community service but

did not arrange or offer it, the most common response was that students had not participated yet but they
18

planned to later in the year (61 percent). If all of these students ultimately did participate by the end of the

year (which was not certain, since the presence of a requirement did not necessarily mean the requirement

had to be fulfilled in that year), the overall participation rate for that year would be better than at schools

that neither required nor arranged community service (80 percent versus 66 percent), but no better than at

schools that arranged service without requiring it (80 percent versus 81 percent).

7

At least two hypotheses are available to explain how school policies affect students’

participation in community service: school policies might compensate for lower motivation to participate

among some students (either by forcing students to participate regardless of their motivation, or by making

participation easier so that less work or initiative is required to participate), or schools might help students

to overcome other barriers to participation (e.g., the student may not know how to get involved, what

opportunities are available, and whom to contact). It is possible for both of these hypotheses to be true, but

each might tend to support a different kind of school policy: requiring students to participate might seem

most directed at compensating for lower motivation, and arranging community service might seem most

directed at removing barriers to participation. Based on this logic, the fact that arranging community

service appears more important than requiring it provides some evidence that students are willing to

participate but that many students need help in order to participate.

Another way to examine this issue is to compare students across schools in terms of the

number of hours that students devote to community service. Since schools that arranged community

service generally seemed to be successful in getting additional students to participate, one can ask how

those students compared to the students who probably would have participated in any case. If the students

who were led to participate by the school policies had less motivation than other participants, one might

expect them to participate for fewer hours. If so, schools with such policies might have a different

distribution from other schools, with more students concentrated at the low end of the scale. In fact, no

such pattern appeared, and the patterns of participation were much the same regardless of the school

policies (table 8). For example, the percentage of students who participated for 10 or fewer hours ranged

from 23 to 27 percent, and the percentage who participated for more than 80 hours ranged only from 19 to

23 percent. Thus, the school policies seemed primarily to work by lessening barriers to participation for

students who were otherwise willing to participate, rather than compensating for lower motivation.

School policies also were related to students’ plans for participating in community service in

the next year, although the relationship was not as strong as for the same year. Students in schools that

both required and arranged community service were more likely to plan to participate in the next year (87

 

7

 Standard errors for the combined estimates are as follows: school only requires community service, 4.7; school does not require or arrange

community service, 1.8; school only arranges community service, 0.6.
19

percent) than students in schools that only arranged (without requiring) community service (81 percent),

and students at both kinds of schools were more likely to participate than those in schools that neither

required nor arranged community service (70 percent).

8

Table 8.—Hours of regular community service participation in the current school year for students in grades 6

through 12, by reported school practices to promote student community service: 1996

Community service

participation

School requires

and arranges

 community service

School only requires

community service

School only arranges

community service

School does not

require or arrange

community service

Estimate s.e. Estimate s.e. Estimate s.e. Estimate s.e.

 Number of students

 (thousands).................. 1,253 75 34 9 4,755 137 554 47

Hours of community

service since the beginning

of school1

 10 or fewer hours............ 23% 2.7 (*) (*) 27% 1.6 25% 3.9

 11 to 30 hours................. 28 3.0 (*) (*) 27 1.4 30 3.4

 31 to 80 hours................. 26 3.0 (*) (*) 26 1.5 25 3.9

 More than 80 hours........ 23 2.4 (*) (*) 20 1.3 19 3.5

1 This variable was constructed by summing all reported hours of community service activity during the current school year in which a

student had participated by the time of the interview. This question was asked only of those who had participated in at least one activity

on a regular basis (26 percent of 6th through 12th grade students). Additional information on this measure is provided in the section on

survey methodology at the end of this report, under the heading “hours of service measure.”

NOTE: s.e. is standard error. Numbers may not add to totals because of rounding. Because of the small number of cases (unweighted

n=14), estimates for students in schools that only require community service are not presented but are designated by (*).

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Household Education Survey, spring 1996,

Youth Civic Involvement component.

Types of schools promoting community service

All but 14 percent of students said their schools in some way encouraged community service,

with only small differences based on each student’s grade level and the school type (table 9). However,

there were large differences in terms of the mechanisms that were used to encourage community service —

specifically whether schools only arranged community service or they also required it. Students in private

schools were much more likely than those in public schools to be in schools that required and arranged

 

8

 Data are not presented in a table. Standard errors are as follows: planned participation for students in schools that require and arrange community

service, 1.4; for students in schools that only arrange community service, 0.6; and for students in schools that neither require nor arrange community

service, 1.9.
20

community service (40 percent versus 14 percent), and less likely to be in schools that only arranged

community service (49 percent versus 70 percent). This was especially true of students in church-related

schools. Also, students in grades 9 through 12 were more likely to be in schools that both required and

arranged community service (18-21 percent versus 13 percent), and less likely to be in schools that neither

required nor arranged community service (11-12 percent versus 18 percent).

Table 9.—Percent of students in grades 6 through 12 who reported school practices to promote student

community service, by student’s grade and school type: 1996

Characteristic

Number of

students

(thousands)

School requires

and arranges

community

service

School only

requires community

service

School only

arranges community

service

School does not

require or arrange

community service

Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e.

 Total .............................. 25,726 16 0.5 2 0.2 68 0.7 14 0.5

Student’s grade*

 6-8 ................................. 11,535 13 0.7 2 0.3 67 1.0 18 0.8

 9-10................................ 7,429 21 1.1 2 0.4 65 1.3 12 0.7

 11-12.............................. 6,760 18 1.0 1 0.2 71 1.3 11 0.9

School type

 Public............................. 23,343 14 0.5 2 0.2 70 0.7 15 0.5

 Assigned...................... 20,010 14 0.6 1 0.2 70 0.8 15 0.5

 Chosen......................... 3,332 18 1.5 2 0.4 67 1.8 13 1.3

 Private............................ 2,383 40 2.1 2 0.5 49 2.2 10 1.2

 Church-related.............. 1,851 42 2.3 2 0.6 46 2.4 10 1.5

 Not church-related......... 533 31 4.0 1 0.5 60 4.3 8 2.1

*One case was coded ungraded, no equivalent. It was not included in this analysis.

NOTE: s.e. is standard error. Numbers may not add to totals because of rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Household Education Survey, spring

1996, Youth Civic Involvement component.
21

The impact of adults as examples

To get a better picture of the relationship between school practices and student community

service, a key family characteristic — the involvement of an adult in the household in community service

— was controlled for. Fifty-four percent of students reported that their parents or another adult in the

household performed community service. The relationship between student reports of school policies and

student participation continued to hold regardless of whether an adult in the household provided a

positive example of community service, though the overall levels of participation were somewhat lower if

no adult participated. For example, among students who said no adult in the household participated in

community service, 43 to 47 percent of students participated in community service if they said their school

arranged it, compared with 13 to 20 percent of students in other schools (table 10). Similarly, the

relationship between school policies and plans for participating in the next year was maintained when no

adults participated (with a greater percentage planning to participate if students said the school both

required and arranged community service than if students said the school only arranged it, and a greater

percentage in both groups planning to participate than if students said the school neither required nor

arranged community service).

The lack of an adult participating in community service seemed to most affect the percentage

of students who participated regularly. One example is among students at schools that arranged

community service; if the students lived in households with a participating adult, 33 to 37 percent

participated regularly, compared with only 20 to 21 percent if no adult participated in community service.

By contrast, there was not much difference in the percentage who participated one or two times (e.g., 27

percent versus 22 to 26 percent).

A Multivariate Test of the Relationship Between School Policies and Student

Participation

Since a number of student, family, and school characteristics were associated with student

participation in community service, it is possible that the apparent association between school policies and

student participation might change if these factors are accounted for. For example, if parents who

participated in community service tended to live in the same types of communities or choose the same types

of schools for their children, then the adoption of school policies promoting participation in community

service may be an indicator that students were living in family environments that promoted community

service, while the school policies themselves may have had no independent impact. To examine this

possibility, a multivariate logistic regression that included student, family, and school characteristics was

performed (table 11). This test suggests that school policies did have an independent
22

Table 10.—Community service participation of students in grades 6 through 12, by participation in community service

of adults in the household and by school practices to promote community service: 1996

Characteristic

School requires

and arranges

community service

School only

requires community

service

School only

arranges community

service

School does not

require nor arrange

community service

Estimate s.e. Estimate s.e. Estimate s.e. Estimate s.e.

 Number of students

 (thousands)................... 4,242 136 394 53 17,446 177 3,644 124

No adult participated in

community service

 Number of students

 (thousands).................... 1,932 83 225 39 8,032 151 1,752 93

Student community

service participation

 Any participation by

 time of interview1......... 47% 3.1 13% 4.7 43% 1.3 20% 2.0

 Regular...................... 21 2.0 6 2.6 20 1.0 10 1.6

 1 or 2 times................ 26 2.5 8 4.6 22 1.1 10 1.4

 Will participate later

 this school year2............ 37 2.9 59 8.5 33 1.2 34 2.5

 No participation this

 school year................... 16 1.9 28 7.8 24 1.0 46 3.0

Student plans to participate

next school year

 Yes................................. 82 2.6 70 8.2 75 1.1 59 3.1

 No.................................. 18 2.6 30 8.2 25 1.1 41 3.1

Adult participated in

community service

 Number of students

 (thousands).................... 2,310 108 170 34 9,414 187 1,892 90

Student community

service participation

 Any participation by

 time of interview1......... 64 2.4 26 6.1 60 1.3 39 2.3

 Regular...................... 37 2.3 13 4.4 33 1.1 20 1.9

 1 or 2 times................ 27 1.9 14 5.7 27 1.0 18 1.9

 Will participate later

 this school year2............ 29 2.1 64 6.8 26 1.1 39 2.7

 No participation this

 school year................... 7 1.1 10 4.8 14 0.8 22 2.1

Student plans to participate

next school year

 Yes................................. 91 1.2 83 7.1 87 0.9 80 2.2

 No.................................. 9 1.2 17 7.1 13 0.9 20 2.2

1Data were collected from January 2, 1996, through April 13, 1996. Any student who reported participating in at least one activity more than

twice is classified as a regular participant. Students may have participated in multiple activities without being classified as regular

participants if no individual activity was performed regularly.

2Only students who had not done community service by the time of the interview were asked this question.

NOTE: s.e. is standard error. Numbers may not add to totals because of rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Household Education Survey, spring 1996,

Youth Civic Involvement component.
23

Table 11.—Logistic regression analysis to predict student participation in community service

Coefficient1Standard error P-value Odds ratio2

Intercept -3.17** 0.157 0.0000 0.04**

Student characteristics

 Female ................................................................ 0.13* 0.053 0.0128 1.14*

 English spoken most at home by student.............. 0.45** 0.130 0.0009 1.57**

 Number of types of student activities................... 0.60** 0.037 0.0000 1.82**

 Student in grades 11 or 12................................... 0.21** 0.066 0.0025 1.23**

 Student received mostly As.................................. 0.51** 0.078 0.0000 1.67**

 Student received mostly Bs.................................. 0.20* 0.078 0.0113 1.22*

Family characteristics

 Adult performed community service..................... 0.32** 0.066 0.0000 1.38**

 Parent/guardian had college degree or higher....... 0.25** 0.064 0.0002 1.28**

School characteristics

 Church-related school.......................................... 0.58** 0.137 0.0000 1.79**

 Other private school............................................. 0.13 0.228 0.5715 1.14

School policies

 School required service........................................ 0.10 0.091 0.2650 1.11

 School arranged service....................................... 1.00** 0.083 0.0000 2.72**

*p<.05. **p<.01.

1Each category is expressed relative to an omitted category for the variable, controlling for all other variables in the model. The

applicable coefficients can be summed to estimate the probability that students with certain characteristics will participate in

community service. For example, for a female student who spoke English the most at home, who participated in three other

types of activities, who received mostly As, who had an adult in the household who performed community service, and who fit

none of these other criteria, the sum is -3.17 + .13 + .45 +3(.60) + .51 + .32 = .04. Based on these characteristics, the

probability of participation is 1/(1 + e -.04) = .51, or 51 percent.

2The odds ratio can be used to estimate the change in probability of a student participating in community service. An odds ratio

greater than 1 indicates that students in the indicated group were more likely to perform community service than the omitted

group. More specifically, suppose a student would ordinarily have a probability of participating of 51 percent, but that student

is in a school that arranges service. The student’s original probability can be expressed as an odds [51/(100-51) = 51/49 =

1.04]. The odds ratio of 2.72 for schools that arrange service can be multiplied by the original odds (2.72 times 1.04 = 2.83) to

estimate the revised odds that the student would participate, based on the school’s policy. To express the revised odds as a

probability, one can apply the formula: probability = (odds)/ (1 + odds) = 2.83/3.83 = .74. Thus, by being in a school that

arranges services, the student’s probability of participating would increase from 51 percent to 74 percent. The amount of the

increase that is associated with the school policy varies from one student to another depending on the student’s original

probability of participating.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Household Education Survey,

spring 1996, Youth Civic Involvement component.
24

and positive effect on student participation rates, even after statistically adjusting for these other factors.

Students who were in schools that arranged community services had a higher probability of participation in

community service, while students who were in schools that required community service did not show a

statistically significant difference in their participation from other students.

9

Incorporating Community Service into the Curriculum

A common goal of encouraging community service through school policies is to turn it into a

learning experience by providing a chance within the student’s curriculum to reflect about the experience

— also called service-learning. A majority (56 percent) of students who participated in community service

reported that their schools in some way used service-learning methods by incorporating their community

service into the curriculum (table 12). Nearly half (45 percent) of those students who participated in

community service said they had a chance to talk about their service experience in class or in a group

session with other students. Further, 23 percent said their service activity contributed to a class grade, and

17 percent said they were required to write about a service activity in a journal or essay. An estimated 7

percent said the service activity was incorporated in all three ways.

 

9

 Some measures that were related to participation when bivariate tests were performed did not show statistically significant results in the logistic

regression and were dropped from the model: these were percentage of households in the respondent’s ZIP code that were below poverty level and

percentage of households that were owner occupied, household income, race, and the number of parents in the household. This does not mean that

these factors had no impact on participation, but only that no statistically significant independent effect could be identified. The basic findings did

not change when these variables were included, or when alternative forms of the model were also examined (see table 13 for the full logistic

regression model). The impact of arranging community service continued to be statistically significant while the impact of requiring community

service continued not to be significant if information about school type was removed from the regression, if a separate term was included to measure

schools that both required community service and arranged or offered it, and if both actions were taken (i.e., excluding school type and including a

separate term for schools that both required and arranged service). Statistical significance depends in part on the number of cases, and a lack of

statistical significance does not necessarily mean that the policy had no impact. However, since the magnitude of the coefficient was also small

compared to that for arranging community service, it appears that the policy of arranging community service had the greatest impact.
25

Table 12.—Percent of students in grades 6 through 12 participating in community service who reported

incorporation of community service in the curriculum, by school practices to promote student

community service: 1996

Characteristic

Number of

students

participating

in

community

service

(thousands)

*

Talked about

service activity

in class

Required to

write about

service activity

Service activity

contributed to a

class grade

Service activity

was

incorporated in

at least one way

Service activity

was

incorporated in

all three ways

Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e. Percent s.e.

 Total................................. 12,627 45 0.9 17 0.7 23 0.8 56 0.9 7 0.6

School practice

 Requires and arranges

 service............................ 2,389 50 2.3 32 2.2 35 2.3 67 2.3 14 1.8

 Requires service only........ 74 32 11.6 40 13.8 44 13.0 57 11.3 17 11.3

 Arranges service only........ 9,087 47 1.2 14 0.8 22 1.0 56 1.2 6 0.6

 Neither requires nor

 arranges service............. 1,076 21 2.6 9 1.8 6 1.4 27 2.8 3 1.2

*Numbers may not add to totals because of rounding.

NOTE: s.e. is standard error.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Household Education Survey, spring 1996, Youth

Civic Involvement component.

The incorporation of community service into the curriculum varied depending on other school

practices concerning community service. The three strategies that were examined in the questionnaire

differed in the degree to which an action was imposed on the student (i.e., the questionnaire did not ask

students if they were required to talk about their experience, but only if they had a chance to, while the

other two activities were more directive), and the degree to which the student could initiate the activity at

his/her own initiative (i.e., a student might have a chance to talk about the experience in class sessions that

were not specifically directed towards community service). Thus, it is not surprising that a different

pattern appeared for talking about the service activity than for writing about it or incorporating it into a

grade. Students were most likely to talk about the service activity in class if their school arranged

community service (47-50 percent versus 21-32 percent), regardless of whether the schools required

community service. They also were more likely to talk about the service activity than to write about it or

have it count toward a grade in a class if the school neither required nor arranged community service,

possibly suggesting that some of the students may have been initiating the discussion of community service

rather than there being an intentional strategy on the part of the school to introduce a discussion of

community service into the curriculum. For the other two activities, however, students were more likely to
26

report school involvement if the schools required service: 32 to 40 percent were required to write about the

service activity if service was required (versus 9-14 percent), and 35 to 44 percent said the activity

contributed to a class grade (versus 6-22 percent).

10

It may be that teachers were reluctant or less able to

take these more compulsory actions unless they could be sure that students had participated in community

service, so that these approaches were more common when community service was specifically required.

Looking at all three curriculum strategies together, students were more likely to report that at

least one of the strategies was used if they were in schools that both required and arranged service than if

the school only arranged service (67 percent versus 56 percent) or neither arranged nor required service (67

percent versus 27 percent). Finally, students were more likely to have the service activity incorporated into

the curriculum in all three ways if they were at schools that required service (14-17 percent versus 3-6

percent).

 

10 A qualification that should be added is that the number of students in schools that required community service but did not arrange it was so small

that this group might be combined with any of the other three groups without much impact. The important point is that these two methods of

incorporating the service activity into the curriculum were more common when students were in schools that both required and arranged community

service than when the schools did not require community service.
27

Summary and Conclusions

The NHES:96 data indicate that many students are involved in community service. About

half of students in 6th through 12th grade reported they participated in some type of service activity during

the 1995-96 school year prior to the time they were interviewed. Overall, 23 percent said they participated

once or twice in each of up to three activities that they described, and 26 percent said they participated

more regularly in at least one activity. Among those who had participated more regularly, 12 percent

participated for more than 30 hours, and 19 percent for more than 10 hours. Generally, almost all (91

percent) of those who had participated in 1995-96 also expected to participate in 1996-97, while about half

of those who said they would not participate in 1995-96 also said they expected to participate in 1996-97.

While many students were involved, not all kinds of students were involved equally. Those

who were more likely to participate were students who received high grades, females, students for whom

English was the primary language they spoke at home, and 11th and 12th graders. By contrast, students

who received lower grades, males, and 6th through 10th graders were less likely to participate. The greater

the number of types of activities students were involved in (i.e., student government, other school activities,

non-school activities, or work for pay), the more likely they were to participate in community service.

Students who attended private schools, especially church-related schools, were also more likely to have

done community service.

In addition to the student and school characteristics that were related to participation, some

family characteristics also were related. Students were more likely to participate if an adult in the

household participated in community service and if the highest degree held by a parent was a college degree

or higher.

Several variables associated with community service participation in bivariate analyses did

not show a relationship once other factors were adjusted for. For instance, the results of a bivariate

analysis supported other studies’ conclusions that white students are more likely to participate than

students from other racial and ethnic groups. However, race/ethnicity as well as household income, number

of parents in the household, percent of households in the ZIP code that were owner occupied, and percent of

families below the poverty line in the ZIP code did not reach significance in the logistic regression. Rather,

the effect of these variables on participation in community service that was noted in the bivariate analyses

was accounted for in the multivariate model by other variables such as student’s gender, parents’

educational achievement, and school policies.
28

The great majority of students (86 percent) were in schools that in some way encouraged

community service, and these policies were related to student participation in community service. The most

important factor was whether schools arranged community service; whether schools actually required

participation in community service did not have an independent effect. It may be that the measured effect

of requiring participation would have been greater if this study had been limited to 12th graders (the group

most directly facing the need to participate in order to graduate) and if it had been conducted later in the

year (since some students might not yet have acted on the requirement), but the large effect of simply

arranging community service is noteworthy in any case. It continued to appear even after performing

multivariate analyses to adjust for the effect of other factors known to be related to student participation in

community service. Private schools, and especially church-related private schools, differed from public

schools in the way they sought to encourage community service; students in private schools were somewhat

evenly divided among those in schools that both required and arranged community service and schools that

only arranged community service, while public schools students tended to be in schools that only arranged

community service.

Many students also reported that their schools incorporated their community service into the

curriculum by talking about it in class, by writing about it, or by incorporating it in their grades; the most

common of these was talking about it in class. Students who were in schools that both required and

arranged community service were more likely to say that their community service had been incorporated

into the curriculum than students in schools that only arranged community service; thus, whatever the effect

of requiring community service on student participation rates, school policies on requiring community

service did have important implications for the curriculum.

Because this survey was cross-sectional rather than following students over time, it does not

provide data on the effects of community service. A future topic for research might be to examine whether

changes such as improved grades or altered attitudes might differ depending on what methods are used to

encourage community service or depending upon what type of service is performed. How effective school

sponsored community service activities are in preparing students for the work place is also an important

question that needs to be addressed. Another potential topic for future research would be to further

examine the relationship between parents as role models and the service activities of their children; for

example, if schools encouraged greater participation by parents in school activities, a side effect might be

to provide a role model that also results in greater participation in community service by students.
29

Survey Methodology and Data Reliability

The 1996 National Household Education Survey (NHES:96) is a telephone survey conducted

by Westat for the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Data

collection took place from January through April of 1996. When appropriately weighted, the sample is

nationally representative of all civilian, noninstitutionalized persons in the 50 states and the District of

Columbia. The sample was selected using random-digit-dialing (RDD) methods, and the data were

collected using computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) technology. See Vaden-Kiernan et al.

(forthcoming) for more information.

The Youth Civic Involvement (CI) component of the NHES:96, which is the primary basis of

this report, employed a sample of students in grades 6 through 12. Up to three instruments were used to

collect information on the school and family experiences of these students. A set of screening items

(Screener), administered to a member of the household age 18 or older, was used to determine whether any

children of the appropriate ages or grades lived in the household, to collect information on each household

member, and to identify the appropriate parent/guardian respondent for the sampled child. For sampling

purposes, children residing in the household were grouped into younger children (age 3 through grade 5)

and older children (grades 6 through 12). If one child age 3 to 5th grade resided in the household, an

interview was conducted about that child; if there were multiple children in this range, one child was

sampled with equal probability. Similarly, if one child in 6th through 12th grade resided in the household,

an interview was conducted about that child; if there were multiple children in this range, one child was

sampled with equal probability. Up to two children could have been selected from a household, one in the

lower age/grade range and one in the higher grade range.

For households with youth in 6th through 12th grade who were sampled for the survey, a

Parent and Family Involvement in Education/Civic Involvement (PFI/CI) interview was conducted with the

parent/guardian most knowledgeable about the care and education of the youth, usually the child's mother.

Following completion of that interview and receipt of parental permission, a Youth CI interview was

conducted with the student. This report was based on the responses of these students, and with few

exceptions all variables used in the report are on the Youth CI public data file. The analysis includes one

item taken from the Parent PFI/CI data file: the student’s academic performance. Two variables were

created from the 1990 Decennial Census (STF 3B data file) by matching the respondent’s ZIP code to the

census data. These items are the percentage of households below poverty and the percentage of households

that are owner occupied. These variables are contained in the NHES:96 Household & Library restricted

data file, which can be obtained from NCES under a special licensing agreement. More information about
30

the adult, parent, and youth data can be found in the National Household Education Survey of 1996, Data

File User’s Manual, Volumes I-V (Collins et al. forthcoming).

Response Rates

For the NHES:96 survey, Screeners were completed with 55,708 households. A sample of

23,835 children age 3 through 12th grade was selected for a Parent PFI/CI interview. This sample

included 10,949 youth in grades 6 through 12. The response rate for the Screener was 70 percent. The

completion rate for the Parent PFI/CI interview, or the percentage of eligible sampled children for whom

interviews were completed, was 89 percent, or 20,792 interviews. Thus, the overall response rate for the

Parent PFI/CI interview was 63 percent (the product of the Screener response rate and the Parent PFI/CI

completion rate). An interview with a sampled youth was attempted only after the interview with his or her

parent had been completed. The completion rate for youth in grades 6 through 12 was 76 percent. Thus,

the overall response rate for the Youth CI interview was 53 percent (the product of the Screener completion

rate and the Youth CI interview completion rate). For more information about response rates, see

Montaquila and Brick (forthcoming). This report is based on a subset of the total population of youth,

students enrolled in schools in the 6th through 12th grade. The unweighted number of cases included in

this analysis is 7,940.

For the NHES:96, item nonresponse (the failure to complete some items in an otherwise

completed interview) was very low. Most items in used in this analysis have response rates of 98 percent

or more as shown in exhibit 1. Items in this report that had a response rate of less than 98 percent are

number of weeks and number of hours per week the student performs community service, whether the

school arranges and/or requires student community service, whether the student will participate in

community service later this year or next year, whether the student participated in student government, and

household income. Through a procedure known as “hot-deck” imputation (Kalton and Kasprzyk 1986),

responses were imputed for missing values (i.e., “don't know” or “refused,” for items not specifically

designated to have those as legitimate response categories, or “not ascertained”). As a result, no missing

values remain.

Data Reliability

Estimates produced using data from the NHES:96 are subject to two types of error,

nonsampling and sampling errors. Sampling errors occur because the data are collected from a sample

rather than a census of the population. Nonsampling errors are errors made in the collection and

processing of data.
31

Exhibit 1.—Item response rates for variables used in the analysis

Variable Label

Number

eligible

Item

response

rate

SEX S6-GENDER AT SCREENER 8,043 99.98%

RACE SX21-RACE 8,043 99.52%

HISPAN SX22-HISPANIC 8,043 99.45%

HOWNHOME SX27-OWN, RENT HOME/OTHR ARRNGMNT 8,043 99.88%

HINCMRNG SX33- TOTAL HH INCOME RANGE 8,043 94.89%

HINCOME SX33- TOTAL HH INCOME RANGE 2 8,043 91.35%

CSPEAK PA3-LANG CHLD SPEAKS MOST AT HOME 20,792 100.00%

GRADE PB4-GRADE/YR CHLD IS ATTENDING 19,135 100.00%

SPUBLIC PD1-CHLD ATTNDS PUBL/PRIV SCH 19,343 99.86%

SCHOICE PD3-SCH ASSIGNED OR CHOSEN 7,130 99.99%

SEGRADES PE3-CHLD’S GRADES ACROSS ALL SUBJECTS 16,151 99.00%

MOMGRADE PL3-HIGHEST GRADE MOM COMPLETED 20,026 99.29%

DADGRADE PM3-HIGHEST GRADE DAD COMPLETED 15,825 98.75%

PRREPGOV YB2-SERVED/WORKED IN STUDENT GOVT 6,494 91.98%

PRSCHACT YB3-PARTICIPATED IN SCH ACTIVITIES 7,940 99.87%

PRGRPACT YB4-PARTICIPATED OUT-OF-SCH ACTIVITIES 8,043 99.93%

PRWORK YB5-WORKS FOR PAY 8,043 99.91%

SACTY YC1-DOES COMMTY SERVICE ACTY 8,043 99.69%

SAREG1 YC4-SERVICE ACTIVITY #1 SCHEDULE 3,996 99.60%

SAWKS1 YC5-FREQ OF SERVICE ACTIVITY #1 1,717 96.85%

SAWKSNU1 YC5OV-NUM WKS FOR SERV ACTY #1 1,162 96.21%

SAHRS1 YC6-HRS/WK FOR SERV ACTY #1 1,717 97.32%

SAHRSNU1 YC6OV-NUM HRS/WK FOR SERV ACTY #1 1,691 96.69%

SAREG2 YC4-SERVICE ACTIVITY #2 SCHEDULE 1,557 99.17%

SAWKS2 YC5-FREQ OF SERVICE ACTIVITY #2 623 97.75%

SAWKSNU2 YC5OV-NUM WKS FOR SERV ACTY #2 434 97.70%

SAHRS2 YC6-HRS/WK FOR SERV ACTY #2 623 98.56%

SAHRSNU2 YC6OV-NUM HRS/WK FOR SERV ACTY #2 606 98.02%

SAREG3 YC4-SERVICE ACTIVITY #3 SCHEDULE 458 99.13%

SAWKS3 YC5-FREQ OF SERVICE ACTIVITY #3 217 95.85%

SAWKSNU3 YC5OV-NUM WKS FOR SERV ACTY #3 140 97.14%

SAHRS3 YC6-HRS/WK FOR SERV ACTY #3 217 96.77%

SAHRSNU3 YC6OV-NUM HRS/WK FOR SERV ACTY #3 211 95.73%

SAARRSER YC8-SCH ARRANGES SERV ACTIVITIES 7,940 93.61%

SAREQSER YC9-SCH REQUIRES SERV ACTY 7,940 92.49%

SATALK YC11-TALK IN CLASS/GRP ABT SERV ACTY 3,956 99.32%

SAJOURNAL YC12-REQUIRED TO WRITE ABT SERV ACTY 3,956 99.54%

SAGRADE YC13-ACTIVITY FOR A GRADE IN CLASS 3,956 99.04%

SASCHLYR YC14-WILL DO SERV ACTY LATER THIS SCH YR 4,047 85.37%

SANEXTYR YC15-WILL DO SERV ACTY NEXT YR 8,043 87.87%

SASERVC YC17-FAM PARTICIPATES COMMTY SERV 8,043 98.45%

NOTE: The following variables were also used in the report analyses: CENREG, ZIP18POV, and ZIPOWNED.

These were not questionnaire variables but rather variables derived from respondents’ telephone area codes or ZIP

codes.
32

Weighting and sampling errors

All of the estimates in the report are based on weighting the observations using the

probabilities of selection of the respondents and other adjustments to partially account for nonresponse and

coverage bias. These weights were developed to make the estimates unbiased and consistent with estimates

of the national totals. There is a potential for bias in the estimates due to the high nonresponse in this

survey. Analyses of response rates for different classifications of the sampled youth also demonstrated

differential response rates according to the age and grade of child. To reduce potential nonresponse bias,

grade was used in the construction of weighting classes for nonresponse adjustment. For more information

about adjustment for non-response, see Montaquila and Brick (forthcoming).

The sample of telephone households selected for the NHES:96 is just one of many possible

samples that could have been selected. Therefore, estimates produced from the NHES:96 sample may

differ from estimates that would have been produced from other samples. This type of variability is called

sampling error because it arises from using a sample of households with telephones, rather than all

households with telephones.

The standard error is a measure of the variability due to sampling when estimating a statistic.

Standard errors can be used as a measure of the precision expected from a particular sample. The

probability that a complete census count would differ from the sample estimate by less than 1 standard

error is about 68 percent. The chance that the difference would be less than 1.65 standard errors is about

90 percent, and that the difference would be less than 1.96 standard errors, about 95 percent.

In addition to properly weighting the responses, special procedures for estimating the

statistical significance of the estimates were employed because the data were collected using a complex

sample design. Complex sample designs, like that used in the NHES, result in data that violate some of the

assumptions that are normally required to assess the statistical significance of the results. Frequently, the

sampling errors of the estimates from the survey are larger than would be expected if the sample was a

simple random sample and the observations were independent and identically distributed random variables.

Replication methods of variance estimation were used to reflect the actual sample design used

in the NHES:96. A form of the “jackknife” replication method (Wolter 1985) was used to compute the

standard errors for estimates presented in this report. The jackknife methods were used to estimate the

precision of the estimates of the reported national totals, percentages, and regression parameters. The idea

behind replication methods is to form subsamples, or replicates, and then calculate the estimate of interest

from the full sample as well as each replicate. The variation among the replicate estimates is used to

estimate the variance for the full sample. To form the replicates for the jackknife method used in this
33

analysis, 80 subsets of telephone numbers were identified. These subsets were constructed to be

approximately equal in size, with each subset resembling the full sample. Replicates were formed by

deleting one subset at a time and adjusting the weights of units (households or persons) in the other subsets

accordingly.

Standard errors for all of the estimates are presented. These standard errors can be used to

produce confidence intervals. For example, an estimated 26 percent of students reported regular

participation in a service activity. This figure has an estimated standard error of 0.6. Therefore, a 95

percent confidence interval for the percentage of students reporting regular participation in a service

activity is approximately 25 to 27 percent.

To test the differences between two categories (e.g., 6th through 8th graders versus 9th and

10th graders), Student's t statistic was employed, using unbiased estimates of sampling errors derived by

the replication methods mentioned above. As the number of comparisons at the same significance level

increases, it becomes more likely that at least one of the estimated differences will be significant merely by

chance, that is, it will be erroneously identified as different from zero. Even when there is no statistical

difference between the means or percentages being compared, there is a 5 percent chance of getting a

significant F or t value due to sampling error alone. As the number of comparisons increases, the chance of

making this type of error also increases.

A Bonferroni adjustment was used to correct significance tests for multiple comparisons.

This method adjusts the significance level for the total number of comparisons made with a particular

classification variable. All the differences cited in this report are significant at the 0.05 level of

significance after a Bonferroni adjustment.

Nonsampling errors

Nonsampling error is the term used to describe variations in the estimates that may be caused

by population coverage limitations and data collection, processing, and reporting procedures. The sources

of nonsampling errors are typically problems like unit and item nonresponse, the differences in respondents'

interpretations of the meaning of the questions, response differences related to the particular time the survey

was conducted, and mistakes in data preparation. As explained above, weighting procedures help to reduce

potential bias due to nonresponse.

In general, it is difficult to identify and estimate either the amount of nonsampling error or the

bias caused by this error. In the NHES:96, efforts were made to prevent such errors from occurring and to

compensate for them where possible. For instance, during the survey design phase, focus groups and
34

cognitive laboratory interviews were conducted for the purpose of assessing respondent knowledge of the

topics, comprehension of questions and terms, and the sensitivity of items. The design phase also entailed

CATI instrument testing and an extensive, multi-cycle field test in which about 3,200 Screeners, over 950

parent interviews, about 300 youth interviews, and about 40 adult interviews were conducted.

An important nonsampling error for a telephone survey is the failure to include persons who

do not live in households with telephones. About 93.3 percent of all students in grades 1 through 12 live in

households with telephones. Estimation procedures were used to help reduce the bias in the estimates

associated with youth who do not live in telephone households. Cross-classifications of race/ethnicity by

household income, census region by urbanicity, and home tenure by child’s grade were used for forming

cells for raking. For more information about coverage issues and estimation procedures, see Brick and

Burke (1992) and Montaquila and Brick (forthcoming).

Hours of Service Measure

The measure presented in this report for the number of hours of community service in which a

student had participated was developed by combining information about the number of weeks and the

number of hours per week that students reported spending in each of up to three service activities. First,

the number of weeks that the student had participated in each activity was calculated. The exact number of

weeks was used in the calculation if it was reported. For students who reported participating since the

beginning of the school year, the number of days from September 1, 1995, to the date of the interview was

calculated and divided by 7 to obtain the number of weeks. Some students (fewer than 3 percent for any

service activity) responded in some other way (for example, “three times a month”). For service activity

one, these cases were assigned the modal value for service activity one; that is, they were given the most

frequently reported number of weeks for the first service activity named by students. The same procedure

was used to assign the number of weeks for service activity two and service activity three.

Second, the number of hours for each service activity was calculated. If a specific number of

hours had been reported, that number was used. For the few students who gave another response (e.g., “the

hours change from week to week”), the modal value for number of hours for the appropriate service

activity (first, second, or third) was assigned. Modal values were assigned to less than 3 percent of

students in any given activity.

Third, the total number of hours of service in the current school year was calculated. The

number of hours per week was multiplied by the number of weeks for each service activity. The total

number of hours of community service for each student was calculated by summing the hours for each of

the three possible service activities.
35

Students’ Expectations of Serving Later in the School Year

To examine whether or not students actually met their expectations to do community service

later in the school year, students’ responses were grouped according to which month they responded to the

survey. If students were fulfilling their plans of getting involved in community service, one would expect

that the percentage saying they planned to participate would decrease as time progressed, both because

students at later times would have had more opportunities to participate, and because there would be less

chance to still participate later in the school year. The actual change was fairly small. Among students

who responded over the period January 2 through February 2, 33 percent said they had not yet participated

but would participate later in the school year, while among students in the last 6 weeks of data collection

(March 3 through April 13), 30 percent said they would participate later. Further, the insignificant decline

in the percentage who said they would participate later was not matched by an increase in the number who

had participated, but rather in the percentage who said they had no plans to participate in community

service during the school year. There is thus some reason for thinking that many of the students who said

they planned to participate still would not have participated in community service by the time the school

year was completed.

11

Multivariate Analysis

To design the multivariate analysis presented in table 11, all variables that were statistically

significant in the bivariate analyses were included in a logistic regression. Several variables, however, were

no longer significant when a multivariate model was applied (e.g., number of parents in the household).

Such variables could still be important (e.g., significance depends in part on the number of cases available

for analysis). To provide a clearer picture of the significant variables, most of the variables that were not

significant in the full model were dropped from the analysis. The important exception was the school

service requirement variable. This variable was kept in the model because one of the main purposes of the

analysis was to study whether or not arranging service and requiring service each had significant effects.

For completeness, table 13 presents the full model before variables were excluded. It demonstrates that the

inclusion or exclusion of these extra variables did not have an important effect on the estimates.

 

11 Students’ expectations of serving later in the school year might have greater accuracy in at least one situation. The survey focuses on 6th through

12th graders, but in the case of those 12th graders who were required to participate in community service in order to graduate, the graduation

requirements may help to ensure that the expectations were met (though the students could have satisfied the requirement in an earlier year). To

examine this possibility, the responses of 12th graders were looked at separately. The data indicate that 12th grade students who attended schools in

which students were required to participate in community service tended to have already participated in community service earlier in the school year;

only a small group of all of the students who said they expected to participate later actually met the conditions of also being 12th graders who were

required to participate. Further, the same pattern appeared for these students as for students overall, with students who responded later in the school

year not showing increased rates of participation, but rather showing small (but not statistically significant) increases in the rate of nonparticipation.
36

Table 13.—Logistic regression analysis to predict student participation in community service (full model,

including variables that were not statistically significant)

Coefficient1Standard error P-value Odds ratio2

Intercept..................................................................... -3.12** 0.180 0.000 0.04**

Student characteristics............................................

Female....................................................................... 0.14* 0.052 0.010 1.15*

English spoken most at home by student..................... 0.39** 0.127 0.003 1.48**

Number of types of student activities.......................... 0.60** 0.037 0.000 1.82**

Student in grades 11 or 12.......................................... 0.21** 0.066 0.002 1.23**

Student received mostly As........................................ 0.50** 0.079 0.000 1.65**

Student received mostly Bs........................................ 0.20* 0.079 0.013 1.22*

White......................................................................... 0.08 0.082 0.356 1.08

Family characteristics..............................................

Adult performed community service........................... 0.32** 0.066 0.000 1.38**

Parent/guardian had college degree or higher.............. 0.25** 0.073 0.001 1.28**

High-income household.............................................. 0.01 0.075 0.882 1.01

Number of parents in household................................. -0.02 0.068 0.730 0.98

School characteristics..............................................

Church-related school................................................ 0.58** 0.136 0.000 1.79**

Other private school................................................... 0.13 0.230 0.586 1.14

School policies..........................................................

School required service.............................................. -0.39 0.302 0.206 0.68

School arranged service.............................................. 0.95** 0.093 0.000 2.59**

School both required and arranged service.................. 0.55 0.318 0.090 1.73

Community characteristics......................................

Percent of households in ZIP code owner occupied.....

 60 percent or less.................................................... -0.04 0.076 0.615 0.96

 61 to 70 percent...................................................... 0.05 0.094 0.570 1.05

Percent of families below poverty in ZIP code............

 Less than 5 percent................................................. -0.09 0.117 0.427 0.91

 5 to 9 percent.......................................................... 0.03 0.128 0.798 1.03

 10 to 19 percent...................................................... 0.01 0.109 0.930 1.01

*p<.05. **p<.01.

1These coefficients differ slightly from those in table 11 because a different model is being used. Each category is expressed in

relation to an omitted category for the variable, controlling for all other variables in the model. The applicable coefficients can

be summed to estimate the probability that students with certain characteristics will participate in community service. For

example, for a male student who spoke English the most at home, who participated in four other types of activities, who

received mostly Bs, who had an adult in the household who performed community service, who attended a church-related

private school, and who fit none of the other criteria, the sum is -3.12 + .39 +4(.60) + .20 + .32 + .58 = .77. Based on these

characteristics, the probability of participation is 1/(1 + e-.77) = .68, or 68 percent.

2The odds ratio can be used to estimate the change in probability of a student participating in community service. An odds ratio

greater than one indicates that students in the indicated group were more likely to perform community service than the omitted

group. More specifically, suppose a student would ordinarily have a probability of participating of 68 percent, but that student

is in a school that arranges service. The student’s original probability can be expressed as an odds [68/(100-68) = 68/32 =

2.125]. The odds ratio of 2.59 for schools that arrange service can be multiplied by the original odds (2.59 times 2.125 = 5.50)

to estimate the revised odds that the student would participate, based on the school’s policy. To express the revised odds as a

probability, one can apply the formula: probability = (odds)/ (1 + odds) = 5.50/6.50 = .85. Thus, by being in a school that

arranges services, the student’s probability of participating would increase from 68 percent to 85 percent. The amount of the

increase that is associated with the school policy varies from one student to another depending on the student’s original

probability of participating.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Household Education Survey,

spring 1996, Youth Civic Involvement component.
37

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