Roles and responsibilities are clearly defined for students, families, teachers, community partners, schools, and local and state education offices. Service-learning is integrated with other educational improvement initiatives. Service-learning is established as an integral part of curriculum standards and assessment. Program appraisal is based on established best practices. Effective practices, identified through research, are used for improving service-learning quality.
Students are central to planning, implementing, and evaluating service-learning initiatives.
Exemplary service-learning experiences of students, teachers, administrators, and community partners are celebrated. Thanks to the National Level Work Group who created Next Steps by taking Maryland's Shared Learnings to the national level. We also thank the service-learning coordinators in Maryland's school systems and all those who provided input since the inception of this project.