The Partnership's First Report and Strategic Plan, We Make the Road by Walking, analyzes how service-learning can become a core part of the educational experience of every K-12 student in America.

Download the First Report and Strategic Plan as a PDF document.

Strategic Plan Summary

The National Service-Learning Partnership is a national leadership organization dedicated to advancing service-learning as a core element of the educational experience of every elementary, middle, and secondary school student in the United States. Founded in May 2001, the Partnership works with its 6,800 individual and organizational members to educate, organize, and mobilize service-learning supporters around a strategic agenda that promotes and strengthens the practice of service-learning.

Our plan recommends three long range priorities. To pursue them successfully, the Partnership must strengthen its capacity to serve as a powerful coalition that can increase service-learning's appeal and rigor. The three priorities are:

1. Establish service-learning as a unique pedagogy that is essential to the three-fold mission of American education--preparing students for academic achievement, civic participation, and workforce success;

2. Ensure effective support for excellent service-learning practice in the K-12 environment; and

3. Secure a favorable public policy and institutional infrastructure for service-learning.

Advocacy Service-learning supporters increase in number, diversity, and proficiency as advocates at the federal, state, tribal, district, community, and institutional levels. Special emphasis will be given to increasing effective youth leadership and recruiting critical new allies in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to provide important resources for the expansion and improvement of service-learning.

Scale Service-learning advocates build a stronger infrastructure for taking service-learning to scale both nationally and at the school-district level by promoting service-learning's value for students' academic and civic engagement and by increasing use of multifaceted measures of learning.

Practice Service-learning practitioners pursue a multipronged agenda for stregthening service-learning practice.

Research Research leaders expand and improve the study of benefits and shortcomings of service-learning through rigourous investigations that meet high standards of scientific inquiry, while advocates strengthen the links among research, practice and policy.

Network Partnership leaders, members, and management create a powerful advocacy network for scaling service-learning.

Strategic Plan PDF

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