Enter Your School in the 2010 State Farm Companies Foundation Award for Service Learning Excellence in Teacher Education

Deadline: December 15, 2009

Teachers are at the heart of any successful effort to initiate, expand, or sustain service-learning in K-12 schools and communities. Teachers must be inspired and prepared to use service-learning as an instructional strategy in their classrooms.

As an increasing number of undergraduate programs and graduate schools of education begin to actively prepare educators to use service-learning as a pedagogy, we are learning more about effective practice and policies needed to support the implementation of service-learning in teacher education.

The National Service-Learning Partnership is pleased to join with the State Farm Companies Foundation and the International Center for Service-Learning in Teacher Education (ICSLTE) to honor teacher education programs that make a significant commitment to improving the quality of teaching and learning in preparing teachers and schools leaders to use service-learning as an instructional strategy.

The State Farm Companies Foundation Award for Service-Learning Excellence in Teacher Education acknowledges and honors outstanding teacher education programs that demonstrate significant interest and support for service-learning. This award recognizes exemplary practices, which include, but are not limited to:

- The demonstration of service-learning as a pedagogy in preparing teachers
- The development of P-12 school/teacher education partnerships that provide student teaching experience with service-learning.
- The effective teaching and implementation of K-12 Service-Learning Standards for Quality Practice. Please see here for the official standards.
- The use of service-learning experiences with pre-service teachers in p-12 and/or other community settings
- The production of data that demonstrate the impact of service-learning on student outcomes
- The relationship of service-learning to the Principles of Good Practice for Service-Learning in Preservice Teacher Education.