Service-Learning as a Dimension of Response to Intervention, Tier 3, for Secondary Students

Abstract

This dissertation is the result of a research study that evaluated the effectiveness of service-learning in alternative education. The literature review connects macro level concepts of social justice for all, and educational equitability to microlevel classroom implications used to better serve all students. The problem included sparse research-based interventions for teenagers who learn actively or differently, experienced childhood traumas, had or was affected by mental illnesses, lost a loved one(s), lacked social skills or otherwise at-risk as defined by the State Department(s) of Education. The comprehensive intent of this study was to contribute to the body of “researched based interventions” appropriate in Tier 3, Response to Intervention (RtI), secondary, also known as alternative education. The purpose of this dissertation was to explicate the effects of service-learning, a strength-based, student-led, experiential curriculum; divided by developmental assets (Search Institute®), in alternative education, serving teenage youth at-risk of dropping out of high school. Participants were individually interviewed seven to fifteen years after attending service-learning in alternative education. Interviews consisted of 15 questions tailored to elicit stories correlating developmental assets to service-learning in alternative education as well as personal impacts of participating in service-learning. The narrative reduced from this phenomenological research study resulted from meticulous coding processes, reconstructed by developmental assets, and finally retold in a collectively harmonic response. Participants concluded with recommendations and rationales for promoting service-learning as effective intervention for youth at-promise (strength-based label). There was complete agreement that service-learning as curriculum is an effective intervention for teenagers who struggle to succeed educationally.