Introduction

Maryland public schools engage their students in service  learning experiences to help students become active participants in making a difference in their community on a local and global level.

Service-learning is a teaching method that combines meaningful service to the community with curriculum-based learning. Students improve their academic skills by applying what they learn in school to the real world; they then reflect on their experience to reinforce the link between their service and their learning.

Annually, approximately 55,00 students graduate from Maryland public schools, and each graduation class represents approximately 4 million hours of service that have been provided to the community to address needs such as hunger, homelessness, environmental issues, and discrimination.  These experiences allow students to have an “hands-on” approach to apply core curricular goals into real community  issues.

Service-learning increases a student’s civic knowledge, engagement, academic success, character, and social development.