Ten+years+of+community+college+SL+research

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**Ten years of community college service learning research: If we knew then what we know now**

Gail Robinson, Director of Service Learning, American Association of Community Colleges[grobinson@aacc.nche.edu]

Mary Prentice, Associate Professor, New Mexico State University [mprentic@nmsu.edu]


 * Keywords:** Community college, retention, persistence, student engagement, behavior changes


 * Conference track:** Community engagement and student retention, access, and success


 * Format:** Research/Scholarly paper

The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) conducted four studies on community college service learning that provided a combination of survey research and focus groups. In a 10-year span, 36 colleges participated to produce a total of 4,015 surveys. Additionally, 125 students participated in 21, hour-long focus groups. In general, community college students are more likely to be the first generation in their family to go to college, they lack financial resources, they come from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, and often they come underprepared for college-level work.
 * Summary**

In 2006, AACC conducted the first two of the four studies to understand how and to what degree service learning influences academic learning in community college students. Statistical gains were made by students involved with service learning on five out of six institutional outcomes measured in the studies. These students mentioned increases in reasoning, logic, leadership, and confidence through service learning participation.

In 2009, the AACC conducted the final two studies, which focused on the issue of low retention, persistence in community colleges, and the role that service learning can play in educating students about healthy relationships and pregnancy prevention. Students involved in service learning scored statistically higher on the presence of five key retention factors than did a comparison group of students not involved with service learning. Related to this, compared to the beginning of the semester, students who participated in service learning also had statistical gains in pregnancy prevention knowledge and behavior change.

While the findings from each of the four studies are important in and of themselves, what seems to emerge is a more holistic understanding of the impact of service learning specifically on community college students. Service learning might be seen as a prism, where the single semester of student experience breaks into multiple rays of benefits.

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