In researching for my research proposal, I came across an article that related directly to my research topic: “Reducing Academic Achievement Gaps: The role of Community Service and Service -Learning” (Scales et al., 2006). This article’s topic focuses on strategies to promote student achievement and equity for student achievement in different social groups, specifically in regards to community service and service learning. While this article asked many research questions, the one that encompassed the article was: Does service and service learning play a role in improving achievement among low-income students? The type of data gathered was organization/ demographic data from the 2001-2002 Common Core of Data public school universe file. This data reported the instructional level of classrooms, urbanity of the school, average class sizes, and minority status. This study also used aggregate data from a sample of US middle and high school students, looking at measures of: “40 developmental assets, 10 risk behavior patterns, 5 developmental deficits, and 8 thriving behaviors” (Scales et al., 2006). The sample was weighed by race and ethnicity and urbanity proportions. Another type of data gathered reports of acts, behaviors, and events, taken from a survey administered to a sample of middle and high school students in Colorado Springs. The data gathering methods consisted of public and private records and surveys administered to middle/ high school students. The data analysis method was ordinal and interval/ ratio data. The survey questions asked the participants to rank a statement, which was the ordinal data. For example, the survey asked principles if they though the impact of service-learning on factors identified by the researchers was “very positive,” “somewhat positive,” etc. The surveys also asked participants to report hours spent on community projects, which would be interval/ ratio data. The results found service-learning was valuable for student engagement and achievement, specifically in urban, nonwhite, high poverty schools (Scales et al., 2006).

Scales, P.C., Roehlkepartain, E.C., Neal, M., Kielsmeier, J.C., & Benson P.L. (2006). Reducing academic achievement gaps: The role of community service and service-learning. Journal of Experiential Education, 29(1), 38-60.