At the outset, it is important to make a distinction between the assessment of student learning and the assessment of community partnerships and impacts. In assessing student learning, service learning is similar to any other form of teaching insofar as it evaluates content knowledge, critical thinking skills, problem solving abilities, thorough research, the quality of written work, etcetera. Community-based projects, therefore, should be assessed and graded on the basis of the same discipline-specific and intellectually rigorous grounds as any project in a traditional course. If, for instance, students are conducting a research or service project related to homelessness, it could be assessed by its use of critical thinking skills, the wide array of scholarship on homelessness, and community informants on homelessness in the local area. In other words, as in any other course the prime learning assessment is the evaluation of student work, and as such it is important for all assignments to have clear, rigorous academic goals and transparent criteria for evaluation and the grading associated with it.
Further, although it is typically not the basis for grades, it is possible to assess student social, emotional, and ethical development. Typically through mid-course and end-of-course reflection papers or other assignments such as journals, blogs, or site reports, students (sometimes writing with community partners) can discuss these facets of their own growth by referencing skills of collaboration, empathy, ethical reasoning, efforts at reciprocity, as well as civic attitudes and knowledge they may have gained. These skills and attitudes also may be assessed through a student survey, such as the Civic Attitudes and Skills Questionnaire, which assesses civic action, interpersonal and problem-solving skills, political awareness, leadership skills, and attitudes towards social justice and diversity (8). These may help to expand learning assessments considerably, and help community-engaged faculty more thoroughly reflect on student growth.
However, community engagement projects may be assessed, not only for the content learning that they enable students to achieve, but also for both the quality of partnerships, and for the impact of their work on their community. These may not be the basis on which grades are assigned, since these community relationships contain elements beyond student capabilities to fully control. However, assessment may help to improve projects and partnerships, if not entire programs and campus initiatives of community engagement. Many have attempted to provide a reliable set of guidelines for establishing ethical, professional, and effective partnerships between students/faculty and community partners. Imagining America, a national organization dedicated to the support of public scholarship and community engagement, has promoted the use of a qualitative, value-based form of ensure
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