service-learning advocates point to research demonstrating that service-learning enhances

student outcomes (cognitive, affective, and ethical), fosters a more active citizenry, promotes a

“scholarship of engagement” among teachers and institutions, supports a more equitable society,

and reconnects colleges and universities with their local and regional communities (e.g., Astin et

al. 1999; Benson et al. 2007; Wade 2007).

Furco’s work and the Wingspread statement are emblematic of this dominant vision and the

goals of service-learning institutionalization and the two primary and divergent paths to

achieving such goals. Specifically, Furco’s work offers a systematic rubric for gauging the

incremental progress of service-learning institutionalization; the Wing spread statement, on the

other hand, promotes a transformational vision for service-learning in higher education.

Furco (2002) has developed a rubric for viewing the institutionalization of service-learning. The

rubric works as a road map that may be followed by individuals and institutions committed to

embedding service-learning throughout their campuses, and it works as a formal or informal

assessment mechanism to gauge the progress along the institutionalization path.

Furco operationalizes institutionalization across five distinct dimensions “which are considered

by most service learning experts to be key factors for higher education service-learning

institutionalization” (1): (1) philosophy and mission; (2) faculty support and involvement; (3)

student support and involvement; (4) community participation and partnerships; and (5)

institutional support. While Furco argues elsewhere (2001, 2003) that research shows faculty and

institutional support to be the key institutional factors, the rubric makes clear that “what is most

important is the overall status of the campus’ institutionalization progress rather than the
progress of individual components” (3). The real value and usefulness of the rubric is that it

clearly and succinctly lays out the step-by-step increments by which a campus can