Did Federal Policy on Postsecondary Service-Learning Support Community Social Capital?

Community social capital is an important mechanism for collective efcacy and civic engagement to address problems of public concern. Using panel data from four periods spanning nearly 20 years, this study investigated the efects of a federal policy supporting service-learning in higher education on community social capital as measured by an index adapted from multiple indicators. Membership in Campus Compact, a national organization of college and university presidents who have committed their institutions to public and community service, served as a proxy for grantees of the service-learning policy and for comparing variation related to institutional members of Campus Compact and other postsecondary institutions in these communities. Results point to positive contributions of the engaged institutions consistent with a policy feedback mechanism followed by a modest decline in community social capital related to the elimination of federal funding for service-learning through Learn and Serve America Higher Education in 2011.