How does a project-focused school identify the level of performance and range of skills students are expected to gain during a given school year or by the time they graduate? How closely or not closely are courses connected to state standards? How does a PBL program wrap itself around expectations of what all students should know, and how does the program set an expected level of performance?

That is a powerful series of questions. I’ll take them one at a time:

How does a project-focused school identify the level of performance and range of skills students are expected to gain during a given school year or by the time they graduate? This is a time consuming task that is very much a part of the school’s mission and vision, wrapped around district guidelines and state and/or national standards. The process that I’ve participated in (as a teacher and then as an instructional PBL coach) is to work with the staff and administration over the period of about a week to define these expectations and create a scope and sequence for how they will be developed, refined, mastered and assessed. This document is of course shared with students. It is of course refined over time and revisited annually because no one ever get such a complex task right the first time they try it.

How closely or not closely are courses connected to state standards? We would never presume to tell anyone how closely to align courses to state standards. That is a decision that a district or state makes, usually in alignment with district or state assessments and with a firm focus on college requirements. Project design and the knowledge and skills that are developed by students in a project are directly aligned with standards. Our philosophy is to begin with the end in mind in project design (and thus students outcomes). That end is firmly anchored in standards.

How does a PBL program wrap itself around expectations of what all students should know, and how does the program set an expected level of performance? We must make sure to put the horse before the cart and not vice versa. The school, district and state determine what all students should know. We can certainly advise our partners on that but it is not for us to decide those expectations. Once those expectations are defined, we can work with teachers to design projects that generate student work focused on those expectations. And we can advise on how to effectively assess that student work.

David, is there a process in your experiences for challenging the notion that the school, district, state detrmine what all students should know? How do students become participants on determining what they should know? Ideas? Experiences?

You are really keeping me on my toes with these thought-provoking questions.

Is there a process in your experiences for challenging the notion that the school, district, state detrmine what all students should know? Many many people and organizations are doing this so it’s difficult to know how to begin to answer this question. I would look at the work being done by the best of the school reform organizations, among them New Tech Network, EdVisions, Envisions, High Tech HS, Expedition Learning, Big Picture, etc. I would suggest reviewing their sites, documents and research.

How do students become participants on determining what they should know? Ideas? Experiences? Again, I would suggest looking at the organization I’ve mentioned above. I will funnel this question to two of our faculty members who are doing this on a daily basis.

How do students become participants on determining what they should know? Ideas? Experiences?

The first facet I would approach this from is Project Design. Choice in the products produced can foster student creativity and buy in. Of course this comes having made sure you train students to be Project Based Learners. This is a paradigm shift, and for those students who have been in the traditional system since the beginning, it can be a difficult change. You will encounter resistance. That being said, I would allow student choice as you move them from Task Masters to Project Designers.

Once they have become good project based learners, you can do independent projects with their students. I use a course rubric with standards from Project Based Standards (such as collaboration and work ethic) to Course Standards (Writing, Reading, Technology). Each standard has quality indicators. Example: Research and data collection Standard has “uses a variety of primary and secondary sources, documentation of research,” etc.

They, they use these goals to go through this process:
1) Project Proposal: In a document I designed, they create the product, essential questions, objectives, standards etc they want to cover. They also create a timeline and calendar for work that needs to be done. They turn this in with the rubric for approval.
2) Do the project: They do the project with a variety of meetings, formative assessments, etc, along the way.
3) Project Finalization: Student brigs their product, rubric, proposal, documentation etc to a teacher meeting and “sell” his/herself in terms of the Course Rubric and Standards. Then it is graded. I do this in front of the student to show them what thinking goes on in my head and also hear transparent feedback

This is a very brief summary of ideas that I have implemented and have been effective. I would happy to help you further. I’m glad to see you want to include student voice in the process. You are definitely ahead of the curve in this aspect.

How do students become participants on determining what they should know? Ideas? Experiences?

Thank you for posing such a vital question.  Within the inquiry-based learning framework, we are taught to backwards plan by beginning with the end in mind.  Just as this planning process makes us more powerful educators, it also holds merit in creating a powerful student-centered learning environment.  Students can also learn to begin with the end in mind.  In this way, students’ inquiries can become more focused and purposeful.  We can begin to address the question of “how” by examining the PBL design process. 

There is a continuum of practice in balancing teacher direction and student autonomy in PBL design.  There are projects designed with limited student input in which the teacher selects the topic and the learning outcomes, defines the products and activities and controls the timeline and pace of the project.  As a teacher moves along the design continuum they may begin to solicit student input and negotiate learning outcomes.  On far end of the continuum, we would observe students selecting topics, defining their own learning outcomes, products and activities, and determining the pace and timeline of the project.  (The Buck PBL Handbook discusses student autonomy in project design.  If you have a handbook I would recommend consulting pages 15-16.)  In fact, students can become highly proficient in consulting published state standards as they develop their learning outcomes.  I have seen this occur as early as fourth grade. 

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of observing an eager group of fourth grade students from Charles Wright Academy in Washington State.  Their teacher had taken the initiative to rewrite GLEs (grade-level expectations) in “kid-friendly” language.  Students in his class selected standards they found interesting, identified how they could demonstrate their competency in terms of the standard, designed rubrics to assess a range of competencies in terms of the standard, created a plan of action for developing their competency and then executed.  He supported students by consulting with them on their process.  He also developed basic templates for rubrics using language like beginner, practitioner and expert.  Some of his students created columns for proficiency beyond expert, like “superwhiz.”  There are other examples of students participating on determining what they should know through the creation of their own rubrics for assessment.

A US History teacher at Clover Park High School spends time with students to collaboratively create rubrics for her classes.  If you are interested in seeing this in action, I would suggest visiting the Small Schools Project video library for “Promise and Personalization” video.  Here is a link: http://www.smallschoolsproject.org/index.asp?siteloc=teaching&section=pp-pap

Several of my colleagues within our learning community have created grids and tables of standards.  Each student keeps one in their notebook.  There are regular check-in points in which students are assessed on these standards.  Students begin to see the standards in which they are showing growth and the standards in which they are persistently deficient.  They can then design their own “mini-projects” to promote growth in the applicable standards.  This is similar to the fourth grade class, but in this case it is more targeted in ameliorating areas of challenge. 

I hope you are able to find these ideas and examples useful.  As in Andrew Miller’s post, they demonstrate ways by which you can involve students in the selection of learning targets as well as the development of assessments of proficiency in terms of identified standards. 

Lastly, I would like to emphasize that even within the most “teacher-directed” PBL there are a myriad of ways to promote student buy-in and participation through voice and choice.  For example, a teacher can create a menu of product choices give students multiple options to demonstrate the same competencies.  We can also ask students to create a preliminary pitch to secure their choice in specific aspects of a project.  Another strategy is to use a tuning protocol with students before launching a project in order to solicit student input on project design before launching. 

Best wishes to you,

There is a high school in Michigan, Westwood Cyberschool, where students are the primary authors of their projects. With collaborative support by a mentor educator and a content expert, the students determine the state standards (HSCE) they will develop proficiencies. On each project completion, a student receive a report card that informs him/her of the standards related proficiencies earned. This feedback look is an integral part by which students become knowledgeable of the standards. Everything is self-paced based on what the teen wants to focus on.

The target audience for this school are students who are at-risk for dropping out (will not graduate in the traditional 4 years), drop outs, and individuals who leave school because of issues as bullying. The curriculum is entirely project-based. The educators believe that every student in the program can direct their learning with support from adult educators.

The program concept is based on the Not School in UK, but evolved into the US version.
http://www.inclusiontrust.org/
http://www.inclusiontrust.org/notschool/

Hope this helps in the thinking about the capacity of students to be involved in their understanding and learning of standards.

Some of the answered questions here helped me as well with improving my approach for the ms information security class I teach. I think that PBL is quite important and it can be used at a higher level. We need more resources and a network where people can exchange experience much easier.