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?