I would like to share a new initiative we have begun here in Oakland, with some funding from the Hewlett Foundation. In Oakland, our history teachers have been working for about ten years to develop authentic assessments of student understanding of history, using techniques developed by the Writing Project. They have the students work with historic documents, and apply what they have learned about the period in question to analyze the documents they are given in written essays. Then teachers come together a few times a year, and bring samples of their students’ writing, which they score together, using common rubrics. This has led to rich discussions among teachers, the sharing of techniques, and has gradually elevated the quality of instruction and student work across the District.

We are seeking to learn from this model and apply elements of it to Project Based Learning. We have created a Science-History PBL Collaborative, with about 25 teachers, half science and half history. We spent a week in August going through PBL 101, and then taking time to work in teams to develop projects. We are not, for the most part, doing cross-curricular projects. But teachers worked in teams to develop projects appropriate for their courses, and we spent time discussing and working on ways to infuse written assessments into the projects. We will be meeting on a monthly basis to follow up and continue planning the projects, and reflecting on the process as it unfolds. We will also be holding a mid-year session to share student work and score it on a common rubric, so we can learn from what different teachers are doing in their classrooms. We are planning to host a sort of PBL Expo in the spring to share student projects district-wide.