How to measure project-based learning
At hands-on sites such as the Workshop School, officials say the key is to make students accountable. Children help assess what went well or badly.
By his own account, Khalil Hicks had an excellent first quarter at the Workshop School in West Philadelphia.
He created a website to share information about his life and emerging skills.
He worked with teammates to design and build a cardboard boat that was big enough to carry his thin frame most of the way across a swimming pool.
And in engineering workshop, he constructed a camera obscura – a pinhole camera – even figuring out a way to include a rudimentary zoom lens, using glass.
All this accrued to his credit in the first two months of 10th grade at the innovative District high school in West Philadelphia.
But there’s more: Even as Hicks was using duct tape and Latex paint to seal the sides of the boat and do all the other crafting that he did, he was learning the “soft” skills now in demand in the world of work. Among them: critical thinking and problem-solving. Creativity and entrepreneurship. Communication and collaboration.
On a recent morning, Hicks, 15, delivered an assessment of his efforts in a 20-minute presentation to classmates, his teachers, and his father.
His polo shirt was buttoned and tucked, and his wire-rimmed glasses caught the light as his PowerPoint flashed on the screen behind him.
“I did good, yes I did, but I could have put more time on the website and put more time into my script,” said Hicks.
New ways to assess students
Even as debate swirls around high-stakes standardized assessments, some schools are de-emphasizing tests and rote learning. Instead, they ask students to tackle projects that require brainstorming, concentration, big-picture thinking, and applying math, engineering, and science skills. Teachers, too, are learning new ways to assess students, offering feedback, rating students on setting and reaching goals, and translating the math and other academic skills used to complete a project into competencies on a report card. Others have embraced standards-based assessments, where students have a second chance to master content in order to achieve proficiency.
The common thread is the focus on student engagement in their own learning and an How to measure project-based learning | Philadelphia Public School Notebook: