Giving Compass' Take:

• Some Philidelphia schools have turned to project-based learning to overcome the city's education challenges but without clear, transferable evaluation methods it is difficult to prove what impact - if any - the programs are having on the students. 

• How can philanthropy support the development of evaluations for project-based learning? How can different project-based learning programs learn from each other? 

• Read The Framework for High Quality Project Based Learning.

In Philidelphia, a city that’s struggled to meet the educational needs of many of its children, especially its most vulnerable ones, a select group of district high schools is shunning the traditional classroom model in which teachers dispense knowledge from the front of the room and measure progress with tests. Instead, the schools have adopted an approach that’s become increasingly popular among education advocates and funders: project-based learning.

In this model, students embark on in-depth investigations relevant to their lives and their communities. Projects are organized around the development of skills like student collaboration, problem-solving and self-reflection through assignments that blend research with public presentations. They’re precisely the skills that colleges and employers say graduates need for success.

Yet, in a school district where more than half of 8-year-olds are reading below grade level and a third of high school students don’t graduate, there’s an urgency to demonstrate improved results. One of the challenges facing a project-based learning (PBL) model lies in measuring the very benefits that characterize it. “We haven’t figured out how to assess the outcomes of PBL and that is a huge issue,” said Maia Bloomfield Cucchiara, associate professor at Temple University.

Standardized tests don’t measure student engagement or deep thinking about relevant, meaningful content. The tests have their place, said Cucchiara, who also serves on the board of the city’s newest project-based high school, but “they don’t begin to capture all the things that we’re hoping [kids] will get out of this education.”

That’s a potential liability in a city looking to change the narrative of an urban school system that persistently lags behind statewide averages in academic proficiency.

Read the full article about project-based learning by Amadou Diallo at The Hechinger Report.