Class act: Redwood City pilot program sparks schoolwide interest and growth
By:
Trinette Marquis-HobbsSpring 2014
Based on the recommendations of a school revitalization committee hoping to increase student learning and raise scores, the Redwood City School District’s leaders implemented a project-based learning pilot program at Roosevelt Elementary School in 2009. They never expected the program to grow so fast or to have such immediate impact.
Project-based learning is a strategy to develop the habits of thinking, researching and problem solving needed in a rapidly changing world. It was originally designed for medical school students and is based on engaging learners, driving inquiry, designing solutions and extensive debriefing that includes reflection and team interactions. The goal is to create an atmosphere where students are active participants in their own learning and who develop 21st century skills, such as collaboration, communication and critical thinking, and a deeper understanding of standards-based content.
Soon after the program started at Roosevelt, parents of non-pilot students intrigued by the engaging activities in the project-based learning classrooms asked if the program could be expanded. At the same time, non-pilot teachers were becoming interested by what they saw or heard from their colleagues in the program, and they began to include some of the activities and lessons in their classrooms. About a year after it started as a pilot, the school board approved Roosevelt’s request to extend project-based learning to all students.
Today students in kindergarten through eighth grade participate in the program. Throughout a unit of study, students apply their work to rubrics to guage their own progress while teachers assess them on active listening, time management and organizational skills, research, note taking, asking questions, logical thinking, self-assessment, collaborative work and presentation skills.
The innovative approach is paying off. Roosevelt showed gains after just one year, despite being advised that significant growth does not usually occur for about five years. Since 2010, the school’s Academic Performance Index has increased from 669 to 787, mostly through gains in student subgroups that have struggled in the past. The program also earned the program a CSBA Golden Bell Award in the category of Closing the Achievement Gap for the 2012-13 school year.
“As Roosevelt has embraced 21st century education through project-based learning, we have seen dramatic increases in motivation, critical thinking skills, self-esteem by our students, and higher standardized test scores,” says Superintendent Jan Christensen. “When I visit classrooms, I see students investigating subjects in depth through inquiry, collaborating in small groups, creating presentations, performances, and reports. These are the skills our students will need to succeed in high school, college and the workforce, and we are pleased to see students gaining confidence in these areas.”
Christensen believes students are learning how to think more critically, work better collaboratively, do more extensive research and present their findings or projects to an outside audience with confidence. Students don’t just remember the information, they develop a deep understanding of it through the inquiry process, hands-on activities, research, outside experts in the field, collaboration with their peers and the culminating project or presentation.
For example, second-grade students study ants and other insects and then explore bees in depth. Through the inquiry process, they research bees and learn about colony collapse disorder, a grave problem facing bee populations. With hands-on activities, a beekeeper visit, Web quests and direct instruction, the students become young bee experts—so much so that, when the bees were swarming in a campus playground last year, the “experts” quieted the fears of both teachers and students, explaining the swarming process and how the old queen leaves the hive with worker bees.
School and district leaders note that students are also more poised and knowledgeable when they make presentations though their project-based work. Beginning in kindergarten, students learn how to present to an audience and be an active listener. In the spring, they give reports after researching an animal and learning about its habitat, diet and life cycle. The students also share their pieces with their class peers and invited guests from throughout the school and community.
At the end of each unit, teachers send home newsletters which highlight the unit classroom activities, list the standards covered and show examples of the students participating at different times throughout the unit. Parents and teachers also record classroom milestones that are posted to a school blog for the parents. Updates are posted on their weekly blog: www.rooseveltparents.com.
—Trinette Marquis-Hobbs