PBLWorks is the industry leader in providing professional development and support services related to Project Based Learning (PBL), and creates, collects, and shares high-quality PBL tools and resources with K-12 teachers and leaders. At PBLWorks, we believe that all students—no matter where they live or what their background—should have access to quality PBL instruction to deepen their learning and achieve success in college, career, and life.
PBLWorks’ approach to systemic implementation of Project Based Learning has been tested in school systems across the United States over the past decade. The ultimate goal is to ensure all students, including those furthest from opportunity, master critical content standards, and skills, as well as lifelong success skills such as critical thinking, communication, and collaboration, through high-quality Project Based Learning (PBL). PBLWorks believes PBL can prepare students for college, career, and life, as well as, advance educational equity, and empower youth furthest from opportunity. Our approach builds capacity on three levels:
Developing the capacity of teachers to design and facilitate high-quality PBL
Developing the capacity of school leaders to develop the conditions and structures necessary to support high-quality PBL
Developing the capacity of system leaders (district administrators, curriculum leaders, and instructional coaches) to create the coherence and infrastructure necessary to support and sustain schools’ deep implementation of high-quality Project Based Learning that leads to the desired learning outcomes.
For any innovation, including Project Based Learning, to be sustainable, it must be designed to impact all levels of the system. Real, positive, equitable improvements in student learning outcomes are best achieved by increasing the capacity of teachers. Teachers, in turn, require supportive conditions across schools and school leadership. At the system level, districts and district leaders must establish system-wide coherence, priorities, and accountability for “whole system” change.
(Equity & GS PBL, Improving the Quality of Student Work)
