Over seven years ago, Aaron Brengard came to serve as principal of Katherine Smith Elementary, a 55-year-old Title I school within San Jose’s Evergreen School District. Despite its location in Silicon Valley, the school seemed a world apart from the region recognized globally for entrepreneurship and innovation. From the very beginning of his tenure, Brengard […]
Category: Stories
Energy Institute
In east downtown Houston, you’ll find the nation’s first high school devoted to preparing students to enter careers in the energy field. Energy Institute High School is a STEM focused magnet program with project-based learning at its core. The school began with an acknowledgment of local businesses and the demand for students to enter the […]
Liceo Pablo Neruda
When asked where the most advanced approaches to K-12 instruction are taking place, educational experts often point north toward Scandinavia. Yet one of South America’s coastal countries is showing a forward-thinking stance that would rival the world’s leading educational systems. In a variety of school networks across Chile, facilitating high quality Project Based Learning (HQ […]
The Met
“Working on high quality projects is at the core of the The Met… actually I’d like to rephrase that and say doing real-world, meaningful work is at the core. Projects are the vehicle for how students at Met get that done,” shared The Met Co-Founder Dennis Littky. Located in the heart of Providence, Rhode Island, […]
Albemarle County Public Schools
Without a doubt, Project Based Learning in Albemarle County Public Schools is there to stay. From impressive outcomes, both in project products and on state assessment measures, teachers, students and families are seeing the results of high quality PBL (HQPBL) student experiences. Most projects in ACPS are tied to the local area, a region of […]
School 21
If you walk the halls of the lively School21 in London’s Stratford neighborhood, you easily might hear dozens of languages being spoken. Many of the school’s more than 1000 students have immigrated from other parts of the world, and as such, enter their grade levels with varying degrees of experience with English. In this intensely […]
ACE Leadership
Northwest of downtown Albuquerque, there is a high school of about 400 students, ranging in ages from 14-20, that is proving Project Based Learning really is for all students. ACE Leadership High School primarily serves students who have already, or seemingly were on their way to, dropping out of high school. On average, students at […]
Thrive Public Schools
At Thrive Public Schools in San Diego, California—a school network with a strong focus on high quality Project Based Learning (HQPBL)—projects are a necessary part of reaching the diverse population served by the school. About half of Thrive students are eligible for free or reduced lunch; as many as one in four are identified as […]