Can my students achieve high standardized test scores in a PBL model?
Of course. PBL practioners arent advocating throwing off the yoke of standardized testing nor do they advocate doing away with effective methods of traditional instruction. If it works, do it. However, your traditional methods must be given a purpose and a context by working with the framework of a carefully constructed, rigorous and relevant project. David Ross, our executive director of staff training and curriculum development, posted standardized test results in his last two classroom years in which more than 25 percent of his students scored at the 90th percentile or higher on California state history exams. The very same student sample, working in classrooms that didnt employ PBL to its fullest measure, fared much worse in math (no one in the 90th percentile or higher) and English (7 percent in the 90th percentile or higher).
