Dive Brief:
- Harvard Graduate School of Education has teamed with nonprofit Expeditionary Learning to create the world's largest online database of exceptional K-12 student work.
- The Center for Student Work aims to raise the bar on student achievement by giving educators clear examples of stellar projects and work in subjects such as English, math, science and technology, visual arts, health and wellness, performing arts, social studies, and world languages.
- The site's videos, writing samples, and tools can be used to help teachers create their own projects, as well as probe deeper questions, master rubrics, and get an overall better understanding of what is possible, according to a press release.
Dive Insight:
The project was conceved as a way to move the conversation forward around standards-based learning. While the importance of rigor is often touted, there are very few examples of what that can and should look like. Standards provide goals, but many teachers and administrators don't necessarily know what it will look like when those benchmarks are reached.
"I worry that most discussion of standards falls far short of the rigorous analysis and debate that they invite – and require. We need a deeper, richer dialogue about state standards, particularly what they look like in actual student work," Steve Seidel, director of the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Arts in Education Program, said in the release.
The launch of the program aligns with a university-hosted discussion about what standards look like in action.
