Project-based learning has "scarcely been explored" says Goldman? Have you talked to the teachers at PACT? Or did you understand what CEL entailed? Maybe you should spend some time with the actual curriculum in your classrooms than implementing overpriced, ineffective teaching methods like EDI, that set teaching back twenty years.

Re "Project Based Learning," I hope the Monta Loma resident and others understand that this methodology is a new/improved model of ones used in the past. Yes, PACT and CEL utilized the old model with much success, but the new principal at PACT is bringing a much more modern, standards-based methodology to this work. He is starting to train his teachers in this standards-based model. Parents at PACT are just learning this newer method this year. It's this newer model that MVWSD wants to try implementing. This newer model is being used by only a few school districts in the country right now. I think this blend of project based learning with standards based instruction is very interesting, and shows promise. We will all be tracking academic results to see the impact of this. Thanks for your comment.

FYI, PBS/TED on Education, May 7: Web Link

I'm all for project based learning, but I hope "hands-on" means actually building something, creating something, solving some unknown problem, not just designing on a tablet. I worry about a goal being work-readiness, versus a love of learning. Let the kids learn, create, explore, take risks, make mistakes and read to their hearts content w/o obsessing over tests and the readiness will be there. The latest new-fangled devices or teaching "methods" are not what we need. Give the kids old/recycled macs and PCs and let's see them bring them back to life and use those.