Spotlight on: Big Picture Learning

Region: California
Investment: $160,000 for the first year of a three year project
URL: www.bigpicture.org

Big Picture Learning Company

The Challenge

More and more schools recognize that engaging students to learn and developing their critical thinking, communications skills, and creativity, is crucial for academic success. However, many of these schools do not have systems to assess and teach these vital skills.

In addition, when students focus on real-life experience and project-based learning in their coursework, they can lose out in their applications to the University of California. Because their education reflects these newer competencies rather than a traditional curriculum, their coursework does not meet UC’s “A-G requirement” and therefore they are not eligible to enroll.

“Big Picture has made a science of understanding how students become engaged to learn and has developed methods to track these critical dimensions of student success.”

The Partner

Big Picture has made a science of understanding how students become engaged to learn and has developed methods to track these critical dimensions of student success. At Big Picture, students learn to take initiative, become self-directed, and take responsibility for their learning, essential for all students to achieve, especially disadvantaged youth, who are less likely to have developed these skills outside of school.

Big Picture 2.0

To address schools’ and students’ needs, Big Picture is developing an assessment of these nontraditional competencies. It also is creating a professional development program for educators to support teaching and assessing these central skills.

In addition, Big Picture has created a learning matrix that is accepted by UC as equivalent to the “A-G” coursework requirement. Many Big Picture schools have adopted this approach and have used it to document and validate their project based learning. Now, Big Picture is refining this matrix to make it more accessible to additional teachers and expand its availability to more schools. This will allow more students to be eligible for UC admission from project based learning schools.

Results

Big Picture’s educational model outperforms its peers. In 2009, 31 Big Picture schools across eighteen districts had higher graduation rates (92%) than the equivalent district rate (74%). For its California schools, evaluators found that Big Picture schools had substantially lower drop-out rates and better academic performance among disadvantaged failing students.

Three-quarters of Big Picture students enroll in college. In California, since the creation of the A-G matrix, Big Picture students gaining admission to the University of California System has tripled, from 9% to 26%.