Mastery of Knowledge and Skills
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Claim 3: Beyond Test Scores
All students grapple with authentic questions that require them to think critically.
Summary of Evidence:
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Below you will find three representative examples of student work from across grade levels and content areas: a 10th grade geometry expedition, a 9th grade global history expedition, and a 12th grade critical theory expedition.B
As a result of our students grappling with authentic questions, our students are more prepared for college and career. Since 2012, 100% of Leaders graduates have been accepted to college. Our graduates also are persisting in them at a higher rate than their city peers and other peers at their institutions.
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Our work continues as we go deeper with our new multi-year impact goal: Students create final PBATs that reflect a variety of authentic formats with real-world implications, involve student choice, and demonstrate original higher-order thinking, sophisticated analysis, and the mastery of skills and content across disciplines.
James Robbins Case
In geometry class, tenth graders dig into a half dozen different, complex grapple problems over the course of their expedition as they unpack their guiding question for the semester, "How are geometric concepts applied in real life?" One representative example of this is the James Robbins case:
In 2002, a man named James Robbins was charged with selling drugs to an undercover police officer in Manhattan. In New York State, there are increased penalties for drug dealers who are found guilty of selling drugs near school grounds. Should Mr. Robbins be subject to this more severe penalty?
To answer this authentic question, students select appropriate and efficient strategies to solve non-routine problems; justify all mathematical statements in an efficient and accurate manner, and draw valid conclusions; and create appropriate models inherent to the task that represent the problem accurately and elegantly. Students take on the roles of either the prosecution or defense and substantiate their arguments with logic and mathematical reasoning. Through this process students learn to think critically not only about key concepts like the Pythagorean Theorem and properties of circles, but also about American laws and the criminal justice system.